“that we shall be judged by the law of liberty … frees us from anxiety”
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I encourage you to look at the passage in James before you read this Blog entry. What do you see in the text yourself? What questions come to your mind? How would you interpret what the writer says? After even a few minutes examining and thinking about the text you will be much better prepared to evaluate the comments in the Blog.
James has already mentioned the poor and the rich (1:9-10) and particularly the sin of partiality (ESV) or personal favoritism (NASB) based on outward appearances (2:2-4). In this passage he pursues that theme to its broader consequences of our failure under the Old Covenant law. Then his argument leads into his well-known discussion of faith and works.
Snap Judgments
Our discussion began with the observation that we are all prone to snap judgments. Another person’s clothing or mannerisms or attitudes or language immediately stir in us a negative response. As one person observed, we can’t seem to “turn it off.” It happens so spontaneously, so involuntarily.
Someone else pointed to an earlier passage, we can deceive ourselves (1:22; cf. 1:26). Several comments suggested that “we think we are on the right track,” that we are justified in our unfavorable reaction. We feel certain that the judgmental attitude is not that serious. And besides, we are following God in so many other positive ways.
But James cuts to the heart of the problem when he says, “You have dishonored the poor man” (v. 6a). The issue is the relational sin involved in that partiality. We considered what the opposite of “dishonored” might be. The final consensus was that we would treat anyone the same as anyone else, neither ignoring the poor man nor lavishing attention on the rich man described in verses 2-3.
“But,” someone asked, “is that being dishonest? Are we just pretending to be nice to someone we would rather avoid? Are we just acting out of obligation rather than sincerity?” We agreed that each of us has our unique motivations, ranging from genuine compassion to grudging obedience. A key to remember is that for all of us there is a mixture of self obsession and God obsession in this and every other action. We want to obey God but we also want to protect ourselves from awkward encounters. We want to make the person feel welcome, but we also want others to see us do it. The continuous battle between self obsession and God obsession is waged in our heart. We recognize and repent of the self-obsessed motives, and we rejoice and respond to even the smallest hint of God-obsessed desire for His glory.
“I’m Not Gonna Make It”
James doesn’t let up. He continues his “intensely practical…punch in the face” approach. God does not grade on the curve; the obedience He demands is absolute. James illustrates this staggering truth by associating the “not so serious” issue of partiality with two more recognizable evils: adultery and murder (v. 11). He makes his point crystal clear:
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point
has become guilty of all of it. (James 2:10)
Perhaps this severity results from the fact that the law is an expression of God’s righteousness. As His image bearers, we have the privilege of displaying His character. Even one deviation distorts that demonstration.
A member of our group described the visceral reaction from that verse every time he reads it, “I’m not gonna make it. I should just quit here.”
Several people responded with the reassuring words of the gospel, that Jesus died for our sins, that He has paid the price in full, that believers now possess His perfect righteousness.
Those are all welcome truths that we depend on. Those responses are important and appropriate when we experience guilt or shame over our sin. We need to remind each other and remind ourselves of those glorious realities.
But James does not offer those comforts. Instead, he returns to the word “law.”
The Perfect, Royal, Law of Liberty
James uses the word “law” in addressing his audience, perhaps because of their Jewish heritage. His devastating declaration about keeping the whole law would discourage dependence on that heritage. Clearly no one could accomplish that standard. There would have been many who would have felt the Hebrew equivalent of, “I’m not gonna make it.”
But James adds a new modifier for “law.” He previously called the law “perfect” and “the law of liberty” (James 1:25), and then “the royal law” (2:8). He expands on his meaning of the royal law, the law of the King: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He is quoting Jesus.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:39; cf. Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27)
Jesus was summarizing the foundation of the Law and the Prophets by quoting two separate commands (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19.18).
The only definition of “the law of liberty” that James offers is that brief quotation. And he quotes only the second part of Jesus’ summary, the emphasis on “love your neighbor.” Perhaps that relational emphasis was essential because of the issues of anger (1:19), unbridled tongues (1:26), the practical needs of orphans and widows (1:27), and sinful partiality (2:1-4). The law of liberty reminds us that the essence of the law is relational, a reflection of the relational Triune God.
We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.[1]
The law of liberty is James’s answer to our, “I’m not gonna make it.” No, we’re not, if we have to keep “the whole law” (v. 10) of the Old Covenant. The standard of the Old Covenant was all or nothing, a “system that was fair but unlivable.”[2] The standard of the New Covenant (although James doesn’t use that language) is to remember the law of liberty, to speak and act (v. 12) in light of the mercy we have received (v. 13).
