Faith Without Works Is Dead (James 2) | Theocast

Hi, this is Justin. Today on Theocast, we're going to have a conversation about a pretty controversial chapter in the

Bible, James chapter 2, and in particular the topic of faith without works being dead. This episode is going to dovetail nicely with some of the things that we've recorded lately about the law and the gospel and sanctification and good works and even how pietism ruins said good works.

So we're going to consider James 2 and the content of that and what does James mean by saying that faith without works is dead.

We're going to think about the commands of the New Testament, the things that we are told by God to be doing for one another, and we're going to think about how those commands are not burdensome because of the

Lord Jesus Christ and what he's accomplished in our place. We hope this is clarifying and encouraging for you. Stay tuned.

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slash give. Welcome to Theocast, encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ.

Conversations about the Christian life from a confessional reform perspective and also a pastoral one.

I just threw a new word in there, John. Look out, people are ducking all over, all over the podcast, interwebs, whatever they are.

People will make of that word confessional what they will, and hopefully they're understanding more of what confessional theology is by listening to Theocast.

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And all of its new fancy formatting. And you could get a copy of Rest. You can buy that on Amazon. You can find it on our website in ebook form for free.

And there's a forthcoming book, probably first half of this year, that's going to be called Reform. That's also going to have a chapter on what it means to be confessional.

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Yeah. So I am the host today are the two of us. I'm not going to introduce myself first because that is a faux pas.

I'm going to introduce John first. He is John Moffitt, pastor of Grace Reform Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

And I am Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina. And we're coming to you today, recording on a

Wednesday morning, as is normal. You're probably listening to this on a Wednesday if you're a faithful listener anyway, because that's how I know

I'm just coming in hot today. John, we're going to we're going to have a pretty, I think, hot topic conversation today because James chapter two and some of the content contained therein, in particular, this business of faith without works is dead.

And Abraham, was Abraham not justified by his works? What do we make of that?

You're preaching through the book, John, so lead us off and take us, brother. Man, I've been preaching through James for the last few weeks, well, months now that I think about it.

And I've been waiting on chapter two. You know how it is when you preach a book. You read through the book, you read through the book, and then you read through the chapter and then you read through the chapter in the next chapter.

You're just always aware. And so it's always been in the back of my mind. And then it finally came to the getting close.

And you know certain texts are coming. Yeah. Like if you start James from James 1 .1, you're like, chapter two is coming.

It's coming. And what's so great is that, you know,

I was able to kind of just say, there's no way I'm going to do this in one sermon. So technically we're doing it in three, but we're going to do a good overview.

We're going to deal with some of the clear positions that get muddied. I would say this is a back -to -back episode.

So if you did not hear last week's episode, you definitely want to go hear that. It's how pietism ruins good works.

That's actually two weeks ago. Oh, you're right. That was two weeks ago. So two weeks ago, this episode is going to go along with that.

And I think pietism not only ruins good works, it ruins good exegesis.

It ruins good interpretation of scripture. And today is a good example of that. Throughout the years, we have always used that.

So today's going to be fun because not only are we going to find rest in Christ and some clarity, and I think some encouragement.

Well, I know for a fact, encouragement, because the Bible says it's all scripture is designed for that. But I think we're also going to do a good, we're going to walk through and show how sometimes we can allow culture and allow our own sinful inclinations to change the meaning and the purpose of a text.

So that's kind of what we're going to aim to do this morning. Go ahead, JP. Or even how we're driven so much by, and I think this is what you mean, by our current church environment and the theological streams that we find ourselves in.

And the tradition of a recent period of time that we're all swimming in affects how we go to a text like James 2, and how we would even seek to understand it.

Because we're so prone to be driven by personal religious experience, which we're going to talk a lot more about later, that it absolutely affects how we go to this book and wrestle with what's there.

So take us away, man, give us some context and just some flow of the book.

Context is probably the most important part of understanding what James is saying. You try to parachute down into any passage and get an accurate interpretation from it without looking at the greater context.

You can walk away with some Joseph Smith interpretations for sure. Brief interjection.

This is serving the listener. If you don't understand the whole, you will do terrible things with the parts. That's right.

