We are saved by grace through faith and not by our works.
Your statement seems to me to be a perfect example of eisegesis, considering the impossibility of synthesizing it with the below passage.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.We are saved by grace alone, through faith/works done in charity and inspired by the Spirit. Luther undoubtedly read this passage. How he reconciled his novel doctrine of "faith alone" with these passages is ultimately a mystery, but probably related to his scrupulosity.But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
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"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
Have you ever considered the possibility that I'm NOT a Lutheran? I don't have any Lutheran materials anyway. But, what would be true is that where Luther and the other reformers sought to bring the Catholic church BACK to the faith once delivered unto the saints and especially those that corrupted and perverted the gospel of the grace of God. So, no, there isn't any problem rectifying the doctrine with the book of James.
We are saved by grace alone, through faith/works done in charity and inspired by the Spirit. Luther undoubtedly read this passage. How he reconciled his novel doctrine of "faith alone" with these passages is ultimately a mystery, but probably related to his scrupulosity.
I don't understand how some don't see the blatant contradiction and impossibility of such an eisegesis. The only "novelty" was that of the nullification of the word of God by the traditions that crept into the religion of Catholicism. Should everyone forget all about the many passages from Paul's epistles that clearly teach it is grace through faith and NOT of our works that we are saved (Eph. 2:8,9) so that they can "make sense" of a small passage in James? Did not the SAME Holy Spirit breathe the truth to both writers? There are no contradictions in Scripture. Paul is dealing with principles and James with the practical.