Proponents of false gospels often like to misquote James 2:24, which says "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." "See?!" They cry. "Clearly salvation requires works, not faith alone!"
There are many problems with this interpretation, not least of which being it would contradict the rest of scripture. Ephesians 2:8-9, for example, famously tells us that salvation is by grace through faith, which is the gift of God, not of works. Romans 11:6 also goes as far as to explicitly define grace as being the opposite of works, stating that if by grace, it is no longer of works, otherwise "grace is no longer grace".
If the entire New Testament teaches that grace and works are opposites, and salvation is by grace through faith, not works, there are only two possibilities:
1. James is not scripture.
2. James is not teaching that salvation requires works on top of faith.
I have absolutely no intention of defending the first possibility. In fact, in my mind, it's not even a possibility. Of course James is scripture. Thus, the only possibility worth defending is that James is not teaching that salvation requires works.
As it happens, James 2 consists of more than one verse, and the scriptures consist of more than just James. I know, shocking, right? It's almost like God wants us to have a deeper understanding of theology than a single verse can convey... This allows us to put the verse back into context.
The first thing to note is that even the very verse we are looking at does not say a man is saved by works, and not by faith only, but that a man is justified by works, and not faith only. That the words "justified" and "saved" mean different things should be evident by the fact that it is actually used of God Himself. Did the tax collectors in Luke 7:29 save God? Evidently not. So already the salvation by faith + works interpretation has been thrown into question.
But as I said, James 2 consists of more than just one verse. By examining the rest of the chapter, we can determine exactly what James means by "a man is justified by works".
Starting at verse 14, we see that James is actually making a very clear distinction between true, saving faith, and dead, worthless faith that cannot save. Verse 18 especially bears this out, as James challenges the reader to show their faith without works, whereas he will show us his faith by his works. Thus, James is not saying salvation is by faith plus works, but that true faith (i.e. the kind that saves) will naturally be accompanied by good works.
James then turns to Abraham as an example. He starts by saying Abraham was justified by offering Isaac on the altar, thus by works, Abraham's faith was made perfect, but he also says that the scripture was fulfilled that says "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness".
This is why I said the scriptures consist of more than just James. Here, James is referring specifically to Genesis 15:6. This is significant, because it takes place before Isaac was even born. In fact, it was the promise of Isaac's birth that Abraham believed, therefore Abraham could not possibly have been justified (yet) by offering Isaac on the altar. And yet, he was considered righteous before God.
But what's more is that Abraham certainly wasn't the living image of Jesus between Genesis 15 and Genesis 22. For example, he lied to Abimelech, king of Gerar, about his relationship with Sarah, claiming she was only his sister, not his wife. The result was that Abimelech tried to take Sarah as his own wife, and Abraham didn't even try to stop him. Abraham also tried to force the promise that his heir would come from his own body by sleeping with Sarah's slave girl, Hagar. This, of course, is not the picture of righteousness. If salvation was by works, either works don't matter that much, or Abraham was doomed. Yet, despite Abraham's poor works, God still declared Abraham righteous.
So what was it that really saved Abraham? Romans 4:21-24 tells us the amazing truth: Because Abraham was fully convinced God was able to perform what He had promised, that was accounted to him for righteousness. And so Paul concludes that righteousness shall also be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. God promised that Christ became sin for us on that cross that we may become His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). If you are fully convinced that Jesus has the power to save you through the cross, as Abraham fully believed God would multiply his descendants through Isaac, God is faithful and true to fulfil that promise.
So, what does James actually mean when he says a man was justified by works? God's reaction to Abraham in Genesis 22:12 should tell us a lot: "...for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." Abraham's works showed his faith. Of course, God knew Abraham's faith was true long before Abraham proved it by works, which is why even before Isaac was born, Abraham's belief was enough for God to credit him with righteousness. However, by offering up Isaac, he proved this faith. In other words, Abraham was justified by works.
This is a major problem with works based gospels. Proponents often misunderstand "saved by faith alone" as "faith can actually be alone". In truth, it will never be alone. We aren't some kind of spiritual anarchists! Rather, we believe that if your faith is genuine, you will be inclined to show as much through your works, and thus your faith will become evident in your life. If, however, you do not act on it, that is evidence that you do not have it. In other words, just because works do not affect your salvation does not mean they are not important. In fact, rather than your salvation being affected by your works, your works are affected by your salvation (e.g. Ephesians 2:10). Part of grace is that you get saved to good works. It is a blessing to be saved not just from the consequences of sin, but from those very sins to begin with. Thus, it is abundantly clear that no Bible verse teaches salvation by faith + works.