James_Newman said:If works touch any part of the gospel of free grace, it is tainted. Lordship salvation is a lie designed to take your assurance from you and to keep you working to prove your salvation instead of seeking the reward that the Lord has offered to His own who will serve Him. James is all about a believer adding works to their faith. James is speaking to people who are already saved, period. There is nothing that can be added to the salvation that is by faith alone. Abraham was justified once by faith, and then he was justified a second time by works added to faith. He would not have lost the first justification if he had not gone up the mountain to sacrifice Isaac, but he would not have gained the second either.
We are told to rightly divide the word. We cannot harmonize two things that are not supposed to be harmonized.
Came across this timely quote by Charles Spurgeon this a.m. that is so clearly biblical:
" FAITH and works are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God trusts God; and he that trusts God obeys God. He that is without faith is without works; and he that is without works is without faith."
This is what James is telling us in his book, with all of his great examples!