Sovereign Will

James 4:15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

15 ἀντὶ τοῦ λέγειν ὑμᾶς· ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ καὶ ζήσομεν καὶ ποιήσομεν τοῦτο ἢ ἐκεῖνο.

Here James is explaining how we should view the future.  He rebukes those who plan for the future with certainty by giving the example of folks who plan on going to a town and spending some time there engaged in some business enterprise.  It is not that the act is sinful, but their attitude is.  They just assume that everything will be fine.  But James tells them that they ought to say ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ, which is a third-class condition.  That means that the future is not certain, but likely.

This use of the third-class condition saves us from all kinds of craziness.  Clearly we need to plan our lives.  We need to have stewardship of our time, talent, and treasure.  But what this passage does is to remind us that God is sovereign over everything.  I plan on seeing my kids graduate from high school.  I plan on seeing them get married.  I plan on serving the Lord for at least another 40 or 50 years.  But I also know that I could go through a green light today and a semi could be out of control and just obliterate my little car and me inside it.  Someone could blow a tire on the highway and smash into me.  I could have a seizure and discover that I have a brain tumor.  There are all sorts of grisly scenarios that could play out down to more mundane things like losing my job.

I don't expect them to happen, but if they do I will not be shocked.  God has a plan for my life and I will live as long as He wants for me to live.  My life will be prosperous as He wants for it to be prosperous.  It is perhaps a bit trite the way so many Christians say, "Lord willing" when they speak of the future, but I believe that to be biblical.  God is in control of everything.  Acknowledging that gives Him the credit He deserves.

Reaping Righteousness

James 3:18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

18 καρπὸς δὲ δικαιοσύνης ἐν εἰρήνῃ σπείρεται τοῖς ποιοῦσιν εἰρήνην.

James 3 contains the famous passage on the tongue.  I think this is one of those passages that we read and feel like God was looking at our lives when this was written.  If someone ever says that he thinks the Bible has no practical advice for today you should send him to James 3.  It's also quite convicting as someone who is in school to learn how to preach and teach.  James admonishes us to take the calling quite seriously as it has high standards.  Lots of great stuff in here.

But what I want to focus on is this verse at the end of the passage.  James talks about having sincere hearts.  If we don't have sincere hearts we should not "boast and be false to the truth."  Then he contrasts the wisdom of the world with godly wisdom.  This verse comes right after his description of godly wisdom.

I'm not sure exactly what to think of when I read καρπὸς δὲ δικαιοσύνης.  Does that refer to salvation?  Does it refer to good works?  Does it refer to harmony with others?  I'm not sure.  But what I do know, is that this verse makes it clear that it is beneficial for us to ποιοῦσιν εἰρήνην.  The word ποιοῦσιν is a present active participle, which implies that it is an ongoing action.  We are to be people who make peace.

Obviously as we know from Ecclesiastes, there is a time for war and a time for peace.  There are times when we need to be contentious against heresy, for example.  However, as a rule we are to be peacemakers.  Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount as well.  It is a blessing to be a peacemaker.

Where are you with this?  Are you making peace or strife?  When people see you coming do they steel themselves up ready for a fight?  Or are they looking forward to a time of peace?  Does your presence settle arguments or add fuel to the fire?  I want to be a peacemaker, amen?

Justification by Faith

James 2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

24 ὁρᾶτε ὅτι ἐξ ἔργων δικαιοῦται ἄνθρωπος καὶ οὐκ ἐκ πίστεως μόνον.

The title of this post and this verse seem to be at odds with each other, don't they?  This is a verse that the Roman Catholic Church uses to defend their view of the gospel.  In fact, the Council of Trent declared an anathema on anyone who believes in justification by faith alone.  Their view of how one is justified before God is rather complex and I suggest you look it up for yourself to understand just how it is different from that which came out of the Reformation and, if I may say so, that which comes from a plain reading of Scripture.

