The Epistle of James - 2007/01/04 22:56“Jesse” James [Maybe not such a cowboy after all]
Hey there Paul, how are you today?
I was wondering if you could help me out with understanding James? It seem that Paul teaches a different message than James; as a matter of fact, it looks like a completely different gospel. Paul is all grace, James seems to be mostly works. Why? What am I missing here? I can't believe there are contradictions in the book, it's got to be my lack of insight. I pour over the book time after time looking for a key to understand. Do you think you can clear this up for me? I'd appreciate it greatly. your friend, Billy
Hi James, Paul Franklin passed your query onto to me I suspect because he knows that I am quite fond of old James, although I don’t mind telling you that he gave me a few sleepless nights early on. Poor old James gets it in the neck from the Exchange Lifers and ever likely when one considers that the early adopters had great difficulty even getting the epistle accepted into the canon of Scripture. Old Luther couldn’t make head nor tail of it and gave it up as a bad job tossing into the river with the exasperated conclusion that it was an “epistle of straw.” So you’re in illustrious company my friend.
Seems to me that the epistle is the proverbial bag of cement and bucket of water; stir with the long arm of the law and you make yourself one giant millstone and stumbling block. On the other hand mix with the water of grace and you get yourself a stepping stone.
So what’s up with James? Well for what it’s worth here’s my take on it:
Given that James has already signed-off on Paul’s gospel at the Council of Jerusalem [Acts 15] which he presided over he can hardly deselect himself from it without letting us know. The findings of the Council were pretty unequivocal: You’ll remember that the reason for the Council was that “certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." [Acts 15:1] and this was the verdict that James delivered on behalf of the Jerusalem 12. “Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood.” Acts 15:19 I think that if James had a contrary view to that then the Council would have been a good time to bring it up.
It seems to me that the key to unlocking James it seems to me is to see that whilst both Paul & James call Abraham as their expert witnesses they are prosecuting very different points. They are not relying upon his evidence to counter one another.
Paul: Sites him to prove that Justification is by faith alone James: Sites him to query whether his audience are justified in calling what they’re doing faith
So Paul wants to say that Abraham was credited as being righteous by faith[Gen 15]. James on the other hand wants to say that Abraham evidenced his faith by works. [Gen 22].
But the real sticking point is this Faith without works business but here’s the thing, if you read it with a conversational intonation then it sheds a bit more light on what’s going on:
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?”
It seems to me that James is saying well now here you are boasting about your faith – well then let’s see it! You’re bragging that your men of faith [probably citing Abraham and saying that they are after all his descendants – seem to remember a group of Pharisees coming unglued with Jesus [Jn 8:44] about the ancestral links to the great man. Anyway, you’re bragging so where’s the evidence? What have you got? Can faith save you? [Agh no James Jesus saves you doesn’t he- Oh yes and works can’t save you can they James?]
What’s going on here is a stinging rebuke to the faith in faith brigade. They are boasting about their faith in their faith so to speak. So James lets them have it right between the eyes: James knows what Paul knows which is what the OT prophets taught and he goes right ahead and nails em with it
“Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by HIS faith.” Habakkuk 2:4
James is unhappy because their boast is vacuous and it is their saying that they have faith that has drawn his fire. Now he’s on a roll and does his version of Isaiah’s is this the fast I asked for speech [the poor darlings must have been feeling like Job cringing under the weight of God’s monologue from the Lord that runs from chap 38 – its one heck of a speech] Alright then lets get down to cases James says:
15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. And that helped HOW? So much for your faith !
Then comes the rhetorical argument – this a device favoured by Paul also ..
18 But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Incidentally that’s a long way from Gal 2:20 all that is saying is that they are monotheistic; which is true of Jews, Muslims and Christians and according to James … Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? 21 So put up or shut up [My translation]
Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 2
The Young’s Literal is quite helpful here: “Abraham our father -- was not he declared righteous out of works, having brought up Isaac his son upon the altar? dost thou see that the faith was working with his works, and out of the works the faith was perfected? Well as we have already shown his faith was already established prior to that event. Here’s an interesting question: Would he still have been the father of faith had he not offered up his son? Ummmm How d’you like YES as an answer to that? After all he was the father of faith when he let Sarah go off into slavery wasn’t he?
