We are getting way off topic ... but when the majority of the NT teaches "faith alone" ... I have an obligation to believe it. The difference is ... when I look at James 2:24 in light of the rest of the NT, the preponderance of evidence from the rest of Scripture argues against James teaching "faith plus works = salvation." I may have a difficult time explaining the passage ... but the Scripture cannot contradict itself.
Now if you take James to teach "faith plus works" ... you have a much larger task explaining the rest of the NT. I would rather be in my position than yours.
It doesn't. The scripture always teaches that we are saved by faith and works. If you look through the usual Protestant prooftexts for faith alone, they are all false. There are passages that teach that we are saved by works (e.g. Romans 2:6-10 or Matthew 25:31-46) and there are passages that teach that we are saved by faith. There are also passages that teach that we are not saved by certain kind of works. For example, we are not saved by works of the law, or works done for a temporal reward. However, nowhere does the scripture say that we are saved by faith alone. This is the clearest teaching on how we are saved:
[4] But God, (who is rich in mercy,) for his exceeding charity wherewith he loved us, [5] Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ, (by whose grace you are saved,) [6] And hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus. [7] That he might shew in the ages to come the abundant riches of his grace, in his bounty towards us in Christ Jesus. [8] For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; [9] Not of works, that no man may glory. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them. (Eph 2)
We are saved by grace alone (vv 6-8), we cannot generate grace ourselves (v 8 and 9), we are saved through faith (v 8), we are to do good works that God commanded us to do (v 10). This passage teaches faith + works. It is often cited by the Protestants as a prooftext of "faith alone" but invariably, verse 10 is omitted, verse 9 is made to mean that we are not saved by ANY works where the scripture clearly distinguishes the works of self-glorification from "good works".
The notion of salvation through faith alone is a counterscriptural Protestant fantasy.