And a lot of times this has happened, not only in Roman Catholic theology, but I would say in evangelical theology, we have become

Roman Catholic at times in our interpretation of these passages. We will also say that there are times where words that are being translated and used are not always helpfully translated.

We'll talk about that in a little bit. Just so you understand who James is writing to, this will help you understand why he's saying this in chapter 2.

James is writing to persecuted, very Jewish churches, churches that are primarily made up of Jews, and they have just left

Jerusalem. This is why he says in chapter 1, or chapter 1, verse 1, that they're scattered out.

And he's 12 tribes giving indication that they're Jewish. Exactly. And they're underneath persecution and they're underneath not only persecution, but they're suffering.

And so this is why he starts off in the very beginning of the letter. And sometimes people think James is kind of a harsh pastor.

We learned from the book of Acts that James is a very wise, very wise pastor. I mean, he's the one giving counsel to Paul and Barnabas and Peter in this debate that's going on.

And not only that, you can hear the heart of James, even in chapter 1, when he's talking about trials that they face.

What is he saying right from the beginning? That their perseverance through that is the evidence of their faith resting upon Christ and that should encourage them.

Amen. And even be encouraged by the fact that God is producing steadfastness in you. It's God's perseverance of them.

And so he continues on. And I want to say in chapter 1, he is developing the theology of rest.

He tells them that their perseverance they should rest in. He continues on to talk about the gifts that they receive is from God's sovereign decision, not based on varying.

So when God decides to give us things that we need, that is not based upon our performance.

The reason we know that is right before that, he says, now, listen, if you fall into temptation, that's because of your own desires.

And then right after that, he says, by the way, when you do fall into these temptations, God's gifts do not vary based upon your actions.

It's great. It's really important. And not only that, your salvation, he makes it very clear, is based upon God's sovereign decision, not your ability to perform.

Chapter 2, that's coming up. He gives us wonderful insights into prayer. He says, if you lack wisdom, let a mask of God and he will give it to him abundantly without reproach, meaning that you can come to him constantly.

So he's setting this tone of the father that he's preserving you, he's persevering you, he's giving you wisdom, he's sovereignly saved you.

And then he ends the chapter. And as he ends the chapter and turns the corner from kind of grounding them in their faith, he gets to chapter 2 and he goes,

OK, now I need to talk about what's going on in your church. And if you read the whole thing in one sitting, you're going to walk away with this one thought.

James is really concerned about the fracturing disunity of that local bodies. I mean, they are, the way they're treating each other is not a reflection of being one in Christ.

As Paul says in Philippians 2, having the same mind. Yeah, he's motivated. He's concerned about division and partiality.

What he wants to see and is motivated to write about is unity and love.

That's right. That's right. Amongst the brothers and sisters. Yeah. So what does he say in chapter 2? You guys are showing partiality.

And specifically, he gives this illustration where they're showing partiality between the rich and the poor.

Do you understand the context? Right. He even says this phrase. These are the ones who are dragging you into court and illegally or wrongfully accusing you.

So what was happening is they are now exiled. They are trying to create new lives. They're in new cities.

And in this particular context, where it's getting back to James, that the rich are basically in league with the legal system and they're dragging the poor in.

I mean, it's the whole nine of the hundred sheep versus one sheep illustration with David. I mean, they are just ripping whatever they can.

And then these powerful people are walking into the church. And James straight out says they're not believers. He says they deny

God. He says that they're coming into church and out of fear of what could happen, they are pushing the poor aside who they should be helping.

And they're showing deference. It's showing preference to the to the rich for social reasons, not theological reasons.

And James rebukes them for that. And then he says, let the lowly boast in his exaltation, meaning that the wealth that this is all going to fall away.

But what you have in Christ should be the reason all the more not to worry about what happens to you in this body.

So he's upset about the partiality that they're showing. And then he turns the volume up even more.

So he's he's upset about the partiality. And then he gets into, OK, listen, you say with your mouth, you have this religion.

And he's saying true religion is to what show affection towards those who have no benefit in your life.

Because he says the widows, the orphans, that's right. He doesn't mean we need to start a widow orphans ministry.

His point was there is no insignificant people in your congregation. Everyone is significant.

And true religion should reflect that. Right. And true religion shows mercy and love and care toward the weak.

