{"id":9780,"date":"2026-05-04T12:07:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9780"},"modified":"2026-05-04T12:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:07:22","slug":"james-221-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9780","title":{"rendered":"James 2:21-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

21\u00a0<\/sup>Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

22\u00a0<\/sup>Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

23\u00a0<\/sup>And the Scripture was fulfilled which says,\u00a0\u201cAbraham believed God, and it was<\/span>\u00a0accounted to him for righteousness.\u201d<\/span> And he was called\u00a0the friend of God.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

24\u00a0<\/sup>You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

25\u00a0<\/sup>Likewise,\u00a0was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent\u00a0them\u00a0out another way?<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

26\u00a0<\/sup>For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

In verses 21-25, James gave two examples of people who were saved by obedience to God’s will under the works-based kingdom gospel that he explained in verses 14-20<\/span><\/a>. Read the post on those verses to understand the distinction between that gospel and the grace gospel that is God’s will for us today.<\/h3>\n

justified (v.21) = complete<\/h3>\n

Abraham’s willingness to offer Isaac on the altar demonstrated that his faith was genuine<\/em>. James’ question, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works?” merely indicates that Abraham’s works confirmed<\/em> his faith. The apostle puts it this way, “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” The combination of faith and works verified<\/em> that Abraham’s faith was a living faith<\/em>, which manifested itself by works. According to James, Abraham served as a pattern<\/em> to the circumcision that faith and works were required<\/em> for salvation under their program.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Faith will most assuredly approach God in God’s way at any time, and to seek to gain acceptance with Him in any other way would, of course, be unbelief<\/em> and self-will. Thus, while works never did or could save as such<\/em>, they did once save as expressions of faith<\/em>. Does this mean that works will be efficacious in themselves? No! They will avail only las the expression and evidence of faith as, indeed, James clearly teaches. \u2014 Sadler, page 75.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not merely works (v.24) but works done in faith (Hebrews 11:17-40<\/span><\/a>). \u2014 Grace, page 2198.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rahab was saved before she provided safe passage for the messengers of Joshua, as her own words surely indicate. She was justified by works only in the sense that her actions declared she was saved. During the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan sought major reductions in the number of nuclear arms deployed by both superpowers. When our CIA was able to finally verify these reductions in the Soviet Union, President Reagan loved to quote the old Russian proverb: “Trusty, but verify.” Essentially, in time past justification was based on this same concept, “Trust, but verify.” \u2014 Sadler, pages 76-77.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Death in the Scriptures never has the idea of cessation of existence. Whether we are speaking about death in the context of physical, spiritual, or eternal, it consistently means separation<\/em>. When God created man in the beginning He created him a trichotomous being, as noted in Paul’s letter to those at Thessalonica: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thessalonians 5:23<\/span><\/a>). …<\/span><\/h3>\n

The body is the tangible part of our being that houses our soul and spirit. Though different entities, the soul and spirit are inseparably woven together, making up the spiritual part of our existence (Hebrews 4:12<\/span><\/a>). The soul is the seat of our emotions, while our spirit is the control center of the body. The spirit<\/em> is the rational part of our being that enables us to think and know, especially in regard to reasoning. We are to understand that it’s the principal agent by which the body is energized and is God-conscious (Romans 1:9). …<\/span><\/h3>\n

Death occurs when the spirit\/soul departs from the body\u2014separation! … Basically , James’ conclusion follows this line of thought; just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead, in relation to the terms of the gospel under which he was ministering. In other words, if there is no spirit, there is no physical life. Likewise, if there wasn’t works, as an outward manifestation of faith, there wasn’t spiritual life (Luke 7:29-30). \u2014 Sadler, pages 77-79.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Verse 26 is James’ summary of what he was teaching beginning in verse 14<\/span><\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21\u00a0Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22\u00a0Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23\u00a0And the Scripture was fulfilled … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9781,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9780\/revisions\/9781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}