Justification in James

It’s common to reconcile James and Paul on justification by saying something like “Paul’s faith is not the faith that James is talking about, and James’ justification is not the justification Paul is talking about.” That is, James is talking about some kind of demonstration of being in a justified state rather than the forensic act by which God places us in that justified state. At times, it is said that James uses “justify” to refer to public vindication before men rather than to refer to entry into a status before God.

That doesn’t work in James 2:22-24, however. There, Abraham is said to be justified by works and not by faith alone, his sacrifice of Isaac fulfilling the declaration of Gen 15:6 that “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” And nestled in this discussion is James’ claim that Abe was “called the friend of God” (v 23). Being justified and being called a friend of God are two ways of describing the same reality for James: To be reckoned righteous is to be reckoned a friend of the righteous God. James, in short, is talking about Abe’s legal standing, and he says that Abe came into this standing by a faith that works.