James, the Gospel-Driven Epistle?
Mark Lauterbach's blog, GospelDrivenLife, is one of my favorite new blogs on the net. He is blogging on the book of James now, and in his post today he begins with the following:
if the Gospel is the center of all the NT then how do we understand the book of James? In it there is no mention of the atoning death of Jesus. There is no reference to justification by faith. Luther was right - it is a straw epistle!James does not mention "justification by faith", in fact he mentions "justification by works" two times (2:21 and 2:24). The name Jesus appears only twice (1:1 and 2:1). Faith is mentioned twelve times, but it is only salvific when coupled with works (2:14-26).
I have heard some say that James is "a New Testament Proverbs, lots of rules and good ideas for Christian living." After spending much time studying James, James looms large in my Biblical theology as one of the most Gospel-centric books of the Bible, as it takes my understanding of the Gospel and challenges me to believe it, to have faith in it.
I believe that the Gospel in James is seen most clearly in the white space between 2:11 and 2:12:
11bIf you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
Flowing up to chapter 2, verse 8 (you may want to open a Bible up to follow this with me), James has just taught that Christians are not to show partiality, making distinctions between the way that they treat the rich and the poor inside and outside of the Body. To make those distinctions is to "become a judge with evil thoughts" (2:4). Perhaps you think that you are loving your neighbor, but if you even show partiality in the way that you love your neighbor "you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors." This is incosistent with the love that God knows, the love that God's law expects, and the love the God demonstrates (1 John 3:16-28). Likely everybody who reads this blog post and everybody who ever read the Epistle of James has shown partiality at some point in time, so - even if you have never broken any other law (doubtful) - you are "convicted by the law as transgressors (2:10-11). So basically, everybody who is reading this letter should not only feel conviction over their inability to keep the law should recognize their position as damned because they are convicted. BANG! The gavel in teh courts of heaven has come down: "Lawbreaker! The sentence...death! " (Romans 6:23)
That's how verse 11 ends: Convicted under the law. Now look at verse 12 and tell me where the logical flow of thought is. It says, "You are convicted and sentenced to death 'so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.'" What? Imagine telling that to a murderer right after his sentencing hearing is done, "You've been found guilty and you are going to shorty die, therefore treat everyone around you as if you are going to be given your freedom." The connection is the law of liberty, the gospel.
Calvin describes the law of liberty as the the rule that says "that we are freed from the rigor of the law" (Commentary of James). MacArthur in his commentary on James says it a little more plainly, "The gospel is the law of liberty." Do you see that huge connection between 2:11-12, because you have been saved by grace through faith act like it.
If I have faith in the gospel - the message that through Christ's perfect life and atoning death on the cross, he has completely blotted out my sin and given me His righteousness, a gift for which I cannot and do not seek to repay, so that I can enjoy him and obey Him now and forever - I will live like someone who knows that they have been forgiven ten thousand lifetimes of debt (Matthew 18:21-35). How ridiculous, if I truly believe that I am living, breathing, existing, and enjoying life only because I have been shown grace that was given to me at a great cost to God Hiimself, how could I possible not give a little thing to a brother at only a small cost to me. If I truly believe that God loves me, I will love others, and my love will look like his,
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:16-18).
The commands in James are tied to this, they are tied to the law of liberty, the gospel. James is a gospel-driven book, but James will not let us remain purely theological, he forces the application that must flow from a true faith in the gospel...and if you're our lives don't look like a James-defined gospel-driven life should, then we likely don't have true faith, but merely a knowledge that accomplishes no more than demons' knowledge of God's existance. Faith in the gospel without a life that lives like the gospel is dead, demonstrating no belief in the gospel at all.