That's right. And toward the needy. Right. Not toward the strong and the powerful and the wealthy.

That's right. So then he says this phrase. If you look at James chapter two and verse 12, he says, so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

What he doesn't mean by that is sometimes we don't understand. James uses a lot of Old Testament language.

He uses a lot of Old Testament references. So Paul says in this way, under grace is another way.

So if you've been liberated from the law, it's the law of liberty now. So it's like you need to act and walk as ones who were condemned and judged under the perfect law.

But you're not. But you're not acting that way. You know, this is going back to the illustration, Justin, if we were to use it of the man who was forgiven an endless amount of money and set free.

And then he goes and finds the unforgiving servant. That's exactly right. And he's using that same illustration. If I can just brief exegetical observation to illustrate what you're saying from verse 10, 11, 12, which of chapter two, which is where this occurs.

James does come in to to rebuke the partiality and makes it very clear that in showing partiality this way, that these individuals are breaking

God's law. That's right. And he makes it clear to them that if you break any part of God's law, you're guilty of breaking all of it.

But then his conclusion from that to your point, just like Paul had said, you're no longer under the law, but you're under grace and now live that way.

Romans 6, right? He says, James 2, 12, so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

In other words, like you said, you've been set free from the right condemnation of the law of God on you as a lawbreaker.

But you will no longer face that. You've been liberated and now live accordingly. Amen. That's the presentation, whereas I think so often as we're going to get into later, we don't take

James that way. No, we tend to take James as a very threatening, exacting, scary, you know, you better or else dot, dot, dot.

Right. And it's it's important that when we get into this next verse, chapter two, verse 14, which is really what starts the controversial section.

I think it's very important that we notice how he starts it, which is.

What good is it, my brothers? He's not calling them.

He's not he's not acting as though they might not be brothers in Christ, not acting as though they're not united to Jesus.

Yes. Anyway, yes. Doesn't call their salvation into question. In other words, no. What good is it, my brothers?

If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him?

Notice he's rhetorically asking those questions. Exactly. And notice the the way in which it flows.

He's starting with the legitimacy of their faith, saying the issue is there's a problem with your faith.

There isn't a problem that you need to do something to add to your faith. He says the initial problem is your faith, because your faith clearly is not in the right place.

Because if you back up everything, as you just said, Justin, if you back up and you look at if he's if you've been grounded in this relationship that I gave you in chapter one.

Then how dare you receive that and not see how contrary it is to then withhold.

And here's what here's the thing, Justin. It's not that people are being lazy. It wasn't that they were struggling.

It wasn't like they were distracted. These people were opposed to it.

They openly said, no, James, we we don't agree that that's what we should be doing.

He's not talking to the struggling Christian. He's talking to the ardent fighter who's like, no,

James, I don't need to do that. Right. Or the person at a minimum that has a pretty well -established understanding of what true religion is.

And they're not in agreement with the apostle. That's right. I mean, that's what you're saying. Even whether they've had a dialogue and a back and forth, we don't know.

But James has at least heard that this is going on, that you're in this settled position of being against, in one sense, the faith once for all delivered and appropriate conduct in light of the gospel.

That's right. And in light of God's redemptive work on your behalf. And I need to write to you to communicate this is how we live together in light of what

God has done for us. That's right. Yeah. So then they try to use as an illustration against James that, nah,

James, like what we're doing is legitimate. And, uh, you know, what's interesting is that as tender as James can be, he, he and Paul both have this gear and even

John, they all throw some bows, man, they can. And so they come at, they come at James pretty hard.

So James kind of flips it and he says, all right, he says, um, you believe, what does he say here?

I mean, let me pass down here so I can skip verse 19, right? We're just going to skip forward just for the sake of time.

He says, you believe that God is one you do well, even the demons believe and shudder.

So in this, he is looking at this entire section. And so just to go back, so I, I, you need to read that because what the, what the load up here is coming is important.

He's saying that in this, in the church context, they, they feel as if it's okay to see people who are suffering and hurting within their family and ignore it as if that's no big deal.

He literally says, go in peace. Like you're wishing them well, or as we like to say, Oh brother, well, I'll pray for you, but you actually have the means and capacity to help them.

And you're not doing it. You don't see it necessary to live or put it this way, sacrifice for the sake of the body.

