As James shows from Scripture the essential presence of works with faith, he turns to two witnesses. His choice of Abraham seems problematic at first glance because Paul also uses Abraham to argue that we are saved by faith alone. So how can we understand both James and Paul on this matter? As MacArthur said, we find they are actually not standing face to face and arguing about this, but rather what we find is that they are standing back to back and facing two different errors in the church.