James 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
This does NOT mean that you get justified by doing good works.
What it DOES mean is that other humans seeing one's resultant good works shows that the person is justified, declared righteous by God the Judge, no longer under His condemnation.
You could declare that your faith is true and has saved you, which God already knows apart from any works you may do; BUT . . .
. . . fellow humans, not being omniscient, can only give your claims credence when they SEE that your behavior is consistent with having been justified as a consequence of your second birth in and by the Spirit.
Try this again, with explanatory superscripts:
James 2:24 Yeas humans that cannot look at a person's heart as God can seeby concrete evidence then how that by righteousworks a man isdemonstrably justified(already pardoned by God forever), and not by faith which was sufficient for being Spirituaslly reborn onlybut not externally evident to the human observer apart from works proceeding from a justified existence.
This is the syntactical and contextual sense in which this translation is to be interpreted. To think that doing works gets you justified is utterly foreign to the overall context, and is a false, incredible doctrine.
To think that doing works gets you justified is utterly foreign to the overall context, and is a false, incredible doctrine.
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Your statement here is an example of the erection of a straw man for the simple reason that justification by doing good works has not been asserted, at least not by me. But your subtle play on words to imply that it has is quite clever!
You are absolutely correct but we have already explained all this many times ON THIS VERY THREAD and it doesn’t sink in. They remain absolutely convinced salvation must be merited by their works. They only pay lip service to the Biblical “salvation by grace through faith” doctrine in favor of their boastful, holier-than-thou piousity where God OWES them salvation because they’ve earned and deserve it as good Catholics! Only the Holy Spirit can remove the scales from their eyes and the true meaning of GRACE is grasped. I pray for them all the time.