2 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
I think that the best that James can hope for here is that Abraham proved to himself that he trusted God – God already knew that! It’s a bit like God saying “Adam where are you? “ It wasn’t that God had misplaced Adam it was that Adam had lost God
Okay curve ball time ….. We are not saved by faith – we are RECONCILED by it [Roms 5:11] according to Paul we are saved by His life. Now without getting bogged down in theologising no one can produce righteous works – that is strictly a cause and effect deal. Righteousness is Christ reproducing His life in and thro ours. [Phil 2:13] I think that this is James’ point. Faith is overrated, what counts is Christ living His life by His faith in Himself through us as Himself
Meanwhile back at St Shawshank’s just as the religious folk are rushing to crown him king James turns around and disgraces himself or rather graces himself watch this ….
25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead
Agh James you gotta be kidding Rahab exercised her faith by lying – that’s bad isn’t Well see there you are maybe James isn’t such a cowboy after all
Hope that helps brotherPaul Anderosn-Walsh
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I hope my questions and comments are not boring you .
Like i said in the e-mail i think that sharing toughts is a good way to find the real meaning of the gospel and the grace.
I have a particular view of grace wich i am trying to show in this forum, wich is based on several verses of the new testament (most of them i still didn't post and not even in this post).
I think that the book of james and any book of Paul have no contradiction at all. I think that Paul enphasizes a lot beeing dead to sin and leting Christ live in you, wich means showing fruits (paul says that quite some times...).
I think that's the new covenant wich was prfecized by Jeremiah:
Jer 31:33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
This same verse is repested a few times in the new testment, for example hebrews in literal quotes:
Hbr 8:10 For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Hbr 10:16 This [is] the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
And also romans when paul says:
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
The big question is how is it possible? For me the anwer is the whole book of romans, and that's what paul keeps trying to teach there and in galatians! That trough faith we can die with Christ and ressurect with him to a new life (romans chap. 6).
And that no sacrifice or phisical circuncision can achieve but only faith in the sacrifice and a genuine confession of the lordhood of Jesus over our lifes, wich produces a "new birth" with the Holy Ghost coming to live inside of us (this aspect of lordhood is quite interesting if we analyze the historical context... many Christians were sent to feed the lions because of confessing it)
Then we can understand what Paul says in Galatians 5:6, and how the faith works trough love:
Gal 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
And this verse I think that connects both books and make them perfectly coexist, and reassures me that the biblical doctrine is extremely coerent (and why The Holy Ghost did not let Luther remove James from the bible even tough he did not liked it and had power to remove it).
I think if you mix both ideas/verses (from james and Galatians)you would get:
Faith without love is Nekros (death)!
I think this is the sintesis of the new covenant! And what jeremiah has profetized: that his comandments would be writen in our hearts, and the comandments are:
Love God above all things and the next like yourself.
And having this we will be ressurected with Christ like paul says in the chapter 6 of romans, and we will not fullfill the desires of our flesh. This is also the spirit of grace wich the book of hebrews says so many times: that we can die to formal obligations/laws to have one spiritual one, wich is love!
Well Dear Pastor Paul, this is my view of the gospel!
In the precious Sacrifice of our Lord,
Thiago
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Well let’s start with the Good News; you’ll not need your tin hat on in order to read this post. I can see where you’re headed. It was the same direction that I set off in pre-union. It is all a question of degrees off separation between Christ and man the moment that you introduce one degree you have missed the point and are on the treadmill of religion.
Let me ask you to reflect on the following:
Romans 7:22 which you site is a good jumping-off point. What [or more to the point WHO] is your inward man? ….Hold on don’t leap to an answer without connecting it to your how is it possible question.
Turn this one over in you mind for a bit …
Q: What is a Christian? Q: What is the difference between PROFESSING Christ and POSSESSING Him?