And so they are, James knows their justification. And so he's going to punch their justification right in the mouth.

I mean, he says, but you will say, I have faith and you have works. Show me your faith apart from your works.

And I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one you do well. What he's talking about is the

Shema, right? That's right. That's right. Where they would say, well, we believe this. And not only do we believe this, we quote it.

Cause how else would he know Israel, you know, the Lord, the Lord, your God is one. That's right. Yeah. And his point was, he wasn't saying the demons have saving faith and they shudder.

He was saying the demons understand who God is, right. And they actually shudder compared to your understanding.

The law should cause you to shudder underneath who God is. And you're not. And you should, because he says, you're, this is sin.

Like this is wrong. You guys should understand this is wrong. So that's what he uses. And what he's using is presenting.

And this is where I know just, we want to go a little bit with this, but they are presenting religious acts as proof of the legitimacy of their faith.

And he's saying those religious acts, which we're not even calling you to, these are things that you think are just justifying you.

They're of no value when it comes, he says, they're no good. In particular, what he's pointing out,

I use this phrase a minute ago. I know you agree with it. He is pointing out that they are not validated or justified by their personal religious experience.

That's right. And we use that phrase intentionally because I'm just going to go and say it. I'm going to go and say the things right.

Personal religious experience and the overemphasis of personal religious experience is part and parcel of our context these days in the

States because of the movements of pietism and revivalism, because that's what both of those things have done.

There is a quest, you know, as Scott Clark says, there is a quest for illegitimate religious experience.

And it's all personal, hyper -personal, it's hyper -subjective. And we point to all kinds of things and look to all kinds of things that are not prescribed in the scriptures as a validation of ourselves.

And what James is doing in one sense is blowing up that personal religious experience nonsense and saying, look, here's what true religion looks like.

Now, agreement, we're going to talk more about the relationship between faith and works and all those things and exactly how he's going to describe that in a few verses.

I agree with you, just brief comment about the whole demons believe and shudder, he is not, to your point, he's not saying that faith, you know, resting and trusting upon Christ is inadequate.

That's not what he means because no demon, demons might understand that God is one, they might know things about God, but no demon has ever rested, trusted, and hoped in Jesus for anything, just to be clear.

He's going to make the distinctions. He's going to be clear on the relationship between faith and works in a minute. We're going to explain all that. So that's coming.

But what he's blowing up here is don't point to things that are of no value in demonstrating one's faith.

You know, here are the things that are of value in demonstrating and validating faith, it's love for one another. It's considering others as more important than yourself.

It's sacrificing for one another's benefit. It is loving those and showing care toward those who are weak and needy and marginalized, et cetera.

And you're not doing those things. You're pointing to this other stuff, but you're not doing the stuff that really matters.

But yet you're pointing to this other peripheral stuff that is insignificant as though that validates you. That's right.

Yeah. Well, historically speaking, it's been believed that James is the first letter to be circulated, to be written.

And James is dealing with... And Galatians is another early one. That's right. So put those next to each other. That's right.

So that's a great point. They're actually back to back. And they complement one another beautifully.

Right. I said this in my sermon recently. Paul is dealing with adding works for the sake of forgiveness and earning righteousness.

Adding works to Christ. That's right. As a piece of righteousness. So you receive Christ, but to fully receive

Christ, there must be an obedience in the law or circumcision. Right. Now that's the direction.

You know, Paul's firing to the left. Then you got James standing right next to him, and James is firing to the right, back to back, and James is saying, wait a minute, if you have

Christ from Christ flows the spirit, and from Christ flows good works.

And James is very concerned because he's saying, wait, you guys are grappling. It's almost like they're doing what they're doing in James.

They're grappling onto the Old Testament law saying, I'm doing these ritual acts. Therefore, my faith is legit.

And they're missing the point of the law. I mean, what is Paul saying in Galatians 6 .2,

bury one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. If you're new to Theocast, we have a free ebook available for you called

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Reformed confessional perspective. You can get your free copy at theocast .org

slash primer. Romans 13, loving your neighbor is the fulfillment of the law.

That's right. Jesus, Mark seven, you're teaching as doctrine, the commandments and the traditions of men.

