When trapped within a religious maze, it gets confusing when the focus becomes about you and your dedication to God through your works and actions. Those from the "holy hierarchy" will be spouting grace and God's love one minute but in the next breath, they'll tell you to behave in a certain way to ensure you're right with God, justified, sanctified ... while on the journey to making faith perfect.
The way of the old unprofitable and expired covenant for the Jews before the cross was centered around their pursuit of righteousness and salvation based upon not just hearing the word (of law) – but actually doing it. As the Apostle Paul stated in his Romans letter, there never was nor has there ever been a successful doer in the works department. So where do we go from here? That's where the gospel comes in.
Hollow religion tends to focus more on our actions—good or bad—instead of the work of Jesus and the blood He shed. Even the most passionate of grace people may end up sliding down a slippery slope of diet legalism if they take their eyes off of the prize ... while contradicting themselves about the gospel and the New Covenant, established and guaranteed by God. It often occurs through a misinterpretation of a few Bible verses ... combined with not understanding their identity as a child gifted with an inheritance. You are not defined by whatever label someone else wants to put on you, especially as it relates to good or bad actions.
Under the Old Covenant, Jews pursued a specific ministry of works through a holy and righteous law, thinking it would help them to lay hold of an elusive righteousness they could never attain. It was a very specific bundle, spelled out in writing through a package of 613 commands. All they needed was to do it. But all fell short and it left them in a place of sin consciousness—wondering what else they needed to do to inherit the kingdom.
In our religious culture today, the church corporation may neglect specifics when it comes to works and deeds which they think are the deciding factor as it relates to faith being dead or alive. That is where the law-minded person will come from. Neglecting to supply a precise list of do's and don'ts is a big piece to leave out of the puzzle. Fortunately, the gospel is far better than this.
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."
