James 2:8-13
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Intro
Intro
In C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, he tells a really intriguing story that takes place in the afterlife. Lewis isn’t trying to be strictly theological in this book and he’s not making any claims of what life after death will actually be like, but he takes us on a journey and introduces us to many characters that really help us to learn a lot about ourselves.
There are several characters who have stood out to me the couple of times I have read this book, but one of them popped into my head while I have been studying this passage in James.
In this book, there are two kinds of people. There are these ghostly translucent and colorless characters who live in a dreadful gray town, everyone avoiding one another and sulking in their own little corners of the hopeless expanse. Then, there are these “solid” characters who live in a beautiful land up above the gray town.
The book plays out telling the story of a group of these ghostly characters taking a field trip up to the beautiful land, and as one of these people comes into contact with one of the solid people, he begins an annoying conversation that escalates very quickly.
At first he is annoyed because he knows some of the solid people, and he knew for a fact that they did not earn a spot in this beautiful land. His annoyance turned to anger as he demanded that he be given a spot in this land.
The crazy part is that he is actually offered exactly that- but he must first repent. This only threw the man into a further rage, as he stormed off back towards the gray town yelling “I want my rights! I want my rights!” Ironically, he didn’t realize that the grow town was exactly what was owed to him.
This was a man that was so consumed by himself and his own delusion of self-righteousness that he was never able to see or appreciate the joy that was passing him by. He was doomed to an eternity of misery and loneliness because he couldn’t let go of his own manufactured “goodness,” refusing the beautiful land if sinners like those solid people were allowed in.
We Are Convicted as Transgressors of the Royal Law
We Are Convicted as Transgressors of the Royal Law
We often think ourselves innocent in the Royal Law
We often think ourselves innocent in the Royal Law
State: James 2:8
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
These believers who have been scattered in the Dispersion have experienced quite a change of scenery. As has been covered over the last several weeks, we know that James is writing to a people who likely mostly have a religious background in Judaism. These were all people who were well versed in what James calls the “Royal Law” that is found in the Old Testament, but that we find summarized in the Ten Commandments, and that we find summarized even further in simply the phrase “loving your neighbor as yourself.”
Boiling down the Royal Law to that phrase, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” is a beautiful thing because it really captures the heart of what the law is all about; love. But when doing this, I think the enemy begins to whisper in our ears, and we must be careful to resist his lies.
There were doubtless some amongst the people James was writing to who truly believed they were fulfilling the Royal Law, and that by doing so they were earning for themselves the rank of “child of God” in the midst of a broken and sinful world.
They would look around at all the hateful sin the world was producing around them in their dispersion, and in comparison, they began to be tempted to think that they were truly good people deserving of the Kingdom of God. They were disgusted with the pagans, the non-believers, the criminals, the drunks, and they began to elevate themselves by comparing themselves to those who were “truly” unworthy of God.
Compared to these sinners, they thought themselves the very definition of love. Compared to these disgusting pagans, they thought themselves as really fulfilling the royal law, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” After all, they didn’t murder like the criminals. They didn’t commit adultery like the pagans who worshiped the fertility goddesses with those promiscuous priestesses in those ungodly temples.
Illustrate: This is a thing that comes naturally to us as humans. I’ll give you an example: it happens every year in college football. You play the first three games of the season against teams that have no business being on the same field as you. Universities like Michigan will literally pay millions just to get some no-name football team to come and play them, and get killed by 50 points. The whole fanbase walks away thinking we’re gonna make a run for the national championship this year. It happened last year to the University of Michigan, and we even won the conference championship, but all you Michigan fans will remember what happened when we met with the big boys, with Georgia. Or maybe you’ve blocked those painful memories out of your mind. I don’t blame you, I did too.
The point is, we love to compare ourselves to those that we already know are worse than us. It makes us feel powerful, deserving of praise and honor. We hate to compare ourselves to those who we know are better than us, because we hate to be put in our place.
Apply: We do this ourselves all the time. We pick and choose what standards we will use to evaluate ourselves, and those standards always benefit us. Our performance reviews are only concerned with our strengths, but conveniently forget about the areas where we are miserably failing.
Unfortunately, those of you who have received performance reviews from a boss at work know that this isn’t how performance reviews actually work. The whole body of work must be evaluated, the good along with the bad.
When we do that, we will come to a scary realization about ourselves and the Royal Law, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” which is the same realization that James was helping those dispersed believers to come to.
