James 2:26

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

See under James 2:17, above, for elaboration of the meaning of the comparison here. Ward warned against "pressing the parallelism too far";[56] but it is not apparent to this student how that would be possible. Certainly all of the faith in the world without works has exactly the same efficacy in providing salvation as a dead body.

The conclusion of this section on James' refutation of the solifidian perversion of the apostle Paul's teaching regarding justification by faith is very well stated by J. W. Roberts thus:

Thus the doctrine of salvation at the moment of faith - without obedience - is not a Biblical teaching .... It is rooted in the conversion experience theology of early revivalism. It sets aside the plain teaching of the Bible on the doctrine of obedience and the works of faith.[57]

James is a very practical book; and, from the very nature of its purpose, James deals with what men must do to be saved. Much of Paul's teaching is directed to the same end (though not all of it, some of it being concerned with God's part in redemption); therefore the "justification" in this section of James (and in much of Paul), plainly regards that lower level involving what men must do. In the ultimate and final sense of being the grounds upon which God's justification is given to men, there is not anything that sinful men can either believe or do which finally justifies them. God indeed reckoned righteousness unto Abraham, but that did not make Abraham righteous, nor was he ever so in the absolute sense; so it is with Christians. Neither faith nor works, of whatever degree or quality, can make them righteous. The perfect faith and obedience of Jesus Christ our Lord are the unique ground of human redemption, which is achieved for them by Jesus Christ, received by men when they believe (have faith) and obey the gospel, being baptized into Christ, having renounced themselves; and thus united with Christ, identified with Christ, being actually Christ as members of the spiritual body (the church) of which Christ is head, and remaining "in Christ" throughout life; THEN they are truly justified eternally, their faith and righteousness being not theirs, but his, no longer merely reckoned unto them, but their true possession "as Christ." Both the faith and the works which justify sinful men, therefore, are related to that higher consideration of their relationship with the Lord of glory. Certainly, men must have faith and obedience before they can be incorporated "into Christ"; and in him, having been baptized unto him, they become partakers of the true righteousness (perfect faith and perfect obedience) of Christ. In Christ, therefore, the righteousness (faith and obedience) which saves and justifies them is not theirs but Christ's. It is no mere reckoned or imputed thing, not a forensic righteousness at all, but an eternal, perfect and beautiful status of the absolute and genuine righteousness of Christ. That is what Paul referred to when he spoke of presenting every man "perfect in Christ" (Colossians 1:28).

In reality, then, the solifidian nonsense of justification "by faith alone" profoundly misses the point on two vital counts: (1) Nothing that a sinner either believes or does can save him "out of Christ" (though, of course, he must both believe and obey the gospel in order to enter Christ). (2) Even in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the true ground of all human redemption, even in his case, it was not "faith only," but a perfect faith and a perfect obedience.

How regrettable are the weary disputes of men regarding the part sinners have in their redemption; how preposterous is the notion that what a sinner "believes" could endow him with eternal life! To receive that as God's free gift, he must qualify for entry into Christ's spiritual body, through faith and obedience of the gospel, or as Jesus stated it, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." The function of baptism in this is that it is entering "into Christ," where all righteousness and redemption are found. How dark is that tragedy of human arrogance which would make a sinner his own saviour through claiming eternal life as a consequence of his "faith only."

EXCURSUS ON SOLIFIDIANISM

Solifidian, from which the noun Solifidianism is derived, means "one who maintains that faith alone, without works, is the one requisite to salvation (from Latin "solus", alone plus "fides", faith)."[58]

Under James 2:26 it was explained that Solifidianism is founded upon an altogether inadequate understanding of the true ground of justification, that ground being neither human faith nor obedience nor both of them together. The one and only true grounds are the perfect faith and obedience of the Son of God. In the light of this, the doctrine is a theological "faux pas" of phenomenal dimensions. It claims eternal salvation for sinners, along with eternal justification (in the highest sense), grounded upon a purely human act of obedience, that is, the subjective trust/faith of sinners. Thus it makes sinners their own saviour by grounding the hope of salvation upon what the sinners themselves do. Logically and theologically, this is an arrogant absurdity.