As I see it, He [Jesus] shared in my life and died my death in order that I would die with him and being raised with Him share his life. That is the mystery of the Gospel and there are the three words that unlock it for you “No longer I.” That’s it QED. Jesus is and always will be the cause of his own effect. We are the temples, the vessels the branches etc expressing His life in and through us. A Christian is simply a container and conduit of Christ.Paul Anderosn-Walsh
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I think my english is not helping me right now, cause I could not get the point of some of the expressions you used. So I apologize if I missinterpret you (And I bet I might do it)
Anyway I will try to reply based on what I could understand, hope you don't get offended if I misinterpret you.
(This text is some kind of continuation of the other response based on Romans 8)
Q: What is a Christian?
I think labels are given by the listeners and the first time it is used in the primitive church in acts 11:26, probably because they were talking about Christ to the gentiles there. It's something like the nazarines, the ones from "the way", and some other names we find in the bible. The same thing happened to Jesus when he asked the apostles who people tought he was.
There's a commom sense amongst teologicians that christians means "litle christs", but someone told me that this is a bad translation of greek, but I can't confirm ou refute it, cause I couldn't find any reference to that discussion.
The best definition I could find was this one:
"Christian, from the Greek Christianos, was originally a term used by unbelievers to describe the followers of Jesus Christ as slaves (i.e. the suffix ianos was popularly used to specify the slaves of the one whose name with which it was compounded i.e. Christianos meant slaves of Christ)"
Q: What is the difference between PROFESSING Christ and POSSESSING Him?
Well I am not sure what you mean about possessing Jesus, but professing we can again find the answer in romans:
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
This is something really interesting and very deep, the simple fact of confessing the Lord Jesus, or Jesus as your Lord, implied of being sent to feed the lions.
That's because declaring someone your Lord other then Caesar was absurd by the romans, and a big crime. Lord means not just a noble title, but the position of someone comanding the life of another. That's why christians were considered a treat to the roman empire, because they could chalenge the autority of the Ceaser.
So I think this idea completes what I have posted in the reply to the other topic, using romans 8, wich means that we are now going after the spirit, and not the flesh. That now we have one lord, Jesus, and we are no longer serving sin, but the law of the spirit.
As I see it, He [Jesus] shared in my life and died my death in order that I would die with him and being raised with Him share his life. That is the mystery of the Gospel and there are the three words that unlock it for you “No longer I.” That’s it QED. Jesus is and always will be the cause of his own effect. We are the temples, the vessels the branches etc expressing His life in and through us. A Christian is simply a container and conduit of Christ.
Well I see it the same way, we are vessels, temples to the Holy Ghost to duel in us, but there's something else here missing in order for us to be conduits, in my opinion.
And what I think is missing here is galatians 5, and romans almost all the entire book. I will use something that may complete may idea posted in the romans 8 response:
Rom 2:29 But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.
First it's nice to notice the inward expression wich is very close to the one of the inward man of romans 7:22.
Second what is missing is that to achieve the point of being trueh conduits of God we have to circuncidate our hearts, in the spirit. (there's here a big explanation about how the phisical circunciosion is taking out some flesh that made contact with the receipt (the female orgam in order to produce LIFE), and how it afected the seed - remember that the Word is the the seed, like the parabole Jesus gave...)
This is what Ap. Paul says in romans 8, wich I already explained, and refers to the fact that we no longer live after the flash but after the spirit.
So in order to achieve that circuncision the Ap. Paul explains in galatians 5:
Gal 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Gal 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Gal 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Gal 5:16 ¶ [This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
This last verse i think defines the circuncision of heart, and has an intrinsecly correlation with romans chap 8.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Gal 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Now we can also see very clearly how both things fight inside of us and how the flesh milits against the spirit. The spirit is what I consider the inner man, the place wich has been revived and why this new testament can efectvly remove sins.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
So for us to be crucified (to die with Christ) we have to crucify the flesh, or circuncidate the heart.
Well I hope it makes sense reading it with the other response, and i apologize again if i misundertood you Pr. Paul.
In the Aghape of Christ,
Thiago
Post edited by: Thiago Souza, at: 2007/01/09 00:15
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Okay, I am confused [and probably confusing too] I have read your post on Romans 8 and I don’t get it? Why is everyone in the Christian world running around the place telling people that God’s gonna kill us all if we don’t sort ourselves out when in fact he killed Jesus precisely because we couldn’t sort ourselves out?