By failing even one point of it, we are convicted of all of it
By failing even one point of it, we are convicted of all of it
State: James 2:8-11
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
James exposes one of our favorite cop-outs to our culpability when it comes to the law. It seems that at the time, there had snuck into the religious mindset of the Jews this idea that righteousness was something that was attainable by effort, and that in fact effort was the only way to attain it. And it makes sense why they would think that; there was a large emphasis on righteousness and living according to the law in the Old Testament. God clearly demanded obedience, and so the people went to great lengths to show the people around them that they were obedient and righteous according to the law.
But in the effort to appear righteous, they couldn’t judge themselves by the whole law. It became standard practice to believe that as long as you kept most of the law, and especially those parts that the culture looked down upon, then you would be considered righteous according to the law of God.
Now James shows that this is absurd, and that while it may fool man that looks on outward appearance, it does not fool God who looks upon the heart. The way the law works is very simple: if you obey it, you are seen as righteous under it. If you break it, and I mean any of it, you are a criminal and will be convicted as such.
James shows clearly that if you commit murder but remain faithful to your wife, you’re still a criminal. In the same way, just because the believers in the dispersion are guilty of breaking the law even by showing partiality, even if they don’t commit murder. While we may rightfully view some sins as worse than others, every sin is a transgression of God’s law and will be punished as such.
Illustrate: For these people to claim to be righteous under the law is like this: its someone who is guilty of committing murder pleading that they shouldn’t go to jail because they’ve never stolen anything.
To bring it a little closer to home, its like when I tell my three year old to
Kids listening to one thing but disobeying all the others
Apply: We do exactly the same thing that James is accusing these dispersed believers of. Everyone wants to think they’re a good person, and many of us would claim that title for ourselves either out loud or internally. Nobody likes to think of themselves as bad, evil, guilty, or convicted.
But when we compare ourselves to this royal law, and recognize that to fail at even one point of it brings judgement, which one of us can stand? How many of us could read through the ten commandments and find ourselves innocent of even one of them?
You may try to wriggle past the first couple by claiming you’ve never been a pagan, and we don’t even want to think about what it may look like to break the commandment about the Sabbath or coveting and you may start to look at some of the “big ones” like murder and think yourself innocent, but don’t sprint through these too quickly. Do you remember what Jesus said concerning the interpretation of these laws?
IF you say you haven’t committed murder, but you’ve hated a brother in your heart, then you are in fact guilty of murder
If you haven’t committed adultery, but have lusted in your heart after another, then you are in fact guilty of adultery.
We live in a culture that has been ravaged by social media. We have all turned on one another, and all it takes for us to hate each other anymore is a different political opinion or a rival fandom. We hate one another in our free time now, and the social media algorithms are luring you into that. There are people who are made in the image of God that we spew hateful venom at simply because we disagree with them about the president, a political ideology, or because they rubbed us the wrong way.
We live in a culture that has been ravaged by pornography and over-sexualization of people. Its not even just on the dedicated sites anymore, but youtube and twitter and instagram are pushing it in front of our eyes. We don’t even have to go looking for it anymore, but we do. And this has led to us viewing people we should be looking at as our brothers and sisters as mere objects for our pleasure.
More than that, my generation and younger has been growing up in a world that tells them to be defined by their sexual preferences, and thinks that exploring that ought to be a normal part of growing up.
This is the world we live in, this is the culture we all contribute to, and would any one of us dare to stand under the judgement of the Royal Law of God? You’ve not gone out and committed physical murder; congratulations. You won’t be receiving any accolades from the just Judge who sees all and knows all that is in your heart.
It is clear that not only the dispersed believers, but we ourselves and everyone on Earth is guilty concerning the Royal Law.
The punishment for all of it is death
The punishment for all of it is death
State:
Illustrate:
Apply:
In Christ, We Will Be Judged By the Law of Liberty
In Christ, We Will Be Judged By the Law of Liberty
Law of Liberty defined by Christ’s Atonement
Law of Liberty defined by Christ’s Atonement
State: James 2:12-13
So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
This is a very quick transition that begs for some explanation. Terms like “Royal Law” and “Law of Liberty” may seem to just be thrown around here quickly, but James is only able to be so concise here because these terms are loaded with theological and practical significance.
While a line like this discussing the Law of Liberty might be easy for us to pass up, we can’t miss what James is saying here. To a modern audience, James might have said, “so speak and so act as someone who is to be judged under the gospel.” In a book that has received so much criticism for being so light on grace, here James makes a direct connection from our sinful disobedience to God’s awesome mercy.
As we look closer at that phrase, “law of liberty,” we will recognize that liberty is connected to what Christ has done for his people. The word we have translated as liberty carries with it connotations of redemption, freedom, and being set free from an oppressor.