Even if the major thesis of solifidianism were provable (which it is not), it would still fall short of any ultimate justification. That thesis is that in some way "saving faith," as it is called, includes all necessary acts of obedience, or produces them, or issues in them, or even does them. This is considered by holders of the doctrine to be a vital element of it, as judged by so many varied and repeated assertions of it. First, we shall notice a sampling of such assertions, demonstrating their falsity; and then, it will be pointed out that even if allowed as true, the whole concept of justification as resting upon what sinners themselves either believe or do, or believe AND do, still makes man his own saviour and misses altogether the only possible justification "in Christ" our Lord.

Assertions relative to "saving faith's" (so-called) inclusion of all necessary works:

"Faith cannot be severed from works."[59] This cannot be true, because many of the rulers of the Jews "believed on" the Lord Jesus Christ (John 12:42); and B. F. Westcott assured us that the words there employed by the apostle John mean the completeness and fullness of faith.[60] Yet those same people were the ones who murdered the Son of God. They had every kind of faith there is; so faith can and often does exist without works, being therefore separated from works. See full comment on the text from John in my Commentary on John, pp. 305-307.

"Faith uses works as its means."[61] This is untrue because James represented works, not as something faith was using, but as something "working with," or "cooperating with" faith (James 2:22). Likewise, the author of Hebrews made faith and baptism (a work in the usual solifidian view) to stand as coordinates in the foundation of the first principles of the gospel (Hebrews 6:1,2).

"If faith is genuine, works will follow."[62] Again, John 12:42 refutes this. See above. Further, James' challenge to errorists refuted in this chapter carried no criticism of their faith, other than the fact of its being without works. If it had been true that those workless Christians did not have the "right kind of faith," James would have dealt with that instead of the need for works. The entire last section of James 2 proves that faith can, and did, exist apart from works; and that it is not true that where faith is genuine works will follow.

"Works are an expression of faith."[63] This is false because works are something done by the believer, not by his faith. Eternal justification, as viewed by Paul, was grounded (in one sense) upon what men do (Romans 2:6-10; 2 Corinthians 5:10, etc.). In those citations from Paul, it is not deficiency of faith, but the deeds done by the believer, that is stressed.

"Works are the necessary fruits of faith." [64]

"Faith bringeth forth works."[65]

"Faith always issues in good works."[66]

"Faith is bound to overflow in action." [67]

"There is no faith that does not issue at once in loving obedience ."[68]

"Obedience is the inevitable and immediate issue of faith."[69]

Not any of these statements is in the Bible, nor is a single one of them true. If such notions as these had been a fact, James would not have bothered to give his urgent exhortation to good works. If such statements as the above had been the truth, and there had been the "wrong kind of faith" in any of the Christians he addressed, he would have devoted his energies to correcting the deficiency of their faith, instead of ordering them to obey the precepts of the Master relative to good works.

"Not for faith plus works does James plead, but for faith at work."[70] Like most of the samplings noted above, this also is a clever remark, but it is not true. James did plead for "faith plus works," flatly declaring that there was no profit in the faith that did not have that "plus."

"Real faith unites a man with Christ."[71] Significantly, this particular error is rather seldom advocated, in all probability because it is so frontally contradicted by the New Testament which nowhere carries such a statement as this, but which does categorically state no less than three times that one is "baptized into Christ," or "into his body" (Galatians 3:26,27; Rom. 6:3-5,1 Corinthians 12:13). No amount of faith ever united a man with anything, the P.T.A., the Masonic Lodge, the Democratic Party, nor the spiritual body of Christ.

"James was pleading for the `work of faith.'" This statement found in a number of commentaries is true, the error lying in the misunderstanding of "the work of faith," which means not the work which faith does, but the work commanded by "the faith" in the objective sense. Paul mentioned "work of faith" (1 Thessalonians 1:3), but his reference carries the thought that the Thessalonians were obeying the commandments of God, not that their "faith" was doing all the work.