And you're actually making void the word of God through your tradition. Right. He's saying, especially when he talks about how you, you know, the scripture says, honor your father and mother, but you say, if, if you tell your parents anything,

I was going to give you as Corban, it is given to God, then that's fine. Right. So it's that kind of idea that's being pointed out here.

You know, Jesus will say in the language of scriptures, you know, we're, we're straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.

That's another expression, or Jesus will say, you know, you should have done these major points of mercy, you know, and love you should have, you should have seen to these without neglecting the others, you know, but instead you've inverted the thing and you've majored on the minors, all of that.

I think all of that's applicable here. We'll get into that a little bit in a minute. So let's just finish this second. No, you're good.

Let's get through this. Yeah. We got, we're almost halfway through and then we're going to, we're going to lay, we're going to light the bonfire here. So James says probably one of the most punchy next to James statement about some other parts of the body.

James says a pretty punchy statement here about their rejection of what he says.

And so he says, do you want to be shown you foolish person that your faith apart from works is useless?

I don't know how you say it any stronger. You know, it's pretty, that's like Paul, that word foolish

Galatians who bewitched it's right. That foolish person is actually a harsher in that language than say you stupid person, you dumb person is pretty hard.

It's pretty strong. And I don't mean like in a cussing, we should be vulgar man. I think he's trying to get his point of like, you have no idea how offensive this is.

I love the two people he chooses to you, Justin, you want to know why is that he doesn't pick people who are clean and perfect.

Abraham and Rahab, man. You can't get more messed up people than that. And so he's not talking about perfection, right?

That's just not what he's pointing to. So he says, and he's not saying that one act of righteousness justifies you before God, clearly.

No, clearly. So the law says otherwise, right? So James is using his illustration about 30 years down the road, different.

Now he will revert back to Genesis 15, but Paul is dealing with faith at the moment of his believing

God's promises. And it was a justified to him. And you're talking about the book of Romans. Sorry. No, I'm talking about the book of Genesis.

Sorry. Well, yes, from Paul. Yes. Thank you. And then James is pointing down the road saying, let's, let's take care a moment to hear several decades and that yes,

Abraham makes this profession, but over time, you're going to see that there is going to be a reflection of what he has said, not obviously at this moment, that man has lied about his wife.

A couple of times he's done some horrendous things. So if you think there's perfection in the line here, that's not what he's talking about.

But even so of Rahab, but before we get into Rahab, well, I'll use the illustration of Rahab, then we'll go back to Abraham for a second.

But even with Rahab, Rahab out of concern for her brothers, you know, you can see this affection that she does something that is dangerous to herself.

The way I would say it is that when she, when she's called upon to care for what God has given her to care for, she does it.

This is the same thing that Abraham is the illustration. Now here's where things get tripped up, Justin. So let's spend a little bit of time here, helping people walk through here.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that faith that was acting along with his works and faith was completed by his works.

So before let's not read verse 23, cause that kind of gives it away. But Justin first initial reaction people have there is to say what,

Hey, wait a minute, guys, James and Paul, James and Paul are saying the opposite thing. That's right.

This is, this is literally theological schizophrenia. What do we do? Right. So when we read this, um,

I think if you keep reading in verse 23 and then we can use the whole and interpret the whole, he says, and the scripture was fulfilled that Jane, that I'm sorry, that, um, that says

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteous. Then he was called the friend of God. Well, right there. Who's James agreeing with Paul.

So we can't say he's contradicting himself because clearly he says Abraham was justified by faith.

Right. So let's back up and say, well, what does it mean by, uh, justified? Well, if we say here was not

Abraham's our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, you see that Isaac, um, man,

I'm struggling. You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works.

Again, remember when I said that he's firing off to the right, he's firing away from one who is justifying himself.

He's saying he is justified. And another way I would, I would say this is that his faith has come to its ultimate end and purpose.

It's faith has come to its completion meeting. Let's just quote Ephesians two, eight and nine, right? Say by intent.

Yeah, sorry. Yeah. But yes, thank you. Verse 10, eight, nine, not by works less than he mentioned boast.

And what does it say that your good works were predestined before the world began, meaning that we are

God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works were prepared beforehand for us to walk prepared beforehand, which means the ultimate end and finish goal is these good works.

