JAMES 2
James brings divine Persons before us as the spring of everything. He insists upon works, but they are not legal works; they are such works as flow from the knowledge of God in the soul. In the first chapter God is presented as the Father of lights, the source of every good gift and of every perfect gift. Then chapter 2 speaks of having the faith of “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory”. No doubt the perfect law was seen in the Lord Jesus as a Man on earth, wholly commanded by the will of God, and responding to it in perfect freedom; it is there for us to fix our view on. But then he speaks of our having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory; that brings in Christ as the glorified Man. Later on in the epistle he speaks of the Spirit as having taken up His abode in us. It is well for us to see how James presents divine Persons.
We have not come publicly into the presence of God’s world yet, but we have God, and the glorified Man who is Head and centre of God’s world. In having the Father of lights, and the perfect law in a blessed Man who ever did the will of God in perfect freedom, and then the Lord Jesus Christ as the Head and centre of an entirely new system, the Lord of glory, and then the Spirit having taken up His abode in us, we have all the elements of an entirely new world. There is great spiritual substance in James; he is not occupied merely with works, as many seem to think, but with such a knowledge of divine Persons as will produce them.
The lust of man naturally is insatiable, a craving for something he has not got. The natural man is marked by that, and nothing will meet it but the knowledge of God as the Giver. In John 4 we see a woman full of [p. 17] natural desires which she could not satisfy, but the Lord spoke to her of the giving God; He brought before her something that would satisfy every desire of her heart. Then if we think of lawlessness, nothing will break its power in our souls but fixing our eyes on One whose every act, word, and thought were in obedience to God. Then to have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ will free us from having respect of persons on account of outward show. It delivers us from the world of display. Gold rings and splendid apparel are of very small account if we have the faith of the Lord of glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ is supreme in a divine system of glory. We come in view of a glory that the princes of this world did not know; they crucified the Lord of glory; they saw nothing glorious in Him, but only what was fit to be cast aside as worthless. But God has taken us up to teach us that we have nothing of any value that we have not received from our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Head and centre of God’s world of glory, and we have to cherish what we have received from Him.
Thy fulness, Lord, is now for me;
All my fresh springs are hid in Thee;
In Thee I live; while I confess
I nothing am, yet all possess. (281:3)
To be rich in faith, chosen of God and loving Him, and to be heirs of the kingdom takes the shine out of the “gold ring” and the “splendid apparel”. God has set up a wonderful administration of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. It is divine wealth poured forth for all; it is the same for the rich as for the poor. A man is rich and adorned now as he receives from God through the Lord Jesus Christ. There are things which have the character of glory with God; not gold rings or splendid apparel, but things which the Lord Jesus Christ is Lord of, To have the faith of Him puts us together in a [p. 18] neighbourly way. Not respecting persons according to worldly wealth, but loving as ourselves those who are near to us as having the same faith. It is not now rich man or poor man according to this world, but ALL have learned that they are poor, and all have become rich in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are brought near to each other in a truly neighbourly way thus. Those who have the faith of Him share in the fulness that flows out from Him. We are in that way near to each other; the benefit of one is the benefit of all; we are neighbours. I do myself a kindness when I pray for you, because your prosperity is mine. There are persons who do not need gold rings or splendid apparel to make them respected; they have an excellent Name called upon them; they are beautified and adorned spiritually; they are clothed with the worth of Christ. A sense of that will put us together in a neighbourly way; we shall not be distant one from another in affection (chapter 2: 8).
James takes a general view of things as they are “in the dispersion”, a mixed state of things. To some he says, “Beloved brethren”, to others he speaks most scathingly as being opposed to all that is of God. I suppose he uses the word “synagogue” in verse 2 intentionally, as suggesting a public gathering in mixed conditions. He speaks of the assembly in the last chapter, but in speaking of the synagogue he is for the moment looking at things in a general way as publicly continuing what had been in Judaism. But while taking account of this he makes it plain that there are those who are begotten of God, “beloved brethren”, who have the excellent Name called upon them, and who can be viewed apart from the mixed and corrupted conditions which surround them.
