Declared Righteous

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. ~Romans 3:28

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ~James 2:24

These two verses have always frustrated me. Yes, I knew that simple answer-- "Oh, James isn't talking about justification the same way Paul is," but that never really satisfied me because no one ever really tried to back up that claim; they just said it like that settled it. But it never really settled it for me-- until now.

The perfect analogy hit me yesterday while I was driving and wrestling with the whole question of justification (yeah, theologizing in the car, don't make fun...). To justify means "to declare righteous," but if you think about it, there are multiple ways that someone can be declared righteous. For example:

Imagine that you're on trial for robbing a bank. The lawyers and witnesses have all had their say, and now the judge will decide whether or not you are guilty. The judge finally bangs the gavel. "Not guilty," he says. You've just been declared righteous.

Now imagine that the press has been following this case closely. The next morning, the front page headline reads in big letters, "NOT GUILTY." The newspaper just declared you righteous. But their declaration is very different than the judge's. The judge actually changes your status-- from prisoner to free man, from condemned to innocent, from guilty to not guilty. All that the paper does is publish these results, and declare what has already taken place. The paper could print whatever it wanted, whether or not it lined up with reality (how true that is!)-- but that wouldn't change your status before the judge. But the paper's job is to report accurately what has taken place, and proclaim to the world, "This man is not guilty!"

That's exactly the two different ways that Paul and James are talking about justification. Romans 1-3 is full of legal terms-- guilt, redemption, innocent, accountable, just, etc. It is obvious that Paul is using the word justification in its legal sense-- the judge of all the universe declaring sinners "not guilty." But in James, the context is very different. There, you have phrases like, "I will show you my faith by my works," and talk about demonstrating actual love for your neighbor not just in word but in deed. It's clear that James is talking about justification in the newspaper sense-- publishing the results of the trial.

So what do you get when you put Romans and James together? To keep using the current analogy, let's say that the judge declares me not guilty in the bank robbery case. The proper way to celebrate that verdict is not to then go out and rob a bank saying, "Yay, I'm innocent!" The message of Paul and James, taken together, is this: "God has declared you righteous; why is your life not declaring that too?"