# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1855_S121
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

James’s Doctrine of Justifying Faith. 121

Ground and consequence stand in such a relationship that through the latter the judgment of Scripture is confirmed, which ascribes to Abraham the righteousness of faith. Genesis 15:6. Namely,

a. Abraham’s faith worked together with his works. The expression “worked together,” which denotes the part faith played in Abraham’s works, is exceedingly vivid. We are now to picture these works vividly, especially the sacrifice on Moriah just mentioned: Isaac is laid upon the altar, on top of the wood; the knife is taken in hand so that the son of promise may be sacrificed. We see this work of loving obedience, as it were, at work, but in all its actions and circumstances we see faith working together with it; faith supplies not only the willing but also the doing, joyfulness and strength, courage and humility. Abraham could not possibly have undertaken such works as the journey into the foreign land of Canaan or the sacrifice of Isaac if he had not been so firmly assured of God’s friendship that he regarded God’s commands, which could only seem grievous to his flesh, as God’s grace and kindness. And again, in order truly to regard himself as a friend of God, he, as a sinner, needed the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness that avails before God and is credited by God to faith. This faith, by virtue of which he had been declared righteous before all works, and the power and joyful courage of this faith, worked creatively and consolingly in all his works of trial, as those works irrefutably testify. James does not merely say “work,” which would have characterized faith more as the beginner than as the completer of the works; rather, he calls this indissoluble, intimate relationship of faith to Abraham’s works “working together,” since faith brings about their beginning, continuation, and completion—that is, it is their ground. Conversely, we see

b. how Abraham’s faith was made perfect through works. Abraham believed, it says; but if he had not left his kin and gone into the Promised Land, or if he had not offered Isaac on the altar when God required it, his faith would have remained altogether incomplete or imperfect; something belonging to its very nature and character—namely, simply doing God’s will—would have been lacking. The word “perfect” does not indicate that faith, which is active through love, is made perfect through this activity in such a way that it would thereafter no longer need to grow; by no means. It may still be weak and in the greatest need of growth, yet it is a fruitful root, a bubbling spring of good works; and if it does not bring forth such works of love, it does not attain the full development of its nature or true life, but is dead, like a root that puts forth no shoots; it would be a ground without a consequence.

From this living connection between faith and works, which confronts us so clearly in Abraham’s works, James teaches us