Faith in Christ vs. Christian Works

The biblical origin for the belief in justification by faith

22 min readJul 27, 2021

Our Own Righteousness in Opposition to Faith in Redemption

Phil. 3:9 And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but the righteousness which is through faith in Christ, that which is out of God and based on faith,
Gal. 2:21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness is through law, then Christ has died for nothing.
1 Pet. 1:18 Knowing that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers,
1 Pet. 1:19 But with precious blood … the blood of Christ;
1 Pet. 1:21 Who through Christ believe into God, who raised Christ from the dead … so that your faith and hope are in God.
Rom. 3:21–22 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested … through the faith of Jesus Christ to all those who believe.
Rom. 4:3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Jer. 23:6 this is His name by which He will be called, Jehovah our righteousness.
Isa. 53:11 By the knowledge of Him, the righteous One, My Servant, will make the many righteous.

The bible speaks of two types of righteousnesses. The righteousness that is out of the law (Phil. 3:6; Rom. 10:5) and the righteousness that is based on faith (Rom. 4:3, Rom. 3:21–22, Gal. 2:16). The righteousness that is out of the law and based on works, originates from the self and not from God. This is why Paul calls it “my own righteousness.” The righteousness that is out of God is based entirely on faith in Christ’s redemptive work. It originates from God Himself and not from us. The reason why Phil. 3:9 is such a powerful verse is because it helps a believer understand that there are two different types of righteousnesses. This provides a believer with the ability to discern between the righteousness of God which is Christ (Jer. 23:6, 1 Cor. 1:30) and the righteousness which is from ourselves. Once we have this discernment we simply need to reject our own righteousness and regard it as refuse that we may gain Christ (Phil. 3:8).

If we hold onto our own righteousness then Christ has died for nothing (Gal. 2:21) and we are not redeemed from our former vain manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18). A believer’s righteousness should be given to them by God alone as a demonstration of His mercy. The only requirement placed upon a believer is faith in Christ’s redemptive work (Titus 3:5, Rom. 4:5). The goal of faith is to join the believer to Christ so that they might have one life and one living with Him. Nothing the believer does before they believe in God’s word entitles them to receive salvation (Phil. 3:4-7).

God Not Needing to Repay Us According to Our Works

Rom. 4:4 Now to the one who works, the wages are not credited as grace, but as to what is owed.
Rom. 11:6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
Rom. 11:35 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”
Job 41:11 Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.
Job 35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give Him, or what does He receive from your hand?

Hymn 1344 — Oh, the depth of the riches

Salvation Not Out of Works but Faith in Christ

Rom. 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Gal. 2:16 We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no person will be justified.
Rom. 3:28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Eph. 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Titus 3:5 He saved us, not because of works in righteousness that we did, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration.
2 Tim 1:9 God has saved us … not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace … given to us in Christ Jesus.
1 Pet. 1:3 regenerated unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Pet. 1:23 regenerated … through the living and abiding word of God … announced to you as the gospel.
1 Pet. 1:9 receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

These verses provide the strongest proof that the origin of our salvation does not come from works. They seem to contradict the verses in James chapter 2. Martin Luther called the book of James the epistle of straw. The book of James is scripture but some believe it serves to instruct the believers by way of a negative example. The minority view is that the book of James serves as a helpful warning to the believers. It serves as an instructive text demonstrating the negative consequences of refusing to turn away from the rituals of Judaism to pursue after Christ. The book of Hebrews requires us to go “outside the camp” of Judaism to realize that Christ is the fulfillment of all the positive things in the Old Testament (Heb. 11:40, 13:13).

James was an elder in the church in Jerusalem (Gal. 2:9). There is a strong line throughout Paul’s ministry that some sent from the church in Jerusalem had a negative influence on the churches in the Gentile regions (Acts 15:1–5, Gal. 2:11–14, Phil. 3:2–3, Phil. 3:17–19). Paul himself was imprisoned as a direct consequence of taking the advice of James and participating in a Judaistic ritual (Acts 21:23–30). In the same way that the crowd was unwilling to accept that the gentiles could be saved (Acts 22:21–22) James was unwilling to accept that the rituals of Judaism had no value (Acts 21:20–21). Eventually, the negative influence of the church in Jerusalem was terminated when the prophecy concerning the temple made by the Lord Jesus was fulfilled. Along with the destruction of the temple, Roman prince Titus and his army destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Matt. 21:41, 23:38, 24:2).

