"Can that faith save him?"

 "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.

 

A man may say, "I have wealth," but he cannot exhibit a penny; can that wealth support him? There we have a parallel to the question in James 2:14. What profit is there in wealth which a man says he has, when he cannot give security for a penny?—None whatever." E.J. Waggoner