"The ground of justification is faith, and that only."[72] This type of statement is not merely untrue; it contradicts the word of God in James 2:24, which declares that a man "is justified ... and not by faith alone." This kind of statement is not nearly as common as it once was, because more and more who believe it are embarrassed by James' refutation of their theory; but instead, greater and greater reliance is rested in the type of statements examined above, where the common design is in every case that of declaring Solifidianism.

Over and beyond all of these efforts to prove the unprovable, however, there looms the cosmic fact that even if faith should be viewed as all-inclusive of everything else, the basing of justification upon it (in any final sense) would still be making man his own saviour, still predicating the reception of eternal life upon thoughts and deeds of fallible and sinful men. Who could believe it? The basis of the final and eternal justification of the redeemed has already been determined and announced by God himself, the same being the righteousness of God "in Christ," available to those and those alone who are truly "in him," and moreover are "found in him" at last (Philippians 3:9).

Nevertheless, it is still an interesting and important question of whether faith plus works (of some kind), or merely "faith alone" is required of sinners seeking justification on the secondary and lower level which must be achieved "by them" before they may even become eligible for entry "into Christ" where alone true justification is available. The whole problem then turns upon one question alone, and that is, "How are men truly united with and brought `into' Christ?" Fortunately, the Scriptures do not leave such a question open, announcing repeatedly that men are "baptized into him." This mountain fact lies behind Jesus' declaration in Mark 16:15,16. Thus, even upon that lower level of secondary justification regarding fulfillment of preconditions of redemption, "faith alone" is valueless, even for the initial phase of justification; and, after that, the necessity of remaining "in Christ," of being found "in him" at last, even this will be determined by one's "deeds" (Romans 2:6-10; 2 Corinthians 5:10), which have the utility, along with faith, of keeping one "in Christ." The all-important thing that must precede final and ultimate justification is that the one to be justified must be "in Christ" and found "in him" at the end of his probation.

Therefore, the whole question of "faith plus works of obedience" or "faith only" should never have been raised. This is true because "faith only," no less than "faith plus obedience" is a "work" performed by sinners (being also, in a sense, a work performed by God, in the sense that God commanded it); and the predication of justification upon either "faith only" or "faith plus obedience" makes what the sinner does the grounds of justification; and the solifidian who bases his supposed salvation upon subjective trust/faith, rather than upon an obedient faith, does not gain the slightest advantage in such a conception, everything, in the last analysis, depending upon whether or not at last he shall be found "in Christ." The impossibility of "faith only" entering one "into Christ" is the ultimate condemnation of Solifidianism.

The concept of "saving faith" (so-called) as a religious experience: This is positively the most irrational and unbiblical idea ever to invade Christianity. The concept, variously advocated, supposes that "at some particular moment," "with emotions better felt than told," "in answer to prayer, .... under the emotional appeal of revivalism," or in some other bizarre circumstance, the sinner suddenly "experiences FAITH." Boom! All of his sins are forgiven; he is transformed spiritually, born again and saved eternally! The word of God nowhere pictures any such "spiritual orgasm" as that! This is pure voodoo-ism. No Biblical precept, no apostolic example even hints at such a thing. That is not the way Paul was converted; no member of the historical church as reviewed in Acts of the Apostles ever came "into Christ" in the manner of this false conception. Unscriptural and erroneous as such a "conversion" truly is, the mistake is compounded and multiplied by the solifidian arrogance of making that the only thing necessary for salvation and claiming eternal justification on the basis of it! There has never been a religious teaching that cried any louder to Almighty God for a drastic correction than does this one.

The satanic thrust of this evil theory also registers in its hatred of all who seek salvation and justification (even on the level of fulfilling preconditions of redemption) through faith and obedience of the gospel, and its adamant opposition to all preaching of the New Testament plan of salvation, accusing the followers of the New Testament of lacking salvation altogether and of attempting to be their own saviour. The illogical nature of this attitude appears in the fact of their denial of salvation predicated upon FAITH AND OBEDIENCE, while claiming it for themselves on the basis of FAITH WITHOUT OBEDIENCE, overlooking the fact that FAITH AND OBEDIENCE surely has everything their method has AND MORE! The only thing the true method of redemption lacks which theirs has is the alleged "faith experience," which to them is everything. The incongruous assertion that "faith only" could have anything not found in "faith and obedience" is impossible of being taken seriously.

