“Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?”

Think about Rahab for a minute. She received the spies and gave a confession of faith. Yet, they told her that she would die, if she did not bind the scarlet rope to the window.

What would have happened if she said that she feared the Lord, and then told the soldiers where the messengers were hiding? Her profession of faith would have meant nothing.

What would have happened if she did not let down the scarlet rope to deliver them? She would have died with Christ upon her lips but not in her heart.

This is what James is saying, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also [vs26].”

If my faith doesn’t cause me to live for Christ, then it is not the faith of God’s elect that’s unto godliness. If it produces no zeal, then it is not the faith that Christ died to give us [Titus 2:14]; it is a sham, a preposterous deception of Satan, and it will DO NO GOOD at the Judgment.