Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

James 2:14-26 is in a real sense the culmination point of the author’s
treatment of faith. James had already addressed the issue of trials and faith
(Jam. 1:3), prayer and faith (Jam. 1:6), “racism” and faith (Jam. 2:1ff). Now
we arrive at the grand finale. Faith is the power plant that lights up the universe.
What else can we expect since it is rooted in the regenerate heart and
cannot but profoundly affect the mind as well as the hand (Zodhiates, II, 14)?
In silent eloquence “faith” accompanies James throughout as he pens the rest
of his letter. Only once more do we encounter James’ kind of faith “by name
and surname,” that is, when he enlarges on the mountain moving prayer of
faith (Jam. 5:15, 16-18; see also Mt. 21:21). But this only particularizes his
present all-encompassing and ever prevailing thesis of the indispensable centrality
and dynamics of faith.
In sum, in this context James’ main subject is not simply “works.” It is
“faith” (Phillips, 82), that is “productive of works” (Motyer, 109). Therefore
“the contrast is not so much between faith and deeds,” “but between dead,
useless faith and living faith” (Nystrom, 149; so also Ropes, 207; Brosend,
82). Further, it “is God who saves humans (4:12) but the person who has received
the word from God that saves and puts it in action in deeds of mercy
(2:18-26), and prayer (5:15) and mutual correction (5:20) ‘saves his soul from
death’” (Johnson, 238). A pendulum swing may well have been in evidence
in the early Church, from the rigid and ritualistic (dead) works (Heb. 6:1;
9:14) of Judaism that pursues self-righteousness at a fever pitch, to the empty
and barren (dead) “faith” of a carnal Christianity, that cold as a stone proudly
champions itself as the antidote of works-righteousness.
There is clearly nothing new under the sun. On the contemporary scene
the same animus exhibits itself in the at times vitriolic attacks upon “Lordship
Evangelism.” The fear to be victimized by works-righteousness is so overwhelming
that grace is extolled at the expense of deeds, if not of the exclusion
of any and all deeds. If James is to be believed, this turns Christianity
basically into its opposite.
The same trend, be it in a milder form, is found in the proponents of a
type of Christocentric preaching that was introduced to counter the malady of
man-centered moralistic messages. The (in itself correct) aversion to moralism
is frequently so overpowering that it surprisingly as well as regrettably
jeopardizes, if not negates, the full biblical emphasis upon, and scope of,
practical godliness. It is a variant of the Luther-syndrome. Luther’s type of
reductionistic Christocentricity grated under James, and had at times little or
no room for him. Historically the consequences were serious and farreaching,
and eventually spawned pietism as a much-needed, although not
full-orbed, correction. It is rather evident that Luther could never have written
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