Yes. This is evident all throughout the Scriptures, including the book of James.

In James 1, we are told to “be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” If we don’t do these things, we are told that we will not “produce the righteousness that God requires.” Therefore it can be assumed that if we do these things (through our obedience), then we will yield a practical benefit: the righteousness that God requires.

In James 2, James says that Abraham and Rahab were justified by their faith – a faith that was evidenced by their works (acts of obedience). When Abraham believed God and obediently did what He said, and when Rahab obediently hid the messengers, both of them yielded the practical benefits of justification and favor with God.

In James 4, we are told that if we “resist the devil” (an act of obedience), then he will flee from us. If we “humble ourselves before the Lord” (an act of obedience), we are told that we will be exalted by Him. Both of these are practical benefits that we yield when we obey the Lord.

In the text we’ve been discussing, Ephesians 6, it is also very clear there as well. In this text, Paul says that a practical benefit of our obedience is spiritual protection. As we “put on the whole armor of God” (which involves acts of obedience to do this), we yield the following benefits: the ability to “stand against the schemes of the devil,” the ability to “withstand in the evil day,” and the ability to “extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.”

Your Statement: Doesn’t this amount to an equivocating withdrawal into the smug surety of the salvific efficacy of good deeds? I find the strict mutual exclusivity of the dyad “imputed righteousness/self-righteousness” perfectly intelligible, but what it seems to call for is the total relinquishment of any claim to the goodness of human works; one cannot have it both ways: Either righteousness is God’s or righteousness is man’s.

Maybe we’re splitting hairs here. The Scriptures do indeed talk about two kinds of righteousness: the righteousness of God and the righteousness that God requires of man. I agree that all righteousness is from God, but I also understand the Scriptures to say that we must live righteous lives of obedience.

There is the imputed righteousness that we receive when we place our faith and trust in Christ, and then there is a righteousness that we are called to display.

Again, a clear evidence that the Scriptures call upon man to produce righteousness is in James 1:19-20. “Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.” James’ letter was written to belivers (“brothers” 1:2), and it was obvious to him that some of the brothers were not living righteous lives. Their anger was not producing the righteousness the God required of them.

It is the imputed righteousness of God that we receive by grace through faith. This – according to Paul – is not of ourselves; it is of God. Without it, we are lost, unsaved, and unable to bear the fruit of righteousness in our lives. However, once we are saved by grace through faith, then we are called upon to walk in the light not in the darkness (obedience)…to walk in the Spirit and not according to the flesh (obedience). If we do walk in the Spirit, then the Spirit bears in and through us the fruit of righteousness in our lives (Gal. 5:22-23).

Ultimately, this righteousness is God’s righteousness being displayed in and through us, but we do participate in the process. Through our obedience (walking in the Spirit rather than according to the flesh), we enable the righteousness of God to bear fruit in and through us. Are we splitting hairs here?

Your Question: What is the exegetical justification for equating the obedience of James 1 with the righteousness of Ephesians 6?

James is writing believers that used to be under his pastoral care in Jerusalem but who are now scattered all over the place. He is writing to encourage them to stand firm as they “face trials of various kinds.” He spends a lot of time telling them how to live lives of obedience that will produce the righteousness that God requires (1:20). He says that we are to do things like: be slow to anger, receive with meekness the implanted word, be doers of the word, etc. These things enable us to produce the righteousness that God requires.

So, when Paul tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness, James gives us some insight into what this looks like practically.

Great to hear from you! Let me rephrase what I think you’re asking just to make sure I’ve got it right!

I think you’re asking if there is any validity or value to man’s obedience, and you’re basing this question on a belief that says that the works of men are fundamentally impotent. This – I believe – is in response to the part in my post where I say: “The breastplate that we are to put on is made up of the righteousness that we display when we live in obedience to the Lord.”

Am I on the right track? If so, here are some more thoughts on this. If not, please help me better understand what you’re asking!

Even though the Scriptures make it clear that we are crucified with Christ and it is HE (along with His righteousness) that lives in and through us, we’re also told in other passages to “put off” the deeds of unrighteousness and “put on” deeds of righteousness (Eph. 4:24-27).

We also know that the work of sanctification is the work that the Lord does in us, but we also understand that we play a role in it (like when Paul tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling).

Likewise, we know that the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us and that our righteous deeds are like filthy rags to the Lord, yet we also see that we were saved to do righteous works (Eph. 2:10) and we’re called to be holy and blameless in our behavior (Eph. 1:4).

This is – at the very least – ironic (and hard for me to wrap my mind around), but it’s an irony that we must reckon with. I understand what you’re saying, but in light of this irony between God’s imputed righteousness and the call on us to be righteous, I don’t think that the Scriptures support the belief that the works of men are “fundamentally impotent and nothing more.”

So, in regards to your final question: What confidence is there to be placed in obedience of any kind whatsoever? Well, I think the Scriptures make it clear that our obedience does matter. James says that without acts of obedience (without righteous deeds) our faith is dead. Therefore, it seems that our faith in Christ is proven or validated by our obedience. Thus, we should place great confidence in our obedience because it is the evidence that our faith is alive, not dead.

Mike

I’m thinking in particular of Luther’s seventh thesis for the Heidelberg Disputation: “The works of righteous people would be deadly, if they were not feared to be deadly by these righteous people themselves in pious fear of God.” If this is the case, what confidence is there to be placed in obedience of any kind whatsoever?

Matthew Valdiviez