Yet we have James 2 in our Bibles.  Although Luther did take issue with this book, he did consider it to be canonical.  What do we do with James 2:14-26, and particularly 2:24?  The Greek doesn't help us here.  I suppose you could try to do something fancy with the ὅτι and somehow try to suggest some kind of causation with a translation of "because" instead of "that," but I think that the ESV gets it right.  What to do?

To me, this passage stands as a defense of what is sometimes called "Lordship Salvation," or as John MacArthur puts it, the gospel according to Jesus.  It is clear from reading the Gospels that faith in Christ means action.  How can anyone come to know the living God of the universe and not have his life changed?  Everything about a person changes when they know the Lord.  It has to.  Look at what happened to Moses.  Look at the apostles after the resurrection.  They didn't really "get" what was going on until after Jesus was raised and they received the Holy Spirit.  Look at how bold they became afterwards.

I also think that Ephesians 2:10 helps us.  That verse tells us that we were made for good works.  God didn't save us just to stare at our navels and talk theology, despite what some folks may think.  He saved us to action.

To be clear, this does not mean that we suddenly stop sinning.  What it means is that our hearts change.  We go from being bent toward sin to being bent toward the Lord.  There are times (perhaps extensive times) when we go our own ways, but ultimately our hearts are bent toward the Lord.  That's what having the Holy Spirit is all about.  If we accept the gospel merely as fire insurance we have missed it.  The gospel is about God, not about us.

Also, to be clear, we do not do works to earn merit before God, despite what a Roman Catholic might tell you.  We work because we are saved.  We are not paying off a debt (we cannot), but we are acting out of sheer gratitude.  God is glorious and as I've tried to show through this blog, He is worthy of honor and praise.  If we aren't inclined to that then we must question the state of our hearts.

To me, it comes down to a simple question.  If God is indeed God, how can we encounter Him and not be transformed?  Unlike the apostles we have a completed canon.  Let's read it and be changed by this awesome transcendent God that we serve.

Every Good Gift

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

17 πᾶσα δόσις ἀγαθὴ καὶ πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθέν ἐστιν καταβαῖνον ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων, παρ᾽ ᾧ οὐκ ἔνι παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα.

James is an easy book to blog because it is really a bunch of long proverbs.  James may very well be the most practical book of the New Testament in the sense that it is centered primarily on right living.  It contains a bunch of imperatives telling us how we should live.  Facing trials?  Count it all joy.  Reading Scripture?  Do what it tells you to.  And so on.

Here we get a brief theological interlude.  This verse tells us much about the nature of God.  First, we see that He is good.  How do we know that?  We see that if a gift is ἀγαθὴ or if it is τέλειον then it is from above.  I don't think that it describes gifts that are "good and perfect" because there are two different words for "gift" used here.  I think what James is going after is that if we enjoy something good it must be from God.  We also see that He is good in being described as οῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων.  It's pretty safe to say that "light" is a metaphor for "good" when we read Scripture.

Second, we see that He is immutable, which is the theological term for the idea that He never changes.  The phrase παρ᾽ ᾧ οὐκ ἔνι παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα. is difficult in English, but I would go with something like, "for him whom there is not changing or shadow of changing."  Obviously the ESV is a lot crisper from a literary sense and that is required in translating a text, but my translation gets the wooden sense of it.

But you may wonder, "so what?"  What difference does it make that He never changes?  One thing is that this informs our Christology.  We know from Hebrews that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Here we see God the Father described that way.  This is not a proof, but it sure leads one to see a commonality between God the Father and God the Son.  It also tells us that the idea of an "Old Testament God" vs. "New Testament God" is a false dichotomy.  There is God.  He does not change.  The just and wrathful God of Joshua and Judges is also the God of John 3:16.  Jesus Christ had to die to satisfy His righteous wrath.

This is a God I want to worship.  This is the God that saved me to do just that.  My prayer is that I would not stop short with distractions like sports, video games, school, and sex.  Those are all fine things enjoyed in their place, but let me worship God alone, amen?