And this is James helping the people return to a proper understanding of the law and righteousness. We sometimes have a tendency to think that the people in the Old Testament always thought of themselves as self-righteous and were saved by their own works, and while this was certainly true of some, it was never what God intended his people to believe and it wasn’t true of all Old Testament Jews.
For example, David says
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
This ancient hope is what James is setting in front of the people, only he has the benefit of being a servant of the Lord Jesus, the savior who would cover our sins himself.
When the apostle Peter wrote to the believers in the dispersion in 1 Peter, in verses 17-19 he hits on this same idea when he says
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
For us to live like those who will be judged by the law of liberty is for us to live as those who have been liberated from the law’s demands for perfection.
To live as those who are under the law of liberty is to live as one who has been redeemed from lawlessness by the the blood of Christ.
We are to live as though Christ has fulfilled the law’s demands, because he has done that for all who believe in him.
Illustrate: To be judged by the law of liberty is like this; it is like a person who may have led a mostly law-abiding life, but has been found guilty of murder. It is a ridiculous effort to attempt to plead innocence because you’ve been good in every other way, but imagine that another person comes to the judge and confesses that they were the ones who did it.
Lets just be clear, in this scenario the person initially accused is guilty of the crime, and they are facing down a serious sentence, but here comes a champion that is going to bear the burden of your guilt, allowing you to walk a free man or woman.
Apply: This is what Christ has done for us. We stand under the law of God as condemned, guilty of breaking the Royal Law. And yet we have been liberated, set free, and we no longer await judgement but hope for adoption as sons and daughters in God’s kingdom.
Christ has liberated us from judgement, not by asking God to ignore our crimes, but by bearing them and their punishments himself.
As a result, everyone who has faith in Christ is completely innocent as regards the law.
That is what it means to be judged by the law of liberty; it is to be washed clean by the blood of Christ and to be presented before the Father as truly innocent of any wrongdoing.
Law of Liberty Frees us to Obey
Law of Liberty Frees us to Obey
State: But what does it mean to “so speak and so act” as one who is to be judged by the law of liberty? In other words, James is telling us that our lives should be flowing out of this reality; but what does that look like?
It’s a life that is predicated on Mercy.
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
James is calling the dispersed believers to live mercy-filled lives in their dispersion. He reminds them that if they look out at the world around them and make a habit of playing the comparison game, they may begin to feel self-righteous, but not in the eyes of God.
Rather, if they are to live appropriately as Christians in their dispersion, it begins with remembering the great mercy God has shown to them and continues to show them every day.
And as they recall the mercies of God which are new each morning for them, they are to then show that same mercy to everyone around them. Whether it be fellow Christians, pagan outsiders, or oppressive governors; the life of a Christian is to be a life full of mercy that reflects their relationship with God.
They aren’t meant to go and be good people so that they can brag about their goodness before God and man, but they are meant to go and be good to people because they serve a good God who has loved them and shown them goodness.
They are meant to live lives that fully believe the fact that mercy triumphs over judgement.
Illustrate:
Apply: I want you to see what this perspective shift does to you. If you live your life trying to be a good person out of fear of punishment, you will never be able to achieve what you’re looking for. If we as Christians decide to live like we need to be perfect or else face the judgement of God, we will only ever be able to live selfish lives.
Here is what I mean: even in the hypothetical scenario where we actually start to obey the law of God, but we only do it to receive a reward for ourselves, then even our good works have become tainted with a desire for selfish gain. We will naturally fail to show mercy to those who don’t deserve it, and our selfishness will show itself.
But when we realize that the mercy of Christ has freed us from our need to perfectly satisfy the law, it is then that we are truly free to follow the law of liberty that loves your neighbor as yourself. The motivation is no longer fear of punishment, but love of God and neighbor. The question is no longer if you’re doing everything exactly the way you are supposed to, but whether or not you are doing it because you love the person.
When you serve in the nursery, it isn’t because you’re scared of what people might think of you if you didnt, but because you love the kids and families of this church.
When you help your neighbor with the trash cans, it isn’t to get on God’s good side, but because you care about that person who is created in God’s image.
When you decide to serve in any capacity, you can remove yourself from the equation completely; whether you are in good standing with God or not as a result. Jesus has freed you from those considerations so that you can simply live a life of loving service to others. No strings attached, no ulterior motives, but simply love.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Christian, you have been freed from the demands of the law and from your sin. If you believe in Christ and truly trust him, he has already fulfilled the law on your behalf. There is nothing left to accomplish, nothing left to prove. You are free, and free indeed, but, as the Apostle Paul said, don’t use that freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but in love serve one another.