²⁵In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Finishing out his brief treatise on the practical working out of genuine faith, James now turns to the story of Rahab. Interestingly, Abraham, about whom we just read, was the father of the Jewish nation—the first Jew, so to speak. As James considers it, the truth of justification can also be seen in the story of Rahab, a Gentile, that is, a non-Jew, outside of the covenant promises of God. Just as Paul does in Romans 2–3, God shows that justification is for everyone. Whereas Paul speaks of being justified before God (vertically), James looks at being justified before other people (horizontally). To use Rahab as an example to Jewish readers may have twigged their sensibilities, as they were not too far away from their Jewish roots.

The story of Rahab takes place at the end of the Exodus period after forty years of wandering in the desert, just as God’s people were about to enter the land God promised them (Ex. 2). The first city to be attacked was Jericho, where the prostitute Rahab lived. We find her harboring the spies Israel sent into the city ahead of time, hiding them from those who wanted to flush them out and kill them. The only thing she had to go on, evidently, was trusting the God of the Jews, more than loyalty to her city.

There is nothing in the story about her justification, but her faith in the God of Israel was evident. The writer of Hebrews speaks of her:

By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. (Heb. 11:31)

She acted in faith (see Ex. 2:9–11). James assumes this when he focused on what she did; her actions were sufficient proof that she believed. In this sense, she was justified before people by what she did. Only God could see the inner heart of the woman, and He would have seen that she was justified before Him by her faith alone. But as people on the horizontal plane needed to know she was a true believer, God gives us proof through the story of her actions.

So then, along with saying that faith without its working evidence is useless (James 2:20), James reiterates what he said before (James 2:20), that faith without works is a dead faith; it is no faith, but just a word. Profession of faith accompanied by changed behavior points to a living faith.

Lord, I know my faith is alive. Let others see that aliveness in me.