Now that school is out for summer (cue Alice Cooper) I’m back home working for my church as a youth ministry intern. As we began to plan for the summer and what we should teach on I recommended books like Colossians and Philippians. You know, something short and sweet that would be really encouraging. So when my youth pastor called me and told me we were going to be teaching through James this summer, I said “awesome,” but it was that same kind of awesome I responded with when the nurse said I needed an appendectomy- at least my stomach wouldn’t hurt anymore, right?
The difficulty with James is that it makes us protestants really uncomfortable (cue Martin Luther). James is really unrelenting in his message. For instance it is really hard to soften the words “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). How do we get around such a statement that seemingly pushes so much against our tradition?
Growing up as an evangelical I primarily heard three things in church: amen, cue the band, and salvation by grace through faith alone. At first blush it seems that James’ letter directly contradicts the Bible’s teaching on salvation. The difficulty, I think, is that Evangelicals have largely reduced salvation to a story about how we get to heaven. Growing up I heard plenty of Gospel presentations and alter calls, but heard very little on sanctification, the kingdom of God, or participation with Christ.
As I began to unpack this issue of salvation by grace and doing good works with students, I assured them that salvation by grace alone is true, but it is only part of the story. When we reduce the message of the bible to solely a message of how to get a ticket to heaven we are missing the rest of the story. The kingdom of God is more than a ticket to heaven. Following Jesus means, get this, following Jesus. We cannot simply reduce following Jesus to a one time decision that gets us into heaven. Following Jesus means picking up our cross and following him. Following Jesus means being obedient to Christ (John 14:15).
However we do not do good works to earn our salvation, this is not what James is saying, we do good works because we have received salvation. There are primarily three reasons, I think, why we do good works. The first is because Christ is king, the great commission is such a great commission because “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Since Christ is king and has all authority, he commands our lives. Since Christ has all authority over the earth (Colossians 1) and sits at the right hand of the Father (Psalm 110) we obey him. Secondly, our obedience to God is grounded in his grace. Read through the Old Testament and count how many times a command for compassion or obedience is followed by “you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.” We do good works because God has done and continues to do such a great work in our life. When we realize the great work Christ has done we cannot help but respond in good works (Luke 19:1-10). Lastly, God’s commands are for our good always (Deuteronomy 6:24).
Let us not fear when we come to difficult passages that push us past our comfort, but let us consider the whole counsel of God in interpreting Scripture. While there are many human authors who compose Scripture there is one divine author in whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (James 1:17) and that it is by the resurrection of Christ that we are justified (I Peter 1:3).
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