“Saved by Faith [Alone]” in Paul Versus “Not Saved by Faith Alone” in James

Robert Stein is the Mildred and Ernest Hogan Professor of New Testament at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Stein has a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary, taught at Bethel College and Bethel Theological Seminary from 1969-1997, and has served as a Professor at Southern since 1997. He is a renowned scholar and has writ ten numerous books, articles, and book reviews. His most recent book is Jesus the Messiah and a revision of The Method and Message of Jesus’ Teachings has also been published recently. Introduction In contrast to Romans 3:28 where Paul states, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law,” James writes in 2:24, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”1 As a result, the relationship between faith, works, and justification in the teachings of Paul and James have been much debated. On the one hand, there are those scholars who argue that the teaching and theology of Paul and James are contradictory and incapable of harmonization. No doubt the most famous of these is Martin Luther, who referred to James as a “right strawy epistle”2 and in his Preface to the book states that James