# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1855_S147
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

James’s Doctrine of Justifying Faith. 147

[illegible] with the expression “law of the Spirit,” because the Greek word for “law,” in its most general sense, means an apportionment, such as a steward or shepherd makes; and the Gospel, like the law, is indeed God the good householder’s apportionment (oeconomia) to humankind; cf. Romans 3:27. Yet the same Paul would vigorously object if we were to call the Gospel law in our teaching. His sole purpose in using so striking an expression is to set the distinction between law and Gospel vividly before our eyes. In the same way, James has fully achieved his purpose in speaking of justification by works if the indolent Christians who wrongly console themselves with and boast of justifying faith fall silent in dismay and recognize themselves as guilty of the wicked abuse of evangelical grace.

And yet, although we must acknowledge James’s agreement with the other holy writers of Scripture, we are inclined to shake our heads at his manner of speaking, as though it ran contrary to the pattern of sound words and had therefore already caused so much distress to many a Christian conscience. But when James wrote in this way, the doctrine of justification had not yet been formulated as an article of church faith or dogma, as later occurred in opposition to every kind of doctrine of works, especially the Roman doctrine, and was completed at the time of the Reformation. At that time, the words used to express this doctrine had not yet been so firmly defined, or in a sense consecrated to this one doctrine, that they could not also have been used in presenting other doctrines. We are indeed accustomed, in Christian instruction, to predicate justification solely and exclusively of faith. Our continuing opposition to the Roman false doctrine, in which we constantly use that word in this way, compels us always to understand it only in that one meaning and in relation to faith; and so we find it difficult to accept when, as in James, it is used to designate other processes in the Christian life. James, by contrast, could use the expression with the certainty that those to whom he wrote would bear in mind not only the use of “justify” in the preaching of faith, but also the word’s own basic meaning, and would therefore understand his words correctly. Naturally, he could not take us into consideration; but we must ascertain the sense and meaning of his words by considering the circumstances under which he wrote.

James does not drag in the occasion to speak of justification by hook or by crook, nor does he argue against Paul. Rather, the gross and dangerous error by which indolent Christians ascribed to themselves righteousness from faith compelled him to deliver his rebuke and is the enemy against which he directs it. Like the apostle Paul, he confesses justification by faith and calls the demonstration of that faith—