James said, “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Paul wrote, “one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom 3:24). Do Paul and James contradict each other?
Some modern scholars have made that argument. But do James and Paul really contradict each other?
I don’t believe so.
Instead, James and Paul complement each other. They use the word justify in different contexts to communicate different ideas.
Christians have intuited how words and the ideas they communicate vary according to context from the beginning. For example, Clement of Rome in about 95 AD could use the language of justified by faith and justified by works side-by-side without any thought to their potential contradiction.
Clement did so because he intuitively distinguished justification before God and being just in the normal sense of the world. This distinction also explains (at least in part) how Paul and James could use the language of justification in complementary and not contradictory ways.
Clement of Rome
Clement of Rome lived in the city of Rome during the first century. Likely, he was born sometime in the 30s AD and died around 100 AD. In this sense, he lived during the age of the apostles. Both Tertullian (c. 190 AD) and Ireneaus (c. 180 AD) locate Clement as the third bishop of Rome, although one should not import later notions of bishop into that term.
Some forty years after Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Clement wrote to the same church. In his lengthy letter—called 1 Clement—Clement speaks about justification according to Scripture.
For example, Clement cites Job 11:2–3 which he quotes as: “The one who speaks much shall bear much in reply. Or does the talkative person think that he is righteous? Blessed is the one born of a woman who has a short life. Do not be overly talkative” (1 Clem. 30.4–5; emphasis added).
In Greek, the words righteous and justify share the same root. The main difference is that one is an adjective (righteous) and the other is a verb (justify). We translate these two words into English as righteous and justify since we neither have a verb like righteousfy nor does the word English word just do the same translation-work as the term righteous does.
In other words, Job in Clements’s citation associates talkativeness or idle talk with someone who lacks righteousness because they talk and don’t do. Hence, he uses the biblical word justify because, as he interprets Job, he desires to encourage the Corinthians in this way: “Let us clothe ourselves in concord, being humble and self-controlled, keeping ourselves far from all backbiting and slander, being justified by works and not by words” (1 Clem. 30.3; emphasis added).
Clement contextually wants the Corinthians to control their tongues and instead act righteously. In this sense, our works righteousfy or justify us. As he will note, “Let the testimony to our good deeds be given by others, as it was given to our fathers who were righteous” (1 Clem. 30:7; emphasis added).
Clement gets to his point with exactitude: “Boldness and arrogance audacity are for those who are cursed by God; but graciousness and humility and gentleness are with those who are blessed by God” (1 Clem. 30:8).
In the next paragraphs, Clement also argues that we “are not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety, or works that we have done in holiness of heart, but through faith, by which the Almighty God has justified all who have existed from the beginning” (1 Clem. 32:4; emphasis added).
In a number of paragraphs, Clement moves from justification by works to justification by faith. What is going on?
In context, Clement has moved on from Job to explain how God justified Abraham. He argues that “he attained righteousness and truth through faith” (1 Clem 31:2). He also discusses how God promised to bless Abraham’s seed. In this regard, Clement sees God’s will as the ultimate cause behind our salvation. By God’s will, we are justified through faith.
Clement can speak of God justifying us by faith; and he can speak of our actions making us righteous individuals. Clement makes the common sense distinction between God making us righteous by faith and the normal sense of being just or righteous because we are acting justly or righteously.
Clement didn’t see any sort of contradiction here. Clement intuited how words communicate different ideas depending on their context. The same word righteousness can either refer to our justification before God (one idea) or the common sense idea of being righteous because we act justly (another idea).
We call a judge just when he rules justly. We say faith justifies Abraham before God salvifically. The distinction here is as simple as that.
Paul
Clement then provides insight into how to understand James and Paul’s use of the term justify.
In the Letter of James, James argues that true faith genuinely results in good works. He says of Abraham, “faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works” (James 2:22). In his argument, James highlights Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22. But as James notes, Abraham already believed God and was justified in Genesis 15 (James 2:23).
James argues that Abraham’s already existing faith “was active along with his works.” And he then says that Abraham’s already existing faith “was completed by his works.”
Paul makes a similar argument in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” In context, Paul here speaks of salvation by faith (Eph 2:8–9). In other words, Paul argues that faith saves us so that we can do good works.
In Romans 3–4, Paul makes an argument about how God justifies us by faith apart from the works specifically outlined in the Torah of Moses. He argues that faith justified Abraham. And he argues that the mosaic law cannot justify someone.
Paul explains, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (Rom 3:28–30).
Note here how Paul ties “works of the law” with God being the God of Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised. His point is that the mosaic legislation cannot justify either Jew or Gentile but only faith in Jesus can.
Paul does not argue that good works do not matter to the Christian life: “How can we who died to sin still live in it”? (Rom 6:2). Paul instead argues that the Mosaic law cannot justify. He does not say that works are unimportant. Just the opposite. Paul even speaks about the “obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5; 16:26).
James
James similarly wants to show how genuine faith makes one live a just life. The fruit of faith is good works. Faith and works tie together. In James’s argument, Abraham’s faith produced good fruit. James knows that God declared Abraham righteous in Genesis 15 (James 2:23), and he also knows that Abraham acted justly perfecting or completing his faith in Genesis 22 (James 2:22).
James wants his readers to know that salvation from sin means that we live a new life, one which does good works. He asks, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” (James 2:14). The answer seems to be no since every genuine Christian will want to do good to others.
This does not mean a sinless existence, but it could mean, for example, helping the poor. James explains, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15–16).
And as James has already said, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:17). Here, religion means something like worship or piety rather than how we modern people think of it today—usually as a list of beliefs and practices.
James and Paul use the same word to talk about two overlapping ideas. Paul uses justification to indicate that faith apart from the law justifies. James indicates that genuine faith makes a person act justly and so show them to be righteous. They use the same words to talk about two different but overlapping ideas.
We have become accustomed to a mechanical or computerized society in which every jot and tittle of code fits into its right slot. We might assume then that a word James uses must necessarily mean the same idea as the same word in Paul’s writings.
But that is not right. Instead, the context of the letters determines what Paul and James mean. They go to great lengths to make arguments. We cannot look at one word and assume it means exactly what someone else meant by it in another context. We have to study the text, think alongside its internal logic, and see how someone like James, Paul, or Clement uses a word like justify.
Conclusion
Paul tells us how God justifies us apart from the works of the mosaic legislation. James tells us that genuine faith produces good works, works that show us to be righteous or holy. They use similar wording to communicate two overlapping but distinguishable ideas.