No "experience" that any man ever had could rival that of Paul on the Damascus road. He actually saw the Lord! But three days later, he was still a, praying, penitent, grieving sinner; and so he remained until he heeded the command of Ananias to "Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins!" (Acts 22:16). Too bad that Paul never knew anything about being saved by "faith only."

The alleged Scriptural support of Solifidianism is extensive and will be briefly examined here. Solifidian methodology is characterized by the employment of a number of devices, as follows:

1. There is the literalization of synecdoche. Synecdoche, a type of metonymy in which one thing stands for a group of related things, is frequently used (especially by Paul) in the New Testament; and one of his frequent uses of this figure of speech is that of making "saved by faith" a synecdoche, or short-form way of saying, "saved by faith, repentance, confession, baptism, hope, the blood of Christ, and all other great essentials of the Christian religion." In my Commentary on Romans, a large number of Pauline uses of synecdoche were pointed out, there being no doubt whatever of Paul's "saved by faith" always being inclusive of many other things also; never did he mean "faith alone." The device of literalizing the synecdoche is a denial of the word of God. Take the synecdoche: "Philip II had 1800 sails in his navy." "Sails" actually means "fully equipped and manned warships"; the solifidian misunderstanding of it would assert the meaning to be: "Philip II had no warships at all and had gone into the cloth business!"

2. Another popular device is that of making passages which attribute salvation to "faith without works" mean that nothing whatever is to be done by the sinner except to believe in Christ. The error of this is multiple. "Without works," in the Pauline usage, in the vast majority of instances, means "works of the Law of Moses" and faith means either (a) all the Christian requirements (synecdoche), or (b) "the whole Christian religion" (faith used objectively). Again, the solifidian misinterpretation reads "works" to include every conceivable kind of human activity, whereas the New Testament speaks of seven classes of works, including the "work of faith," deeds done in obedience to divine commandments," as necessary to salvation. It is a perversion of God's word to apply "without works" as meaning "without obedience to Christ."

3. The device of interpreting New Testament references to "faith" as meaning (subjectively) the unscriptural "experience of faith" in which instantaneous salvation results. Many have been deceived into thinking this meaning is in the New Testament; but it is not, the usual meaning of the word faith in the New Testament being simply that of "faithfulness" or "fidelity." See in my Commentary on Galatians (p. 44) for extended discussion regarding the error of construing New Testament references to "faith" as having the meaning of "subjective, sinner's trust/ faith." There are more than a hundred instances in the New Testament in which the solifidian bias of reading "faith" in the subjective sense has been imported and read into the text; one notable scholar even declared that 2 Timothy 4:7 is "best understood subjectively"! In that passage, how can it be denied that Paul's saying he had "kept the faith" means anything other than that he had been true to the holy religion of Christ?

4. Outright mistranslation of God's word is also used extensively to mutilate and alter passages which do not "fit" solifidian error. Thus, John 3:16 is perverted to read "SHALL have everlasting life" instead of "SHOULD have, etc." Romans 10:10, "Confession is made unto salvation," is perverted to read, "It is stating his belief by his own mouth that CONFIRMS his salvation" (Phillips). These are only two of many scores of such arrogant changes which solifidian scholars perpetrate against the sacred word. It is very difficult to believe that the consciences of those who commit this type of outrage could be easy in the doing of such things. The great plethora of "modern English" translations of the New Testament has many of them that in no sense may be legitimately called translations, being loaded with Solifidianism and other errors throughout.

5. The device of substituting sinner's trust/faith for "the faith of Christ (the faith Christ had) in Romans 3:22,26; Galatians 2:16,20, and many other places, carries the effect of making the sinner his own saviour (through his providing the "saving faith"); whereas the faith that truly saves is "the faith of Christ" PLUS the perfect obedience of Christ! See extensive discussions of this subject in Romans (my Commentary on Romans) and Galatians (my Commentary on Galatians), under above references.