The meaning of being saved through regeneration

Many translations of the Bible translate ἀναγεννάω as “born again.” Anagennáō (“born again, from above”) is used twice in the New Testament (1 Pet. 1:3, 23) — both times referring to God regenerating a believer by giving them a supernatural, new birth. Paliggenesia in Titus 3:5 is also frequently translated as “new birth.” The concept of a new birth is fundamental to salvation as taught by the Lord Jesus in John 3:3–6.

At the time a child is born they have done nothing in God’s eyes to merit any treatment (Rom. 9:11). Salvation signified by a new birth seems to indicate that very little of our life prior to salvation contributes to our eligibility to receive salvation. In addition, many verses indicate that the believers were chosen by God the Father before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4, John 15:16). God predestinated (marked out) the believers to become sons of God before they were even born (Gal. 1:15, Eph. 1:5, Rom. 8:29–30). Our standing before God at the time of our salvation is as recipients of God’s mercy, thus our salvation is based entirely on our willingness to receive God’s free gift (Rom. 5:15–16, Eph. 2:8–9).

Righteousness Not Through the Law but the Gospel of Grace

Rom. 1:17 For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel out of faith to faith, as it is written, “But the righteous shall have life and live by faith.”
Gal. 3:21 For if a law had been given which was able to give life, righteousness would have indeed been of law.
2 Cor. 3:6 the Spirit gives life
John 6:63 it is the Spirit who gives life
Gal. 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life.
John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
Gal. 3:11 And that by law no one is justified before God is evident because, “The righteous one shall have life and live by faith”
Rom. 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.

The key reason the law of Moses cannot make men righteous according to Galatians 3:21 is due to the fact that the law is unable to impart the life of God into man. This fits together perfectly with the concept that righteousness is a direct result of salvation and salvation requires man to be born again by God’s life. Because the law cannot regenerate man it cannot save man. As a result, the law can only serve to make man conscious of sin but it cannot make men righteous (Rom. 3:20, 7:12–14, 8:3–4). The law cannot make men righteous since it cannot impart the life of God which is capable of empowering man to overcome sin (Rom. 8:2). The Spirit however can impart the life of God into man. Thus the Spirit is able to give life, produce believers as sons of God, and release men from the slavery of the law (John 6:63, 2 Cor. 3:6, Rom. 8:14, Gal. 5:18, Gal. 5:1). This is how the Spirit empowers men to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law (Rom. 8:2–4).

Since Christ can impart the life of God to men He is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4). He is the end of the law because he fulfills the law by living within the believers as the Spirit (Matt. 5:17, Rom. 8:4, 10, 14; Gal. 5:25). In this way, He makes the believers the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

There is Salvation in no Other Name But Jesus

Rom. 10:9 If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Rom. 10:10 For with the heart there is believing unto righteousness
Rom. 10:11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes on Him shall not be put to shame.”
Rom. 10:13 For “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Acts 10:43 through His name everyone who believes into Him will receive forgiveness of sins.
Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no other, for there is not another name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
Acts 2:21 And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Psa. 116:13 take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.

Salvation requires a person to confess the name of Jesus because only the Lord Jesus can impart the life of God into man. Salvation, therefore, is not to live a moral, upright or perfect human life. Salvation is to have the life of God so that we might express God. Although man was given God’s image and likeness outwardly (Gen. 1:26), without the life of God man was unable to express God (Rom. 3:10). Instead of expressing God, men express themselves. Although man has God’s image, man does not represent God in the way that Jesus did (John 4:34, 5:19, 5:30, 6:38, 12:49) by depending on God as life (John 6:57). God as glory was expressed in the Lord Jesus (John 8:54, 17:1) but our inability to express God in this way is sin (Rom. 3:23). This is why before we have the life of God the Bible refers to men as sinners and after we receive the life of God the believers have the status of saints.

To Call “Lord Jesus” is to Receive the Person of the Lord Jesus

What Does It Mean to Call on the Name of the Lord?

