Job 32:2

Luke 16:15

Verse 15.

(g) "justify" Lk 10:29 (h) "God knoweth" Ps 7:9, Jer 17:10 (i) "esteemed" Prov 16:5, Mal 3:15

Romans 4:2

Verse 2. For if Abraham, etc. This is the answer of the apostle. If Abraham was justified on the ground of his own merits, he would have reason to boast, or to claim praise. He might regard himself as the author of it, and take the praise to himself. Rom 4:4. The inquiry therefore was, whether in the account of the justification of Abraham there was to be found any such statement of a reason for self-confidence and boasting.

But not before God. In the sight of God. That is, in his recorded judgment he had no ground of boasting on account of works. To show this, the apostle appeals at once to the Scriptures, to show that there was no such record as that Abraham could boast that he was justified by his works. As God judges right in all cases, so it follows that Abraham had no just ground of boasting, and of course that he was not justified by his own works. The sense of this verse is well expressed by Calvin. "If Abraham was justified by his works, he might boast of his own merits. But he has no ground of boasting before God. Therefore he was not justified by works."

(h) "not before God" Rom 3:27

Galatians 3:11

Verse 11. But that no man is justified, etc. The argument which Paul has been pursuing he proceeds to confirm by an express declaration of the Bible. The argument is this: "It is impossible that a man should be justified by the law, because God has appointed another way of justification." But there cannot be two ways of obtaining life; and as he has appointed faith as the condition on which men shall live, he has precluded from them the possibility of obtaining salvation in any other mode.

For, The just shall live by faith. This is quoted from Hab 2:4. This passage is also quoted by Paul in Rom 1:17. Rom 1:17. The sense here is, that life is promised to man only in connexion with faith. It is not by the works of the law that it is done. The condition of life is faith; and he lives who believes. The meaning is not, I apprehend, that the man who is justified by faith shall live; but that life is promised and exists only in connexion with faith, and that the just or righteous man obtains it only in this way. Of course it cannot be obtained by the observance of the law, but must be by some other scheme.

(a) "just shall live" Hab 2:4

James 2:24

Verse 24. Ye see then. From the course of reasoning pursued, and the example referred to.

How that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Not by a cold, abstract, inoperative faith. It must be by a faith that shall produce good works, and whose existence will be shown to men by good works. As justification takes place in the sight of God, it is by faith, for he sees that the faith is genuine, and that it will produce good works if the individual who exercises faith shall live; and he justifies men in view of that faith, and of no other. If he sees that the faith is merely speculative; that it is cold and dead, and would not produce good works, the man is not justified in his sight. As a matter of fact, therefore, it is only the faith that produces good works that justifies; and good works, therefore, as the proper expression of the nature of faith, foreseen by God as the certain result of faith, and actually as seen by performed men, are necessary in order to justification. In other words, no man will be justified who has not a faith which will produce good works, and which is of an operative and practical character. The ground of justification in the case is faith, and that only; the evidence of it, the carrying it out, the proof of the existence of the faith, is good works; and thus men are justified and saved not by mere abstract and cold faith, but by a faith necessarily connected with good works, and where good works perform an important part. James, therefore, does not contradict Paul, but he contradicts a false explanation of Paul's doctrine, he does not deny that a man is justified in the sight of God by faith, for the very passage which he quotes shows that he believes that; but he does deny that a man is justified by a faith which would not produce good works, and which is not expressed by good works; and thus he maintains, as Paul always did, that nothing else than a holy life can show that a man is a true Christian, and is accepted of God.

(a) "by works a man is justified" Rev 20:12 (+) "faith only" or, "Faith which is alone."
Copyright information for Barnes