Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

It has been argued that “the works of the law,” which Paul denounces in
connection with the basis of the foundational declarative justification, and
“the deeds of the law,” which James endorses in the context of the final demonstrative
justification, are different in nature (Laws, 128ff; Mitton, 107-
108; Henry, III, 1294). Paul supposedly talks either about “the ceremonial
regulations” of the Mosaic Law, such as rules of diet, Sabbath regulations,
etc., or about “works done in a ‘legalistic’ spirit.” James, on the other hand,
speaks about good deeds, not as presented in the Mosaic Law, but as obedience
to the will of God as it is embodied in the life and teaching of Christ,
specifically in “acts of charity that that fulfil the law of love” (See for this
fine formulation, Moo, 1985, 101, in his excellent “Additional Note” on the
subject).
This seems a strange disjunction. It is much preferable to define the
deeds James champions as the content of the Mosaic Law (Heb. 8:10ff), as
further exemplified, i.e. expressed and manifested, in the life and teaching of
Jesus (without the “symbolical shadows” and the “political scaffolding”). In
all of this law and love, love and law, are intertwined and form one attractive
tapestry, blending together, rather than canceling each other out (PDavids,
60). Paul, furthermore, speaks about exactly the same works. The difference
then is that James requires them as the substance of sanctification, while Paul
excludes them as the ground for justification. “The difference is in the sequence
of works and conversion: Paul denies any efficacy to pre-conversion
works, but James is pleading for the absolute necessity of post-conversion
works” (So correctly Moo, 1985, 102, in the conclusion of his “Additional
Note”).
All in all, Paul is fighting a rampant and live heresy by focusing on the
function of faith, while James a dead and decaying orthodoxy by expanding
on the quality of faith. Both shake hands in Acts 15 (Zodhiates, II, 50)! After
everything is said and done, they are in full and cordial agreement, “The life
of sanctification dates from the moment a man is justified by faith ... but the
life of sanctification is not a life of faith only; it is a life of what might be
called faith-obedience” (Tasker, 70; see also Rom. 16:26).
4. Finally, the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham in Genesis 22, according to
James, is a “fulfillment” of Genesis 15:6. This raises the question how this is
possible, since Genesis 15:6 was not meant to be a prophecy or a prediction.
The answer is simple. To be sure, the verb “to fulfill” can imply, and frequently
does imply “a prediction come true.” But there are other meanings as
well! In Matthew 2:15 it signifies that the historical fact of “Israel’s call out
of Egypt” at the time of the Exodus turns into a pattern that has a second application,
indicating “Christ’s call out of Egypt” as the true “Israel of God!”
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