In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the doors of a church building in Wittenburg, Germany, protesting many of the errors of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholicism’s errors needed to be exposed, and they still need to be exposed. But unfortunately, one of the doctrines that Luther believed and proclaimed was the doctrine of “faith alone” – justification by faith alone.
The one place in the Bible that the phrase “faith alone” appear is James 2:24, and there the Scripture says, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” Man is not justified, declared righteous by God, by faith alone. James teaches that a faith that does not include works of obedience is dead. This truth taught in the epistle of James presented no small problem to Luther’s theology. He called the epistle of James an “epistle of straw.” He judged that James failed the test of apostolic content because it contradicted a doctrine of justification by faith alone. He is reported to have said that James is “flatly against St. Paul and all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works.”
But there is no contradiction between Paul and James. Both are the inspired word of God. Paul wrote, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28). Consider a few points about justification by faith.
First, if for no other reason than this, the doctrine of justification by faith alone must be rejected because it contradicts the epistle of James and because Paul never taught “faith alone.” There is a big difference between what the Bible says – “a man is justified by faith”, and what man says – “man is justified by faith alone.”
Second, Romans 3:28 is contrasting a way of justification by faith in Jesus Christ with a way of justification by works of the law. Justification by works of the law of Moses or by any law is only possible if one keeps that law perfectly. And Paul has shown in chapters 1 through 3 that no man has kept it perfectly. If any man kept it without ever sinning, then he would be justified. But since no man has, God has provided a way for man to be justified, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul is not contrasting justification by faith to justification by works of obedience – the works about which James speaks.
And that leads us to this point: the Romans letter teaches that the faith that justifies is a faith that obeys. This is evident throughout the letter, but like bookends on a bookshelf, the first mention of faith in the Romans letter tells us that the gospel was being taught for “obedience to the faith” (1:5, NKJV) or “obedience of faith” (NASB), and the last mention of faith is in 16:26 – “obedience to the faith” (NKJV) or “obedience of faith” (NASB). The saving faith of the Romans letter is an obedient faith – no different than the obedient faith of which James speaks.
Unfortunately, Protestant religions of the world followed Luther’s “faith alone”. As an example, the Methodist Discipline states, “Wherefore, that we are justified by faith, only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.” The Protestant world’s rejection of baptism as necessary in order to receive remission of sins is part of “faith alone” justification.
The Bible teaches that man is justified by faith in Christ Jesus, and that faith is an obedient faith. Justification by “faith alone” must be rejected.
– Larry Jones