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Before examining Paul’s teaching, it will be helpful to review his relationship to James, as Paul himself describes it and as it is described by the author of the book of Acts. The evidence suggests that although Paul respected James, the brother of Jesus, there were some tensions.

In Galatians 2:9, Paul refers to James as one of the “pillars” of the Church. “Pillar” here may carry temple connotations, as when the word occurs in reference to the pillars, or upright frames, in the wilderness tabernacle (e.g., Exod 26:15–37; 27:10–17; 35:11, 17; 36:36, 38; 38:10–19; 39:33, 40; 40:18). Some scholars suspect that the early Church viewed James, Peter (or Cephas) and John as pillars of the new temple. Richard Bauckham has argued that the leaders of the Jesus movement were called pillars as part of the “early Church’s understanding of itself as the eschatological Temple,” on analogy with the Qumran community, which also saw itself as a spiritual temple.⁷

In Christian tradition, Peter is the rock on which Jesus will build his Church (Matt 16:18), Jesus himself is the foundation (1 Cor 3:11) or cornerstone (Eph 2:20; 1 Pet 2:4, 6–7), and Christian believers are themselves the building blocks of a living temple (1 Pet 2:5; Hermas, Visions 3; and Similitudes 9). Some of this imagery is itself based on the temple imagery found in the Old Testament Scriptures, especially in reference to the promised and awaited eschatological temple: stones and foundations (Isa 54:11), cornerstone (Isa 28:16; Ps. 118:22; both quoted in 1 Pet 2:6–7) and pillars (Prov 9:1). In post-New Testament traditions, James is himself called the “Rampart of the People” (according to Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.23.7), a title probably based on Isaiah 54:11–12 and likely also part of the imagery of the eschatological temple.

Being regarded as one of the “pillars” of the early Church testifies to the esteem in which James was held. The book of Acts also testifies to the esteem of James, as well as to his leadership. We see this when James directs Paul to purify himself and pay the expenses of four men who are under a Nazirite vow. Not only do we catch an important glimpse of James’s continuing leadership and authority, we may also discover how it is that James was able to reside in Jerusalem while others, like Peter and the original apostles, found it necessary to relocate.

When Paul returned to Jerusalem in 58 AD, in time for the Feast of Pentecost, he visited James and “all the elders” (Acts 21:18). Paul related to them what he had experienced in his recent travels and missionary activities, for which James and his colleagues expressed joy (21:19–20). But then James had advice for Paul on how to conduct himself (21:20–25). James told Paul that by doing what had been suggested, “all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you but that you yourself live in observance of the law” (21:24).

The author of the book of Acts has labored to show that Paul and James held to essentially the same view with respect to the crucial question of circumcision and law. Fair and careful reading of Paul’s letters suggests that the portrait in Acts is accurate, even if vague and incomplete in places. But one important point of comparison remains to be considered. Did Paul and James differ over the place of “works of law” in the life of the believer? It is time now to turn once again to the letter of James.

In his polemical and at times heated letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul emphatically gives expression to his view that no one can be justified by works of the Law:

We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. (Gal 2:15–16)

Thus Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham. (Gal 3:6–7)

Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law; for “He who through faith is righteous shall live”; but the law does not rest on faith, for “He who does them shall live by them.” (Gal 3:11–12)

One hardly needs to be a theologian or Bible scholar to hear what Paul is saying in these passages: “No one is justified by works of the Law.” Paul bases his argument for the most part on the well-known passage in Genesis where Abraham, in response to God’s promise of land, seed and blessing, “believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6). He also appeals to Habakkuk 2:4 (in Gal 3:11). That the law requires “works” (or “doing”) is seen in Leviticus 18:5, which Paul also quotes (in Gal 3:12).

In a less polemical tone, Paul restates his argument in his letter to the Christians in Rome. Here Paul has given careful thought to this interpretation of Scripture and how it sheds light on the question the law and justification. Paul says,

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith…For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. (Rom 3:21–28)

For Paul, salvation cannot be earned. If righteousness before God—and therefore salvation—could be earned, then there would have been no need for the Messiah, God’s Son, to die on the cross. Rather, salvation is a gift of God, received through faith, not through works. This is seen in the great patriarch Abraham, who believed God’s promise—understood to include the saving work of the Messiah—and was therefore reckoned righteous. Abraham’s faith transformed him from a Gentile, as it were, to the father of the Jewish people. It was his faith, not his obedience to law or his later circumcision, that effected this transformation. So goes Paul’s thinking.

For Martin Luther, the great German reformer of the sixteenth century, Paul’s emphasis on God’s grace and the demand for faith was just what was needed to challenge what he perceived to be an unhealthy and unbiblical emphasis on legalism and works in the Church of his day. The only problem was that the letter of James appeared to contradict Paul’s teaching. Near the end of a major teaching section, James concludes, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (2:24). No wonder, then, that Luther showed little regard for James, referring to it dismissively as a “strawy epistle” (German: strohern Epistel) and, in comparison to the works of Paul, Peter and the Gospel of John, which “show thee Christ,” saw it as containing little of the gospel.⁸

The problem for Luther was that he did not interpret James correctly. James’s references to “works” have nothing to do with “works of the law,” which Paul saw as antithetical to a gospel of grace, freely received through faith. Study of the whole of James 2 shows that the brother of Jesus offered an exposition of Jesus’ principal teaching, his so-called Great Commandment, that one is to love God with all that one is and has, and one is to love one’s neighbor as one’s self (Mark 12:28–34; cf. Luke 10:25–28).

Earlier in this chapter we noted that James insists that true faith fulfills the “royal law,” the law based on Leviticus 19:18 (love your neighbor as yourself), to which Jesus made appeal. Feeding the hungry and caring for the poor is evidence of genuine faith. These are the “works” that demonstrate the reality of one’s faith. Apart from such works, one’s faith is “dead” (James 2:26). This is why James states categorically that one “is justified by works and not by faith alone” (2:24).

The works of which Paul speaks in Romans and Galatians are “works of law,” works by which one establishes his righteousness. These are not works of the “royal law,” works of mercy and loving-kindness. In Galatians, Paul angrily criticized Peter for withdrawing from Gentile Christians. In Antioch, Peter was willing to eat with Gentiles, but when emissaries from James came to Antioch, Peter withdrew from these Gentiles. Peter did not want the men from Jerusalem to think he was eating non-kosher food. Eating kosher food, observing the Sabbath, keeping oneself ritually pure—all of these things are what Paul calls “works of the law.” These are not the works to which James makes reference in his letter.

We have a much better understanding of this important distinction thanks to the survival of six copies of a legal letter from Qumran’s cave 4.⁹ Although in fragments, the overlapping copies allow us to reconstruct almost the entire original letter. The letter defines and discusses some two dozen works of the law that one must do to maintain purity and righteousness. These works include not mixing the holy with the profane and avoiding Gentile food. Separation from things that defile is strongly urged. The letter concludes, “We have written to you some of the works of the Law, those which we determined would be beneficial to you and your people…[If you do these works] you shall rejoice at the end time…and it will be reckoned to you as righteousness, in that you have done what is right and good.”¹⁰ These are the works of the Law that Paul criticizes, not the works mentioned in the letter of James. The works of Law that calls for separation from Gentiles, only eating kosher food and the like are not what justifies one in the sight of God. But works of love and mercy—which is what James was talking about—Paul fully supports.

In a later letter, written either by Paul himself or by one of Paul’s students writing in his name, we find similar thinking, where grace and faith, on the one hand, go hand in hand with good works, on the other:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8–10)