How are Romans 3:24 and James 2:17 reconciled? I mean. I want to put my faith in Jesus, and I try to make myself believe that he is my Savior.. But I find myself putting more faith in "My" actions instead of his. And according to these two scriptures, I don't know which way to turn. If this is a question for a pastor or a preacher, I apologize for the inconvenience. I'm just looking everywhere an anywhere for clarification.

Romans 3:24 NIV:


  and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.


James 2:17 NIV:


  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
In the passage in Romans, Paul has just finished condemning the whole world through their sin, and shows us that by the law, by following rules, no one can be made righteous before God (Rom. 3:20). But now by God's graciousness, He has prepared a way for us to be saved from our unrighteous state through faith alone in Jesus (Rom. 3:21, 24), apart from good deeds. Paul is noting the fact that our entrance into salvation is by faith alone. 

But James is addressing our state after we have received God's salvation. The tendency of many Christians is to say, "Well, I'm saved and going to heaven," and forget that God is looking for fruit from that salvation, which is a relationship with God of trust and obedience. For instance, a wife would be frustrated if her new husband never has anything to do with her other than to say, "Well, I'm married now." No -- that's the time to learn to love his wife and do good for her. 

In the same way, faith is dead if there are no steps of relating to God, of obeying Him, appreciating Him, wanting to submit to His wisdom, wanting to learn more about Him and wanting to imitate Him. Again, all this is after salvation by faith alone. 

To put it practically, we, as unbelievers, realize that we have sinned and are due for an awful judgment before God. So we come to Christ by faith, submitting to him, since we can "do" nothing to save ourselves. Now, on the other side of salvation, we prove our faith by dealing with sin, cutting them off as the Spirit shows them to us. After all, if we believe that Jesus died for our sins, then it makes sense to renounce those sins and learn to live a holy life. These are the works James is advocating (as is Paul when he wrote us to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling" in Philippians 2:12).