And even, yeah, there's a lot more I could say. Keep going. I'll comment when you're done. Right. So, and then this goes into Abraham and uses the same thing, but we'll just use this last phrase and Justin, this is where we can kind of launch off where I think the confusion happens.

Uh, he says for, for as the body apart from the spirit, this is verse 26 is dead. So also faith apart from works is dead.

Like I have said before, uh, people who are alive, breathe. That's that's the point.

People who are alive, breathe trees that are alive, bear fruit. That's right. So here's the confusion,

Justin, and this is where I think we need to bring in some clarification. James, I believe at this point and we'll further on in chapters three, four, and five, make it abundantly clear what these good works are.

Sure. That's where the confusion happens. Well, a lot of it, a few more, I want to say some additional things about the text itself and to maybe put in my own words, what you just described as to what

James is driving at. And I think it's right that we would understand that what has occurred in Abraham's life in particular, because that's the lengthier example he's referencing back

Genesis 15, Abraham was declared just by God through the means of faith on the basis of the promises of God realized in Christ.

I mean, that's the understanding of the apostles, not up for debate. Then what he's arguing though, is that something that occurred decades later in Abraham's life with a lot of up and down and good and bad in between was, like he even uses, this is

Abraham's faith being brought to completion. This is Abraham's faith being validated.

This is Abraham's faith being in one sense demonstrated. This is the fruit of faith.

This is faith coming into maturity, right? All of that language is reformed and confessional language, that good works are fruit, evidence, confirmation, validation of saving faith.

And at the same time, the reform through history, along with the apostles have always maintained that yes, where there is real saving faith, there will be good works, but good works and faith must be kept distinct and you must keep that relationship intact, and we've done a lot of podcasts on that recently, how one flows from the other and works are not a part of faith, works are not a part of our justification before God, but they flow from it.

And that's the argument of James. And yes, I agree that James is now taking us to where you started to move us.

I agree that James in his entire letter is outlining what in the world those good works are. He's already been driving at love and unity, caring for people who are weak, not showing favoritism, all of that.

He's going to outline more of it in the chapters that follow chapter two. Amen. Right.

I think if you go back to Pietism ruins good works, that episode and the one that follows,

I think we really - And even the one before that law gospel and sanctification, right? That's right. That the motivation from, you know, it's the guilt, grace, gratitude.

Amen, dude. This is, I'll just go ahead and jump into this now. This is why in first John, we hear the same language from James.

So first John 4, 20, if anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love

God, whom he has not seen, and this commandment we have from him, whoever loves

God must also love his brother, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God and everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him.

I mean, how many times is he going to have to say it, but he's not done by this? We know that we love the children of God when we love

God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.

And Justin, here is such an important phrase, put it on your wall, tattoo it on your arm, and his commandments are not burdensome.

That's first John 5, 3. Justin, please explain to us why John would say, look, if you love

God, you love your brother, and if you love God, the evidence of that is you keep his commandments, which is what are the two great commandments, love

God, love your neighbor, and then he says they're not burdensome. Justin, why are they not burdensome?

All right, I'm going to say it briefly and we'll unpack it. In short, those commandments are not burdensome because heaven and hell don't hang in the balance.

Those commandments are not burdensome because the weight of the law has been born by Christ alone.

He's done it in our place for us. He fulfilled its penalty. He fulfilled its requirements. He invites us in Matthew 11 to come to him and find rest for our weary souls.

He says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. That is exactly what I think the apostle means. These things are not burdensome because we no longer are doing this for merit to earn something before God.

We are not doing this to escape punishment, the just wrath of God that we deserve. That's been dealt with and that's over.

We are saved, we're safe, we find rest in Christ, and now motivated by gratitude, motivated by love, motivated by freedom, and for the purpose of joy and the good of our neighbor, we do these things.

We've said this a lot, that so often good works or sanctification in general is made to sound terrible.

We've said a trip to the DMV, a trip to the dentist, pick your thing, whatever you hate going to do.

That's how obedience and sanctification and commandments and all that kind of stuff come across. And we tend in our legal frame,

I'll say this as well, we tend to divorce the commandments of God from God himself. And we look at the law as unnecessarily prohibitive, we look at it as this restricting thing, and we just completely misunderstand the purpose for which

God gave the law. There's all kinds of things going on, but they're not burdensome because we are free in Christ.