Acts 9:5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,”
1 Cor. 12:3 no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
Gal. 1:16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles
Col. 1:27 God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Rom. 8:9 the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Rom. 8:10 But if Christ is in you … the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Phil. 2:13 For it is God who operates in you
Gal. 2:20 It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Col. 3:4 Christ our life is manifested
Phil. 1:20 Christ will … be magnified in my body, for to me to live is Christ
Eph. 3:17 I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith.
John 14:23 If anyone loves Me … We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.
John 14:17 the Spirit of reality … remains with you and will be in you.

A believer knows that they are saved when they sense that Christ lives within them. God wants to live within the believer in the same way that God lived within the Lord Jesus. God desires to have an expression within the believer individually and corporately. Individually a believer is a son of God and corporately a believer is a member of the church, the Body of Christ. To be a son of God requires that the believer have the life of God. to be a member of the Body of Christ requires that the believer take Christ as their head and be joined to Christ and the other members of His Body in an organic union.

Now the Believer is One Spirit With the Lord

Rom. 8:14 The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.
1 Cor. 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Gal. 6:18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers amen.
Phil. 4:23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
2 Tim. 4:22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
Philemon 25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

The goal of God’s salvation is to produce true worshippers (John 4:23–24). True worship is not centered in a physical place (John 4:21) but instead is located within the believer themselves (1 Cor. 3:16). A believer’s human spirit is the dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:22). The bible instructs a believer to pray at every time in spirit (Eph. 6:18). This is because the human spirit is the place where God and man are joined together as one. The human spirit is also likened to a faculty within man that allows him to substantiate God (2 Cor. 4:13, Heb. 11:1). The human spirit is where the believer substantiates God’s life and God’s grace. These experiences allow a believer to express and represent God as righteousness instead of themselves.

Not the Self’s Labor but Christ Lived out as the Grace of God

1 Cor. 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not turn out to be vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
Gal. 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
John 15:4–5 Abide in me, and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me …. apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:2 He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit
John 15:6 If one does not abide in me, he is cast out
Rom. 7:6 now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power.
Rom. 7:4 You have been made dead to the law … so that you might be married (lit. joined) to Christ … that we might bear fruit to God.
Gal. 5:4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ (lit. Christ has been made nothing to you); you have fallen away from grace.
Gal. 2:21 nullify the grace of God, if righteousness is through law
Gal. 5:2–3 If you become circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all … you will become a debtor to keep the whole law.
Gal. 5:1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

“Not I but the grace of God” in 1 Corinthians 15:10 equals “no longer I … but … Christ” in Galatians 2:20. The grace that motivated the apostle and operated in Him was a living person, the resurrected Christ, who became the life-giving Spirit to live within Paul. It was by this grace that Paul could labor for Christ more abundantly than all the apostles (1 Cor. 15:10). His living was a testament to the power of Christ’s resurrection life (Phil. 3:10).

When the Lord says in John, “apart from me you can do nothing” this does not mean that a believer cannot serve apart from the Lord. Rather it means that their service will not produce anything of value to God. This is because only Christ, His death, and resurrection are valuable to God. We must therefore take Paul as our pattern and join (marry) ourselves to Christ and live Christ as Paul did (1 Cor. 4:16, 1 Cor. 11:1, Phil. 3:17, Phil. 4:9, Gal. 4:12). This is to allow the life of Christ to operate in us to produce fruit for God’s satisfaction (John 15:4, Rom. 7:4).

If the old self in Romans 7 remains married to the law this will frustrate our new self’s marriage to Christ (John 3:29, 2 Cor. 11:2). We must deny the old self and take Christ as our life and our husband so that our new self can bear fruit to God. If our old self is not crucified with Christ then this will likely frustrate our marriage union with the Lord (John 15:2, 6) to the point where we may even lose our enjoyment of Christ as grace (Gal. 5:4, Heb. 12:15, 2 Cor. 6:1).

All the Old Testament types, shadows, and figures were merely placeholders for Christ’s person and work. The reality of everything in the Old Testament is Christ (Col. 2:17). This is why returning to the law and the practices of Judaism make Christ of no value to the believer (Gal. 5:2) while creating an obligation or debt that the believer should keep the whole law (Gal. 5:3).

