In James 2:21, we notice that James does not say that Abraham's work of offering up Isaac resulted in God accounting Abraham as righteous. The accounting of Abraham's faith as righteousness was made in Genesis 15:6, many years before his work of offering up Isaac recorded in Genesis 22. The work of Abraham did not have some kind of intrinsic merit to account him as righteous, but it showed or manifested the genuineness of his faith. That is the "sense" in which Abraham was "justified by works." He was shown to be righteous.
James is discussing the evidence of faith (says-claims to have faith but has no works/I will show you my faith by my works - James 2:14-18) and not the initial act of being accounted as righteous with God. (Romans 4:2-3)
Exactly.
As I've already explained here twice, the whole thing with Abram/Abraham pertained to his "seed, which is Christ" (Gal. 3:16).
Abram's/Abraham's initial "belief" or faith in Christ was accounted unto him for righteousness.
However, Abraham's "belief" wasn't tested until the time came that God told him to sacrifice Isaac, his son through whose lineage or descendancy Christ was to come.
Sad to say, in the minds of some people here, Abram/Abraham would have been lost if he had died before the whole testing thing with Isaac took place because, in their completely distorted beliefs, Abraham wasn't truly righteous up until then.
It's utter nonsense, but people will believe what they want to believe.
Anyhow, what James was basically saying was that our actions need to line up with that which we profess to believe in.
I heard the following story from a woman many years ago, and it might help to illustrate what I'm saying.
This woman was a 6th grade Sunday school teacher at a church in NYC that had metal bars on the outside of the windows in the classrooms (if you've ever been to NYC, then you would understand why).
Her teaching assignment that day was this verse:
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. " (Acts 1:8)
She told her students that the underlying Greek word which is here translated as "power" is "dynamis", from which we get our English word "dynamite", and then she proceeded to pull what looked like a stick of dynamite out of her pocketbook (it was actually a roadside flare with a fuse attached to it).
She also produced a lighter, and she proceeded to move the flame from the lighter ever closer to what her students thought was truly a stick of dynamite, and their eyes widened with fear as she did so.
She then lit the fuse, while pretending it was accidental, and, in feigned horror, she gave what appeared to be the stick of dynamite to her co-worker, and told him to throw it out the window.
Well, seeing how the windows all had metal bars on the outside of them, the "dynamite" bounced off of the same, and landed on the floor of the classroom.
Her students' reactions?
They literally ran for their lives, and nearly trampled each other as they fled down the hallway.
When they were finally retrieved and brought back to classroom, the teacher told and asked them the following.
She said:
You ran for your lives because you BELIEVED that this was truly a stick of dynamite.
Now, let me ask you a question:
Do you truly BELIEVE in Jesus?
Her point, in my estimation, is the same point that James was seeking to make, namely this:
If we truly believe in something or someone, then our corresponding actions ought to align themselves with that or whom we profess to believe in.
It's really that simple, but some will never see or get it.