There is one true promise keeper - God. None of us were even nominated or received honorable mention. No "A" for effort. It is an unchanging and eternal promise for those who believe, which began in the days of Abraham and carried through to the Seed - Jesus Christ. Once the Seed had come, the Jewish people were no longer considered as being under the "guardian" ... known as the law of commandments.
Many from the twelve tribes would struggle with Paul's message along these lines. But because of this truth—both Jew and Gentile were able to begin to identify as children of a royal family by faith. The law was a dead-end street and was not connected to the faith freeway. But those who belong to Christ are considered as Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. We're mining for gold in Galatians Chapter 3.
Continuing in Galatians Chapter 3, Paul was providing these believing Gentiles with a hard-hitting explanation of why they do not want to pursue works of the law—which they were never under—in order to perfect themselves. They began in the Spirit and were being coerced into thinking they needed Jesus plus works in order to be justified. This was a common mindset among believing Jews in the early church. After all, it wouldn't be "fair" for believing Jews to be required to continue in the law while non-Jewish people were let off the hook regarding that burdensome ministry.
Redemption for both Jews and Gentiles came by a promise, through faith ... and the law was not of faith. It came by inheritance, gifted to us who have received the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Paul appears frustrated as he addresses "you foolish Galatians" in the beginning of Chapter 3. Why? They had started out receiving the Spirit of God by faith but were being lured by a more popular persuasion from men who came from James—and had started to convince these Gentiles to adhere to the old Jewish law in combination with faith in Christ. This led to Paul carefully laying out an explanation over the next couple of chapters or so of how works and faith could not be mixed when it came to their salvation and right standing with God.
Abraham and the foundational message of a promise made to him by God will be Paul's launching pad to explain how the law was a curse and was not of faith. It will be fruitless and ineffective for them to think perfection could come through works (the flesh).
We're wrapping up our recent series about some things found in the letter from James to believers in Jesus from the twelve tribes of Israel ... and the contrasts found with Paul's writings. One example we'll look at is in James 4, where an old covenant mindset is communicated about telling believers to draw near to God which will result in Him drawing near to them. He said they should work at cleansing their hands and purifying their hearts. How? By avoiding becoming a judge of the law but rather a doer of it. It was a follow-through to what was stated earlier in the letter.
Our identity is not meant to be found in what we do and see, but as believers who trust in the sufficiency of Christ and what He did. There is a theme within the letter that focuses much on works of the law and externals—compared to Paul who exhorted people to look at the things which are not seen—who are already declared as clean, justified and sanctified apart from their actions.
The summary here is that most believing Jews at this time thought the law was still in place for them and was to be mixed with faith in Jesus as a way to attain righteousness and justification. There was a greater grace—but the law was still part of their landscape. Paul came along with what was considered controversial teaching by many for which he was harshly persecuted because of his message that the Jews had been redeemed from the law and that they and Gentiles could be saved and inherit righteousness apart from such a law of works.
Does this mean the letter from James should not be in the Bible? We believe having it included actually validates the other things we find in the New Testament. There is an overall divine inspiration being provided ... but that doesn't necessarily mean that every "verse" is coming as a quote directly from the mouth of God. That is not an accurately pure interpretation of how the word "inspired" should be defined as a verse-by-verse assumption. Zoom out from the verses (which were never included in the original scripts) and we'll find the writings as a whole provide an inspiration of a much bigger picture regarding our need for God and how He met that need with the promise of His Son. Perfect grace. Perfect love. No quid pro quo. No strings attached.
Throughout the pages of the New Testament, we see numerous examples of how there were Jewish people coming to believe in Jesus, but understandably also believed the law of Moses was still in place for them. The Apostle Paul came along a short while later with a gospel message he claimed was taught directly to him by divine revelation ... to declare the former law had been put aside and nailed to the cross. His message was that life could not be found in the law which had now come to an end, and that the Jewish people had been delivered from such a burdensome ministry of death and condemnation.
But he was in the minority and suffered much persecution because of it. Various places within the New Testament show how James and his council of leadership within the Jerusalem church were part of this persuasion who believed that the Mosaic law was a component towards attaining salvation/justification (for the Jew). They also encouraged at least portions of it for the believing Gentiles. By not ignoring this important part of the big picture within the scriptures, we can begin to see how all of these books (including the works-based letter from James) harmonize with each other to tell the story. The story of what was happening with the struggles in the early church at that time—but more importantly—the message of Jesus and how eternal life is found in Him as a gift by grace through faith ... apart from works.
Here's the playlist for our previous series, "Faith and Works, Paul and James."
Continuing with program #3 of our series on being a "doer of the word" and what this was meant to be about...
The "law of liberty" is seen twice in the New Testament, both times used by James in the first two chapters of his letter written to the twelve tribes of Israel which had been scattered to different regions. If doing an online search to find out what the law of liberty is ... like many other Bible topics ... be prepared to see no fewer than hundreds of different opinions. But as we springboard off the context from chapter 1 of his letter and move into chapter 2, we'll notice clearly how James is using this phrase as a reference to the law of Moses—something he also refers to as the royal law.
Within this context, he encourages his audience to follow all of that law and to speak "and do" as those who will be judged by that law—what he calls a law of liberty—but had just defined it as the Mosaic law. James would double-down to say faith without works is dead (useless) and that one cannot be justified by faith without works (of the law). He will declare that faith is perfected by works ... the precise opposite of what Paul said in his writing to the Galatians at the beginning of chapter 3. Even when using the example of Abraham, there is a conflict with what Paul said along the same lines, which we will cover more on the next program.
James made a statement in his letter to the twelve Jewish tribes ... believed by most historians to be the earliest writing in the pages known as The New Testament. "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22). This passage, along with what follows has a consistent but curious theme of externals, doing and works—and all under the topic of righteousness, salvation and justification.
In program #2 in this brief series, we continue to take a closer look at the entire context of what James said shortly before this (and after). Have you ever stopped and asked yourself what he meant by "the word?" Modern-day believers may skim over it and think that James is telling us to be a doer of the Bible (whatever that means). But in order for these Jewish believers to be able to meet this goal of identifying as a doer, it would have to be something specific that they were already familiar with ... and something they could see, hear and do—dare we say—something being read and heard in synagogues every week on the Sabbath.
