"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?" Or, as in the Revision, "Can that faith save him?"
Q: What faith?
A: Why, the faith that he says
he has. No; the faith that he says he has will not save him, because
the truth is that he hasn’t any. "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead
by itself." The apostle challenges the man who says that he has
faith, but has not works: "Show me thy faith without thy works, and I
will show thee my faith by my works." The man who has no works has no
means of showing that he has faith; while the man who has works can
exhibit them as the fruit of faith. Good works cannot come except from
faith; and faith, if it exists, must work.