I note that you’ve been caught on the barbed wire of the King James a truly unfortunate mishap for the honest seeker hoping to listen to the rhapsody of assurance that is Romans 8 rather the dirge of uncertainty that is the bastardised version offered by KJV where the beloved thinks that God loves him unconditionally if…… So let me just tidy that up real quickly: For reasons best known to the translators of the KJV they choose not only to concertina verses 1& 4 but oddly state the verse twice. Umm what’s all that about:
Roms 8:1-4 KJV
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,*. who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Now it’s an odd thing because the KJV writers make what turns out to be a unilateral decision on this one. I men they are out there on their own. Let’s have a look how some of the other major translations quote the verses:
Roms 8:1-4 NIV
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
New Revised Standard
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit
New American Standard
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Young’s Literal
1 There is, then, now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit; 2 for the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus did set me free from the law of the sin and of the death; 3 for what the law was not able to do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, His own Son having sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, did condemn the sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Well now Thiago I think it is fair to say that these translations may at least cast a shadow of doubt over that particular conditional clause favoured by the venerable KJV. That there is no condemnation remains the axiom and cannot nor must not depend upon law observance for were it to be so then salvation would by definition be law and not grace based. So you see the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us …. Because as per your Jeremiah quotation, Ezekiel et al, the whole point is that all along the Law was a prophecy not a threat “Thou shalt not x, y or z” …. Not or ELSE but because … because Christ who is God in man, the fulfiller of the Law is living inside of you too and if any man be in Christ behold he is a new creation etc etc.
Now that brings me to what is your better point; one that you’ve shrewdly observed; namely that there are in fact two laws circumscribed in Roms 8:2 viz:
[1] The law of sin and death & [2] The law of the Spirit of life.
Now that’s absolutely central. Why because it is saying in effect that there is a law which lets say gravity and gravity drags everything back down to the ground // to their knees in repentance bound by sin and death. Ah you say that law can be overridden – How so? By aero-dynamics of course or let’s say that I had a balloon and let go of it – that would not be pulled back to earth by gravity, it would soar into the heavenly realm. Quite so, and that is the apostle’s point. We have been set free from the gravitational pull of sin by the law of the Spirit and life and so filled with Him we soar. Now this is not if we walk by the Spirit but because we walk in the Spirit. You’re right to site Gal 5:18 [see my articles listed below which you can download from the site to see my position on Gal 5 you definitely need to read those if you want to understand our position]
Monday, 26 June 2006 The Apostle Paul’s View of Freedom Agape Paradigm Chapter 10
Paul Anderson-Walsh Monday, 26 June 2006 Other-Centred Living Agape Paradigm Chapter 9 Paul Anderson-Walsh Monday, 26 June 2006 Other-Centred Living Agape Paradigm Chapter 8 Paul Anderson-Walsh Monday, 26 June 2006 Walking in Rhythm Agape Paradigm Chapter 7 Paul Anderson-Walsh Monday, 26 June 2006 A Viable Pattern of Living or A New Life Living Viably Agape Paradigm Chapter 6 Paul Anderson-Walsh Monday, 26 June 2006 The "Nature" of Flesh Chapter 5 Paul Anderson-Walsh Monday, 26 June 2006 The Role of the Spirit : The Agape Paradigm chapter 4 Paul Anderson-Walsh Monday, 26 June 2006 Don't let anybody should on you! Paul Anderson-Walsh
I should be a little more circumspect about using John 15 to teach eternal damnation if I were you. Lets not go back over God being the cosmic assassin who if the statistics are right [namely that only 5% of the world are Christian] must be getting ready to destroy 95% of his entire creation and that all because either he wanted to save them all but couldn’t or because he could have saved them all but didn’t want to. What a dreadful God that would be … not to say foolish builder umm! I am hopeful of something better and think that I have the entire Bible to bring me comfort in this too. [Incidentally before you ask I am not a universalist there is a heaven and there is a hell – no doubt there] but I do have a sneaking suspicion that he will make sense of it all in the end. And ultimately that’s why all Roads lead to Rome[ans 8:1-2] because whilst we can assert that not everyone is “in Christ” in the Christian sense it is a braver man than me that will argue that Christ is not in everyone?Paul Anderosn-Walsh
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