He handled it. And now these things are just really good. To use the language of Paul, we've become obedient from the heart.

And we now delight in the law of God. So let's do these things. Well, if you think about too, so let's just think about the nature of the gospel.

You've been set free from an impossible debt. You could not pay. And then you are promised, guaranteed, granted the endless righteous wealth inheritance of Jesus.

And he says, it's kept for you in heaven by the spirit. He who began a good work and you will complete it.

Your whole relationship with God is wrapped up in the sufficiency of Christ.

And then he says, if you love me, that's great. That means you understand what you have from me.

You understand the relationship and the connection that you have from me. But if you say you don't love your brother, you obviously don't know what you got from me because you could never in any circumstance receive such a gift and then reject others who've received such a gift.

You don't understand it. He goes, that's why it's not a burden to love your brother. If you think it's a burden, then you don't understand what you've received.

And he says, if you reject it, this is why I said the same language as James, because he says, if you reject this, you're a liar.

James is the same thing. He says, if you reject this, you have dead faith. Two comments.

One on the context of first John. I alluded to this maybe earlier. Several conversations are kind of melting together in my head at the moment.

It's fine. The context of first John, he is writing to a church that has been assailed by apostasy and bombarded by false teachings.

And so these Christians have been through it, man. They've had a lot of people leave them. You know, a lot of people's telling them that what we do in the body doesn't matter and they're not calling sin what it is, but then are also just deucing out.

It's like, peace, we're out of here. We're leaving you. And that's hard. I mean, if anybody's ever been through that context as a

Christian, where people who are a part of your church, who you have close relationships with, just kind of dip out and are kind of like,

I'm done with you, that hurts. And so the apostle is writing to people who have gone through that experience and he is affirming them and their legitimacy.

And again, I'm talking about first John right now. He's affirming them and their legitimacy and helping them see in part that the people who have abandoned them have not loved them.

And have therefore proved that they are not legit, you know, because if you are claiming

Jesus, you love the brethren and these people have not loved you. So take comfort. You are children of God, he says over and over and over again.

So that's one thought. A second thought that I think really matters, kind of circling back to something we touched on a few minutes ago, but that personal religious experience piece, and one of the reasons

I am convinced that we have such a hard time reading James rightly, or we have such a hard time reading first John rightly, is because the project of revivals, especially in America, and I'm talking about not just the second

Great Awakening, but even the first one, and I'm not trying to upset anyone, but the whole project of revivals in the

States was to produce an intensity of personal religious experience as the validation of one's conversion.

That's right. In particular, there was an emphasis. I mean, this is the language of Jonathan Edwards and others, right? There would be this intense period of fear and dread and trembling, followed by sincere commitment and fervor for God.

And I think we cannot help. That's so baked into the cake, bro, of our church context that I don't think we can help but read the

New Testament this way and read James this way, or John or whoever, whenever we see an imperative, whenever we see strong language like, you can't live like this.

You know, the redeemed don't do this. When we read that kind of language, we immediately start to think in those like fear, trepidation, dread kind of things.

I need to be shaking. I need to be afraid of God. And then I need to repent and give myself wholeheartedly to this anew.

And that personal fervor and intensity within me is the thing that we're looking for.

That's right. And that's damaging, man. It is. Yeah. The thing

I was trying to point out in my sermon is that we want to feel something that's related to our works and we want to have that significance.

And, you know, the confessions under good works is that our good works can bolster our assurance.

They can bolster our faith. Thanks for saying that. Yeah. And that I often find encouragement within the body of Christ when

I have the opportunity to show the affections of Jesus towards somebody. Because if you think about what a good work is, ultimately you're taking the nature and person and the words of God and you're reflecting it in word and action.

It's like that should encourage you if you're centering your life on the truth of Christ.

That should encourage you, right? It doesn't mean it always will, but it can. It doesn't mean it's the ultimate confirmation, but it can give that seasoning of life where it's like, man,

I can really taste the sweetness of Jesus. But then there are other times where the confession says that there are times where that's not the case.

So you can't ground your assurance there. But I want to say here, the ultimate goal of James is not the validation of their faith.