To pay off our debt of sin the Lord gave his life as a ransom (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45) to purchase (redeem) us from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13, 23). To return to the law is to deny the power of Christ’s death and resurrection to release the believer from the bondage of the law’s demand (Rom. 7:10–11, 24; Rom. 8:1–4). This is to once again return to the status of a slave (Gal. 4:3–9), which is why Paul pleads with the Galatians not to place themselves under the slavery of the law again (Gal. 5:1).

Salvation From Dead Works to Serve the Living God

Heb. 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God.
Heb. 9:14 How much more will the blood of Christ … purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Gen 4:3 And in the course of time Cain brought an offering to Jehovah from the fruit of the ground.
Gen 4:4 And Abel also brought an offering, from the firstlings of his flock, that is, from their fat portions. And Jehovah had regard for Abel and for his offering.
Gen 4:5 But for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. And Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
Psa. 127:1 Unless the Lord builds the house those who build it labor in vain.
1 Cor. 3:13–12 Gold, silver, precious stones … the work of each … is revealed by fire and the fire will prove each one’s work, of what sort it is.
1 Cor. 3:15 If anyone’s work is consumed … yet he himself will be saved … through fire.

Cain did not follow the way of God’s salvation which was demonstrated to Adam and Eve at the time of the fall (Gen. 3:21). The forgiveness of sins requires the shedding of blood prefigured by animal sacrifices in the old testament (Heb. 9:22). Cain continued man’s fall by presumptuously offering the fruit of his own labor to God. His way of worshipping God was to invent a religion according to his human concept and opinion (Jude 1:11), which were motivated by Satan, the subtle one (Gen. 4:7, 1 John 3:12). Throughout the centuries and generations, there have been countless followers of Cain, people in every place and time who have invented their own religion.*

According to Hebrews 11:4, Abel’s offering of an animal sacrifice was offered to God by faith. Faith comes by hearing the word of the gospel (Rom. 10:17, 14). This indicates that Abel’s parents, Adam and Eve, must have proclaimed to their children the glad tidings that God had announced to them (Gen. 3:15, 21). Like his father and mother, Abel believed the gospel and presented his offering to God according to God’s revelation in the word proclaimed by his parents. Thus, the first family on earth was a family of the gospel, a family of believers.*

Abel was the first priest of God, representing all the believers in Christ (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). In type, Abel offered Christ to God. According to Num. 18:17, the firstling of a cow or sheep or goat, a type of Christ, had to be offered to God. Abel’s offering, corresponding exactly with what was later revealed in the Mosaic law, proves that his way of worshipping God was according to God’s divine revelation, not according to his own concept.*

Cain rejected God’s way of taking Christ as God’s righteousness to cover him (Gen. 3:21; Phil. 3:9; 1 Cor. 1:30). Like the religious Jews, he sought to establish his own righteousness, ignoring God’s righteousness and not submitting to it (Rom. 10:3). Thus, his offering was an insult to God, and God rejected it.*

This example clearly demonstrates that dead works are anything man does for God apart from God’s life, God’s nature, God’s will, God’s intention, and God’s preference. Psa. 127:1 makes it absolutely clear that the only one who is authorized to build God’s house is God himself (Heb. 3:3, Heb. 11:10, 16, Matt. 16:18). Furthermore, 1 Cor. 3:10–17 identifies that the only suitable building material is the believer’s experiences of God Himself. These experiences are signified by gold, silver, and precious stone. This section also makes it clear that if all the works of a believer are reduced to ashes the believer themselves can still be saved through fire (1 Pet. 4:12, 1 Pet. 1:7, Job 23:10, Psa. 66:10, 1 Cor. 3:15). This strongly demonstrates how salvation does not depend upon works because if the works themselves are destroyed this in no way disqualifies the believer from inheriting salvation.

Unless the Lord builds the house those who build it labor in vain; and unless the house is built with gold silver and precious stones then that labor will be reduced to ash by the fire of God’s judgment.