6. Rejection of whole blocks of the New Testament that cannot be made to fit the solifidian straitjacket has, from time to time, been brazenly advocated. Martin Luther rejected James because he thought it contradicted Paul; whereas, it only contradicted what Luther erroneously alleged to be Paul's teaching. There is no logic at all in the allegation that it was actually James which was misunderstood by Luther, and that James does not contradict Solifidianism. Of course it does! Then, there is the case of Arthur Cushman McGiffert, the theological "giant" who rejected the Pastorals, grounding his case on the assertion that "Nowhere in them is `faith' used in the great Pauline sense (solifidian sense, of course)!" McGiffert was absolutely correct in seeing that Solifidianism is bluntly contradicted by the Pastoral epistles. Countless other examples of such behavior in smaller particulars could be pointed out, raising the question of what must be thought of a theory whose adherents seek to change the word of God, rather than give up their error?

7. Another device is that of bypassing the spiritual body of Christ in their doctrine of salvation "by faith alone:" Solifidian theology pays scant attention, if any, to the overwhelmingly important Pauline teaching of "salvation in Christ." The expression "in Christ" (in him, in whom, in the Lord, etc.) is used 169 times in Paul's writings. Forgiveness, eternal life, salvation, redemption of sins, hope, grace, love, etc. - in fact EVERYTHING is "in Christ." Therefore, when Paul speaks of "faith in Christ," what does he mean? Sinner's subjective trust/faith? No! That is not "in Christ," it is in the sinner! A number of Pauline references to "faith in Christ" mean "faith" exercised by one "who has been baptized into Christ," thus stressing the theater of faith, not the mere subjective trust/faith of sinners. No unbaptized believer has faith "in Christ," as long as he is "out of Christ." The hard logic of this basic truth shows the fundamental error of Solifidianism.

Throughout this series of commentaries, careful attention has been paid to solifidian mistranslations, perversions and other devices used in allegations of Scriptural support of their error; and the above are only a few samplings from the wholesale outrages committed against the New Testament by unspiritual men who, under a pretense of "spirituality" are guilty of misrepresenting the word of God.

The candid manner of discussing Solifidianism, adopted here, should not be construed as a private judgment against "other Christians" (so-called). We do not maintain the position that intellectual error, even on so important a topic as this, may necessarily lead to final condemnation. In fairness, as noted earlier, it must be said that many solifidians, to the best of their ability, proceed to obey the teachings of the New Testament, in spite of their incorrect theory; and to the extent that they indeed "do believe and obey" the truth, they have exactly the same hope as all others who "believe and obey the gospel."

However, and here is tragedy, countless "professed" Christians are not in any sense obeying the gospel, walking in the teachings of the New Testament, ordering their lives by the precepts and examples of the apostles, nor in any other sense exhibiting the character and conduct of genuine followers of Christ. Their lapse in this whole area of "doing" the religion of Christ covers all phases of it; from violation of Christ's commandment to be baptized, forsaking his word relative to the Lord's supper, denying any appreciation for the church which is his spiritual body - from all such violations as these, all the way to a total abandonment of ethical and moral behavior by living in gross sins such as drunkenness, adultery, fornication, falsehood, stealing, idleness - put in all the lists of sins in the New Testament. Such things are openly practiced by a very large portion of those in our nation today who, according to themselves, are "saved by faith alone." It is in this frame of reference that this rather extensive discussion of the key error in modern theology is offered.

[56] Ronald A. Ward, op. cit., p. 1229.

[57] J. W. Roberts, op. cit., p. 100.

[58] Britannica World Dictionary.

[59] Walter W. Wessel, op. cit., p. 924.

[60] B. F. Westcott, The Gospel according to St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1971), p. 186.

[61] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 591.

[62] Ronald A. Ward, op. cit., p. 1229.

[63] Ibid., p. 1228.

[64] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 1035.

[65] T. Guthrie, Biblical Illustrator, op. cit., p. 254.

[66] Many commentators use this statement.

[67] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 78.

[68] R. V. G. Tasker, op. cit., p. 69.

[69] Ibid., p. 70.

[70] T. Carson, op. cit., p. 576.

[71] R. V. G. Tasker, op. cit., p. 63.

[72] Albert Barnes, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1953), p. 48.