He's saying you are ardently rejecting the priority of the Christian life. This is where I think he's saying, and I can argue, and I did in my sermon and we will probably do in the

SR podcast, I can argue that the priority of the

Christian life, the point of ones who are justified, sanctified, glorified by the power of the work of the

Holy Spirit by faith and grace alone, the purpose of their life that 2 Peter says that if you don't show brotherly affection, you're ineffective and unfruitful, not in justifying or proving your justification in the goal of what?

Obeying the second commandment, which is to love your neighbor. You're ineffective in it. That's right. So good.

Final comments from me before we take it over to SR, and I'm not sure exactly what we're going to parse out over there.

We'll keep having this conversation. I think there's much that can be said. Well, I want to walk through some of these passages that just prove what

James is saying. Great. So we're going to do that in simple Revermanda here in a minute, and I'll explain what that even is, if you don't know. Final parting shot from me, two thoughts.

One, I'm really glad you brought up chapter 16 of our confession on good works, because it is entirely right that we would say and be consistent in communicating that, yes, we can and should be encouraged by our good works and by the good works of our brothers and sisters.

We can have our assurance bolstered—that's what the confession says—by our good works and by the good works of others indirectly as well.

That's wonderful, and that's the grace and kindness of God to us, because we're just seeing anew, I'm not what

I once was. I'm not what I used to be, and I'm really encouraged by that. And others are observing that in me, and I'm observing it in others.

It's like, hey, man, the Spirit of God's at work in us. This is good. We should absolutely live and talk like that.

But the thing is, is we're trying to hold those things in an appropriate place. We're not trying to ground our justification and our assurance on those things.

We are just receiving encouragement in terms of our assurance from those things. So that's the distinction that we want to be careful to maintain.

And yeah, I'm totally with you, John. Can I just add one passage to prove what you just said about the confession?

This is Jesus as He's about to go to the cross. He's trying to encourage His disciples in John 15. He says, no,

I'm sorry, this is wrong. Here we go. Yeah, John 15, 11.

Thank you. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

Hey, Justin, do you think the joy of Christ in our lives can agree to bring us some assurance? Maybe just a little?

A skosh. Yeah, just a little bit. The joy of Jesus is a great way to find some assurance. That's right. He says this. This is my commitment that you love one another.

He says, I've said these things to you that you may have my joy. Here's what I've told you. This is my commandment that you love one another.

So that you can see why that would be a priority for a Christian to go, OK, God's promised me joy.

He's promised me unity. He's promised me strength. And He didn't give me religious acts that are based upon my individual performance.

He says, take what you've. Why do we love? First, John, we love because He first loved us. We'll talk more about that. All right, so my final parting shot that might also lead us over into SR and give us some punchy fodder for conversation, just like I think is going on here in the early church.

Same thing happens today for us, where we are making a big deal about certain things in our personal religious experience and our personal devotional lives as the vindication and authentication of us, when in reality we are neglecting the things that are prescribed very clearly over and over again in the

New Testament for us who are in Christ. And that's not good. Whenever we do that, we're always prone to.

And I think it occurred 2 ,000 years ago here. It occurs in our day to day. We may discuss that in SR, we may not.

I'll leave it with you and you'll have to tune in to find out. The SR podcast, SR stands for Semper Reformanda.

So this comes from the phrase of the Reformation, the church reformed, always reforming.

And this is an extra episode that John and I record each week for our members, people who have partnered with Theocast in various ways, including financially supporting the ministry.

And Semper Reformanda is not just a podcast, though. It's a community of people who are embracing this kind of confessional theology that we talk about here every week.

And so there's an app that's got a great community building. We're all on there a lot and encouraging each other and asking each other questions and all those kinds of things, helping each other find churches.

It's really good. So if you're interested in Semper Reformanda and what that would mean, what that would look like for you to partner with Theocast, you can find information about that on our website, which is

Theocast .org. And John and I are headed over there right now and we're going to keep having this enjoyable, good, helpful conversation.

So you could, if you become a member, tune in and be a part of this conversation even today. Today could be the day.

So anyway, for many of you, let the listener understand, for many of you, we're going to talk with you over there on SR.

For others who might not be SR members yet, we'll talk to you again in the regular format next week.