Show Me Your Faith:

In verse 18 James set the context of one man judging another man's claim to faith. He does this by referring to two men.  The first is a man claiming faith but with no works.  The second is James himself, a man with both faith and works.  He makes the point that we may use a man's works as evidence his claim to have faith is true.

James uses Abraham as an additional example.  In verse 23 he quotes the scripture that says that Abraham's belief in God (that is his faith) is credited to him as righteousness.  It is the same with all true believers.  Each one is declared righteous because of his or her faith.  The boy in the story above got his bike back because it belonged to him.

But how do we know Abraham's faith was real?  Just as the sergeant used the boy’s evidence to know the boy’s claim was true, we can use Abraham's action of being willing to sacrifice Isaac as evidence that his faith in God was true (verse 21).  Because of Abraham’s works we can know his faith was alive, not dead.  We see Abraham as justified, or righteous, because we can look at the evidence.  This evidence completes the picture for us.