In James 2:24, James is not using the word "justified" here to mean "accounted as righteous" but is 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). *I properly harmonize scripture with scripture before reaching my conclusion on doctrine.*
In the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the Greek word for justified "dikaioo" #1344 is:
1. to render righteous or such he ought to be
2. to show, exhibit, evidence, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered
3. to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible was compiled by James Strong—an ardent Methodist who was a staunch opponent to the doctrines of once saved always saved and who believed and taught that a man is justified (vindicated) by works and not by faith alone. The work on his concordance, along with the Greek and Hebrew Dictionaries in the back, was completed in 1890. By the early 1900’s, the new studies in the lexicography of Koine Greek had become so great in number and significance that Erwin Preuschen published his Greek-German lexicon in 1910. Upon his death in 1920, the revision of his lexicon was entrusted to Walter Bauer and this revision was published in 1928 as the second edition. In 1930, James Hope Mouton and George Milligan independently published
The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament. A thoroughly revised edition of the Preuschen lexicon was published in 1937 with only Bauer’s name on the title page. Bauer realized, however, that his lexicon, although a huge improvement over Thayer’s in terms of accuracy and completeness, needed to be thoroughly revised and updated and therefore undertook a thorough search of all Greek literature down to the Byzantine times to determine more precisely the meaning of the words found in the New Testament. This resulted in the publication of the monumental work,
Griechisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der übrigen urchristlichen Literatur in 1949-1952. An English translation (by William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich) of this lexicon was published by the University of Chicago in 1957 with the title,
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature and became widely known as the “Bauer, Arndt, and Gingrich Lexicon.” A second edition was published by the University of Chicago in 1979. A thorough revision by Frederick William Danker was published by the University of Chicago in 2000. It is very commonly referred to simply as the “BDAG” and this name appears on the title page in parenthesis below the full title.
Strong’s usage #2 above for the Greek verb δικαιόω is found only twice in the New Testament—in Romans 3:4 and 1 Tim. 3:16. The BDAG includes all four usages for δικαιόω that are found in the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature:
1. “to take up a legal cause, show justice, do justice, take up a cause.” This usage is not found in the New Testament, but is rarely found in other early Christian literature.
2. “to render a favorable verdict,
vindicate” (Strong’s #3)
3. “to cause someone to be released from personal or institutional claims that are no longer to be considered pertinent or valid,
make free/pure” (Strong’s #1)
4. “to demonstrate to be morally right,
prove to be right” (Strong’s #2)