If the writer of this epistle was the James of 1 Corinthians 15:7, he had had the peculiar favour of a personal appearing to him of the risen Lord, and no doubt it left its mark upon him. If he were one of the Lord’s brethren who did [p. 19] not believe on Him in the days of His flesh (John 7: 5), and was brought to faith by that appearing of the risen One to him, he must have had a peculiar sense of mercy, and of the call to show it to others. “For judgment will be without mercy to him that has shewn no mercy. Mercy glories over judgment”. God has come in in mercy; the glorious Lord has died and the Spirit has been given to set us free. Thus we are to be marked by mercy; it is characteristic of one set at liberty. It is a most serious thing now to act without mercy. We shall be judged by the standard of mercy — judged by this great principle of all God’s actings. “I will have mercy”, we might say was a favourite text with the Lord. God loves to see His character reproduced in His people; the absence of it leads to judgment. We qualify for the exercise of mercy by realising that we ourselves are vessels of mercy. If I have learned mercy in my own experience, and realise that nothing but mercy will do for me, I am put on the line of mercy with others. “Mercy glories over judgment”.
James is careful to safeguard us from being legal in our spirits. After speaking of the law he immediately turns to talk of mercy. Mercy comes in when everything is forfeited on the line of deserving. It is a great triumph of grace when God secures a people to act like Himself — in mercy. We have always to bear in mind the character of the actings of God — the character of the dispensation, which is grace. God’s actings with individuals are in mercy. Publicly it is a dispensation of grace, but individually everything comes in on the ground of mercy, and if we are imbued with a sense of that we can act in harmony with God even in contact with what is evil. Becoming judges and having evil thoughts (verse 4) is really worldly, but if we are conscious of mercy, and of what has come to us through having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, it puts us on another ground altogether.
[p. 20] It becomes possible for us then to be justified by works. It is remarkable that James speaks of works as the spirit, and faith as the body (verse 26). It is a reversal of our usual way of thinking. Faith without works is dead. We need James as well as Paul. Justification by works is that the reality of faith is evidenced before God. The works of faith are for the eye of God, not for men. Men would never approve of works of faith. The natural man would not approve of a father killing a son, or a woman betraying her country, and these are the two instances which James gives of being justified by works. Abraham made the greatest surrender possible. It is a work of faith to offer on the altar something that we naturally cherish. I wonder how much we have offered on the altar? Abraham loved his son, but he loved God more. I do not suppose that any man knew about Abraham offering up Isaac; it was a secret between God and himself. Rahab changed her allegiance, and all her associations; that was a work of faith. When you see persons break with all their worldly friends, and cast in their lot with the people of God, their whole outlook changed — that is a work of faith. All through the Acts we see how people received God’s messengers, and the result was that their whole outlook changed, and they began to manifest works of faith.
“The scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God”. This had been said of him many years before, but when he offered up Isaac it was fulfilled; that is, it was filled out in its completeness; by works his faith was perfected, and he was called friend of God. God Himself could speak of him as His friend (Isaiah 41: 8), and Jehoshaphat spoke to God of “Abraham thy friend” (2 Chronicles 20: 7); the word really is “lover”. James has in his mind a company of lovers of God, and who are therefore not on good terms with the world. Rahab was not on good terms with the people of Jericho; in one [p. 21] sense she became a traitor to her own people, but she was a friend of God. Her action was really the greatest kindness to her own people, for if they had all followed her example it would have been truly well with them. They, too, would have shared the inheritance. Rahab’s works did not justify her in the eyes of the people of Jericho, but they justified her before God, and before His people Israel. A friend of God is justified by works; faith takes a practical shape, and its works cost something. The gospel presents every blessing as a free gift in grace, but when faith comes into the soul it is an operative principle, and its works cost something because they are always contrary to what is of nature. All the people of God, from the very beginning, have been justified by works as well as by faith. They have all done things that they would not have done if they had not had faith. How many things have I done that God has taken account of as works of faith?
Many people tell us that they believe every word in the Bible, but they have no works; they have never made any sacrifice purely to please God; they have never separated from the world. They have given no evidence of loving God so as to be marked as friends of God, yet they SAY they believe. What James says has a very serious bearing on all such.