# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1855_S122
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

122 James’s Doctrine of Justifying Faith.

2) recognize the fulfillment of the scriptural word: Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. The “and” with which v. 23 begins connects this sentence with v. 22 as an easy inference arising from it almost of itself, requiring no stronger connective word such as “so” or “therefore.” To determine the meaning of the expression “fulfill,” we may look at Matthew 5:17, where the Lord Christ says that he came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets; there it means the confirmation of the truth of the Law and the Prophets, as the Lord Christ provided it in word and deed. Abraham’s works therefore confirmed the truth of the word that praises his faith and testifies that, because of that faith, he was regarded as righteous by God; they testify that Scripture rightly relates of Abraham:

a. that he believed; for it is simply impossible not to see in Abraham’s works evidence of faith, of a complete and thoroughly living faith that sought to practice true obedience. — In the same way, however, Abraham’s works testify that Scripture rightly relates of him:

b. that his faith was counted to him as righteousness, for they are irrefutable and living testimonies to the power and courage that justifying faith alone possesses and gives.

It is the righteousness of faith that was ascribed to Abraham through his works; Abraham is justified by works because through them it was declared that he possessed righteousness through faith.

Following this discussion, James now expects that we have answered his question in v. 21 with “yes,” and therefore draws directly from the example of Abraham the general rule that is to apply to all believers,

Verse 24

as lying clearly and fully developed before our eyes. Indeed, we must also concede the first part of v. 24—“You see, then, that a person is justified by works”—to the extent that it may quite properly be said that a Christian is declared through his good works to possess the righteousness of faith. But now we must ask another question, perhaps unexpected by the readers, namely:

Who is it that declares Abraham righteous, or through whom does this take place?

We might answer: the works, for it does say, after all, that Abraham was justified through works. And although works are not actually persons who can make declarations, in speech one nevertheless commonly treats such things as though they were persons and attributes to them what persons actually do, say, declare, and so forth on their basis; compare Psalm 19:2ff. That answer is not wrong, but it must not be given without further explanation, because “through” (“the works,” that is, and so forth) is indeed a correct translation, but one that already involves interpretation. The Greek word rendered “through” means primarily