There is another side to this. Many teach that we are saved by “faith alone.” But there is only one place in all of Scripture where the words “faith alone” appear together — and it says the opposite of what most people assume:
“You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”
— James 2:24
Not by faith alone. The only time that phrase appears in the Bible, it is preceded by “not.”
James does not contradict Paul. Paul says we are not saved by works of the Law. James says we are not saved by faith that produces no obedience. They are saying the same thing from different angles: saving faith is a faith that acts.
James makes this vivid:
“You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
— James 2:19
The demons believe. They know exactly who God is. They know Jesus is the Son of God — they said so to His face (Mark 5:7). Their belief is accurate, complete, and utterly useless — because it produces no obedience.
But what kind of faith does save? James does not leave us to guess. Immediately after writing that we are justified “not by faith alone,” he gives two examples — one from the father of the faithful, and one from the most unexpected place imaginable.
Abraham — the patriarch, the friend of God:
“Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,’ and he was called the friend of God.”
— James 2:21–23
Abraham believed God’s promise. But James insists that Abraham’s faith was “perfected” — completed, brought to its fullness — only when that faith obeyed. Abraham did not merely believe that God could provide; he took Isaac up the mountain, bound him, and raised the knife. His faith acted. And that was the faith counted to him as righteousness.
Rahab — the pagan prostitute of Jericho:
“In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?”
— James 2:25
Rahab had heard what God had done for Israel. She believed that the God of Israel was the true God (Joshua 2:9–11). But her mere belief did not save her. What saved her was the faith that acted — hiding the spies, protecting them, sending them out by another way at genuine risk to her own life. A believing prostitute in a doomed city stepped forward and obeyed. Her house with the scarlet cord in the window was spared when the walls fell.
James’ point is unmistakable: in both cases — the patriarch and the prostitute, the exemplar and the unlikely — what made their faith saving faith was that it obeyed. And if Abraham’s faith required the binding of Isaac, and Rahab’s faith required the hiding of spies, can we honestly argue that our faith is saving faith when it refuses the one plain command Jesus gave us: “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved”?
Faith without works is dead:
“For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”
— James 2:26
Belief matters. Belief is essential. But belief that refuses to obey the command Jesus Himself gave — to be baptized — is not the faith that saves. It is the faith of demons.