[piasa]

There is a difference between a man SAYING he has faith and a man actually having it. A man who has faith does good works, but not in order to gain favor or earn salvation. A man who thinks by doing good works that he somehow completes the work that Christ already accomplished thinks that way because his faith is weak.

[ebb tide]

That’s not what James says.

Nice try.

[boatbums]

Thank you. That's EXACTLY what James is teaching and the way we know that is because the same Holy Spirit inspired him to write that as led Paul to write:

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life. (Ephesians 2:8-10)