For as the body without the spirit is dead,.... This simile is made use of to illustrate what the apostle had asserted in James 2:17 that as a body, when the spirit or soul is departed from it, or the breath is gone out of it, is dead, and without motion, and useless; which the Jews d express in like manner,
פגר גוף בלא רוח, "the body without the spirit", or "breath, is a carcass".
So faith without works is dead also: a vain thing, useless and unprofitable, can neither justify, nor save, nor prove that a man is justified, or will be saved.
d Ohel. Moed, fol. 15. 1.