Jesus’ beatitude on showing mercy (Mt 5:7) may be in James’s mind here, but the closest biblical parallels to the contrast in these two verses are found in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Mt 18:32 – 35) and in the Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:12, 14 -15). If we absolutely refuse to show mercy to others, we demonstrate that we have never truly-received God’s mercy ourselves (cf. also Sir 27:30 – 28:7). When we pray for God’s forgiveness, we declare that we are simultaneously forgiving those who have sinned against us.[3]
In case we need a reminder of that writer’s sources:
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy (Matthew 5:7)
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors…. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:12,14-15)
Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. (Matthew 18:32-35)
And from the Apocrypha,
2 Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done,
and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.
3 Does anyone harbor anger against another
and expect healing from the Lord?
4 If people have no mercy toward those like themselves,
can they then seek pardon for their own sins? (Sirach 28:2-4)[4]
Both James and Jesus (and a Jewish writer around 200 BC) assume that our mercy toward others is intimately linked to God’s mercy to us. A heart redeemed by God will be marked by mercy toward others.
Our need for God’s gracious mercy is not debatable. It is essential. And our expression of mercy displays His essential work in us.
The believer, in himself, will always deserve God’s judgment: conformity to the “royal law” is never perfect, as it must be (vv. 10-11). But our merciful attitude and actions will count as evidence of the presence of Christ within us. And it is on the basis of this union with the one who perfectly fulfilled the law for us that we can have confidence of vindication at the judgment.[5]
Such merciful words and deeds are not the products of human effort. That radical change in attitude and behavior, “turning off” those snap judgments, is the word of God, the effect of the implanted word (James 1:21).
Hard or Easy?
In a chapter entitled “Is Christianity Hard or Easy” C. S. Lewis says
it is both harder and easier than what we are all trying to do. You have noticed, I expect, that Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, ‘Take up your Cross’—in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden light.’ He means both. And one can just see why both are true.[6]
The law of liberty is good news that follows that “both hard and easy” pattern. Outward acts that conform to certain rules are not enough, as demonstrated by Jesus’ teaching on lust and anger as adultery and murder (Matthew 5:21-28) – the same sins cited by James. And yet mercy is the prominent feature of the law of liberty. The mercy we are shown is the standard for our words and our actions.
The law of liberty is at once more exacting and more merciful than the law of bondage. … To bear in mind therefore that we shall be judged by the law of liberty tends to produce in us a deeper conviction of sin, at the same time that it frees us from anxiety, because we believe that God Himself desires that we may be perfect as He is perfect, and that He will accomplish this perfection in us by the presence of His Holy Spirit in our hearts….[7]
Living the Law of Liberty
We explored the reality of showing mercy and avoiding partiality. Often it truly is a joy. We speak to a lonely person and they respond good-naturedly. We help a cranky neighbor and that experience builds the beginning of a friendship. We sense God’s presence in the outcome.
But other times just become more awkward or discouraging. The stranger at church we speak to is unresponsive or even rude. The neighbor whose snow we shoveled doesn’t thank us or even acknowledge the effort. “How do we love the person we don’t like?” someone asked. How do we avoid the partiality of only approaching friendly people or only shoveling the snow for the other neighbor, the one who baked us cookies the last time? Our natural tendency is to “speak and act” based on our expectations of others and of their response. As a group member observed, “James makes us look inward, and it’s kind of ugly.”
That seems to be the intention James has in mind. We need to see that “I’m not gonna make it.” Only then, someone pointed out, can we really appreciate and cherish and cling to grace.
We must see that grace is not optional, not an add-on to our own efforts. We don’t need just a little grace to make up for our deficiencies. Our need is not only mercy for the “one point” of failure (v. 10). Even if we perfectly keep all the rest of the law (which is unlikely), we need mercy for distorting the image of a Holy God. As another member commented, we need to see even the one point of failure as our “rampant wickedness” (James 1:10). Only then are we able to appreciate the inconceivable grace we have been shown. Another person reminded us that we continuously receive that mercy as we continue to sin despite our best efforts.
That appreciation of the mercy benefitting us is our motive and our model for the mercy we show to others. The relational nature of God has established the pattern of mercy triumphing over judgment. As we grow in showing mercy to others, we increasingly demonstrate His character. Greeting the unresponsive stranger or shoveling the cranky neighbor’s snow (again!) may still be awkward. We may still be disappointed in the reaction, but we are still under the law of liberty. We can remind ourselves and each other of the law of liberty and God’s mercy that has triumphed over His judgment of us. The freedom granted to us frees us to reflect His mercy in our treatment of others.
[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis Signature Classics (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2021) Kindle Edition, location 1102, page 80.
[2] Larry Crabb, The Pressure’s Off: There’s A New Way to Live (New York: Waterbrook, 2018), 32; Kindle Edition location 487.
[3] Craig L. Blomberg, and Mariam J. Kamell, James, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 123.
[4] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+28&version=NRSVUE
[5] Douglas Moo, The Letter of James (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2000), 118.
[6] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis Signature Classics (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2021) Kindle Edition, location 2447, page 197.
[7] Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James; The Greek Text with Introduction and Comments (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1978), 208-209.