Did the Apostles Paul and James Contradict?

When Paul talked about salvation by faith alone, and when James said that we are justified by faith plus works, do they contradict? There seems to be a contradiction, and we know that there is no contradiction in the scriptures. I don't hear many sermons on this subject. I know that there is no way that we can earn salvation, or deserve it, or work hard enough for it, only by what Jesus has already done on the cross. It seems that Catholics believe that James is teaching salvation by faith and works, and Protestants teach salvation by Christ alone.
There is no contradiction. Paul says that grace is the manner in which, the currency by which, the energy and means, the vehicle of our salvation. We are saved by God's grace because that's the only way we can be. We are justified by the cross of Christ, because of God's grace, for only such a power and sacrifice can deliver and save us.
When James said that we are justified by our works, he meant that if we are saved by grace then works will follow. We are saved, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, in order to become God's workmanship, so that he can make of us what he desires, so that he can work in us, to produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5). We do not produce God's fruit in our lives by our efforts - only God can produce his fruit in us - so only by being saved first may Jesus, who lives in us once we are saved (Gal. 2:20), produce his work in us, and so we become his workmanship. This is what James was saying. He was saying that if we are truly saved, if we have been saved, then there will be evidence, and that evidence will be "works" - but here's where people often misunderstand. The works that James is talking about are not the works that humans do, but rather the works that God does in and through humans who are already saved. No works of God are produced in someone who has not accepted Jesus Christ. No human effort can produce the fruit of God's Spirit. People may be loving, joyful, peaceful, etc - as humans go, as humans can be those things - but the love, joy and peace of God will not ever be produced on human merit and character alone. Only God can make a tree, and only God can produce a Christian. The "acid proof" that James was not speaking of some kind of justification by works, is found in Romans 4 - where Paul explains that even Abraham, long before the cross, was justified by faith - Abraham was justified, not because he was good but because God was good. The entire chapter - Romans 4, might be a good study for you in this regard - and if you are going to read Romans 4, then take some extra time and do it right, start in Romans 1, and once you finish chapter four, keep going for at least a few more chapters. That should clear this issue up. Paul spends the first half of the Roman epistle stressing that God’s grace alone saves.
The James epistle was the first epistle written probably before 50AD. It was sent to the scattered Jewish brethren who, though Christian, were enmeshed in the legalism of the Mosaic law. Paul’s gospel, as put forth so distinctly in Romans, had not been widely disseminated.
James knew that the works of a Christian were important and he stressed Christian works as proof of salvation. But James just did not fully understand Paul’s revealed concept that people are saved once and forever in their human spirit by faith alone – but that the salvation growth of the soul is an ongoing, day by day, sanctification process by which we allow the works OF GOD to be expressed through us more and more.
No contradiction! Just a difference in emphasis!

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