How do you respond to someone who says that the Bible claims that a person is “justified” by his works, meaning that a person is saved by his works?
According to what Dr. Bothers teaches us in his book, we must carefully distinguish between meaning and concept. We find that the word “be justified” was mentioned in more than one biblical context, such as (Romans 3:28) (James 2:24), but the concept is not necessarily the same in every context. We find that the Apostle Paul focuses on justification being the cause of salvation through the work of redemption, which is free grace and a gift from God, as in (Ephesians 2:8-9): “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of works.” So that no one can boast.” He also points out in Romans chapters 3-5 how justification is a declaration of divine law and decree that sinful man has been forgiven of his sins and has become righteous before God at the expense of the work of atonement and blood of Christ.
As for (James 2:24), the word justification here is in a different context, because the Apostle James does not discuss how a person is saved, but he is concerned with how a person’s faith can be a true, effective and effective faith. Justification by works, in the view of the Apostle James, is proving the validity and truth of a person’s faith before the church. He does not talk about the how or the reason for salvation, but he is concerned with how to apply it in behavioral forms. We can say that the Apostle Paul shows us how a person can become righteous before God through the blood and atonement of Christ, while the Apostle James shows us how a person can be righteous before his church, because works do not save people, but they prove that a person has already been saved. This is what Dr. Bothers emphasizes in the importance of not confusing the word with the concept it means in a particular context.
Where do you begin to understand what James means when he says that a person is “justified” by his works?
We must start from the immediate context, which is the question of the Apostle James, “Can faith save if it does not have works?” He gives examples of this from the faith of Abraham and Rahab, and then the broader literary context, which is that he is writing to the Jews of the diaspora who are experiencing moral and social challenges. He cares pastorally for them and stresses to them the importance of living faith supported by holy behavior, in contrast to the Apostle Paul in Romans, who discusses the issue of justification doctrinally and not morally. We must also compare the text with the Old Testament, and finally distinguish between the word and the concept, because although it is the same word, it is used in two different contexts, so the concept is not necessarily the same. This is exactly what the writer emphasized, that we should not confuse the word with the concept. The word may be the same, but the meaning depends on the context, purpose, and literary genre.