This is why the Lord Jesus never spoke his own words, never did his own works, never acted according to his own will, and never labored for his own glory (John 4:34, 5:19, 5:30, 6:38, 12:49, John 6:57, John 8:54, 17:1). The only way we can be saved from dead works is through the hearing of faith (Rom 10:17, Gal. 3:1, 3–4) which joins us to the Lord Jesus in our spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 3:2, 5) so that we can have one life and one living with him.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even our failures

Rom. 5:8–10 But God commends His own love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified in His blood, we will be saved through Him from the wrath. For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled,
Rom. 8:31–34 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, God who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Christ up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died and, rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Heb. 7:16 (Christ) Who has been appointed … according to the power of an indestructible life.
Heb. 7:25 Hence also He is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, since He lives forever (in resurrection) to intercede with God on their behalf.
Rom. 8:35–39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we have been accounted as sheep for slaughter.’’ But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Heb. 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one (household), for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers.
Heb. 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Heb. 10:17 “And their sins and their lawlessnesses I shall by no means remember forever anymore.”

These verses are the best sections that convey the following truths:

Christ died for sinners those who were God’s enemies not for the righteous (Matt. 9:13, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:32).
As enemies, we were reconciled to God on the basis of Christ’s death and resurrection, not on the basis of anything we did (Titus 3:5).
Christ lives forever to intercede for the believers with the goal of saving the believers to the uttermost. Such a salvation is much more than reconciliation (judicial forgiveness of offenses), it is in the sphere of life (2 Pet. 1:3–4; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; Rom. 8:2, 6, 10, 11; Col. 3:3–4; Rom. 6:4–5, Rom. 5:10).
On the basis of Christ’s intercession in resurrection, God must accept Christ’s death as payment for our sins (1 John 2:1–2). Christ’s resurrection from the dead is proof that God has accepted the payment of sins made through the cross (Rom. 4:24–25, 1 Cor. 15:3, 17).
Therefore it is God who justifies with the goal of being joined to the believers in a way where they can never be separated from the love of God (John 10:28–30). God’s goal is oneness with the believers (John 14:17, 20; 15:4; 17:21–23).
Nothing can separate the believers from the love of God, neither death nor life, no man, nor angel, nor failure, nor trespass. Once God has selected a believer to receive salvation nothing can cause God’s free gift of grace to be revoked (Rom. 11:29, Malachi 3:6, Num. 23:19, 2 Tim. 2:13, 1 Thes. 5:24).
As Christ’s brothers and members of His household, we are being perfected and sanctified on the basis of Christ’s offering of Himself on the cross. On the basis of this offering the Lord no longer even remembers our sins once we confess them and apply the blood (1 John 1:7–9).
God approves the believers as righteous based on Christ as their righteousness. The way God justifies a believer is by making Christ Himself their righteousness for their justification (1 Cor. 1:30). Faith in Christ is completed by being baptized into Christ’s person, Christ’s name, Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection, the Body of Christ, and the triune God (Gal. 3:27, Acts 2:38, Rom. 6:3–4, Col. 2:12, 1 Cor. 12:13, Matt. 28:19). The believers’ righteousness before God, therefore, is not a condition or a status that they possess in themselves. Instead, the believer’s righteousness is a person whom they are joined to. The believer’s position is found in Christ Himself. Faith joins the believer to Christ who is the believer’s righteousness (Jer. 23:6, Rom. 3:22, 26; Gal. 2:16). Once joined, nothing can permanently separate a believer from Christ.
Those who receive Christ are approved by God according to Christ as their righteousness. God sees them as righteous, not for what they have done but because they have Christ as their righteousness. Their righteousness before God is perfect because the Christ who is their righteousness is perfect. Their righteousness before God is unchanging because the Christ who is their righteousness is unchanging (Heb. 10:10–17).

James was Wrong

James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
Luke 23:40–43 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Eph. 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

This record of salvation is unique to Luke’s gospel. It displays the effectiveness of the Savior’s death. By this statement, we know that those who truly repent, even if it is in the final moments of their life, will be forgiven by God and will be with Him in paradise after their death.

Since James’s word directly contradicts what the Lord says I think that the only correct conclusion is that James (the Lord Jesus’s little brother) was wrong.

* Footnotes taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible Old Testament. You can get yours in the Google play app store or the Apple app store.

Something else I’ve written:

You therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect

What this means in the context of the entire Bible

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