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| JAMES LESSON #10 Test: an event or set of circumstances that proves what�s true and what�s fake What�s the proof? It�s not words- it�s performance. The death and resurrection of Jesus has just �birthed� a new �religion� ��Christianity.� The first ones to walk through the church doors? Jews � a group of people who had more theology than any on the face of the earth. They knew the rules and regulations. The argued over who was most righteous � basing righteousness on what they did or didn�t do. Take a look at Deuteronomy 23. Just scan down through the chapter. You�ll quickly see that the first half of the chapter indicates that if you do what you�re told everything will be great � the second half indicates that if you get out of hand, life will get pretty tough for you. So � the Jewish mindset was very very much like what we�re brought up to believe: If you are a good little girl or a good little boy, it will go well with you. If you misbehave, life�s going to get rough! The �thinking� was already in place. The problem? Nothing they were experiencing fit with what they�d learned. When you look at the text you see Jews running in every direction from persecution because they are �believing and obeying.� This was the EXACT OPPOSITE of what they�d been taught. Jesus disrupted the plan and set the ground work in place for a whole new way of thinking, living and being. Nobody understood. So why did James write this letter? He KNEW that all the �doing� had to be a response of the heart � not the head. Up until this point, it was all �head� response. �I�m doing this because I�m supposed to do this because someone told me I�m supposed to do this �� sound familiar? Self check: In my life: Why do I go to church? If I pray, why do I pray? If I read my Bible, why do I read it? If I am involved in community service, why am I involved? -is the experience alive? -is the experience one you can�t not do? -are you longing for more? -is it empty? It was for me, for a very long time. I lived a life of �external righteousness� � never knowing �how� to have �internal righteousness� � Never understanding what my part was in the picture: just knowing, there was something missing- a deep longing that never seemed to find satisfaction: Look at James 1:25 What does James call �the law?� He calls it the �law of liberty.� -Far cry from what I�d experienced- far cry from what the Jews had experienced. The laws they lived under exposed what they were not: only to force them to pretend to be what they could never be: sound familiar? The harder I worked at being perfect, the more imperfect I saw myself to be: which forced me into the deepest emptiness I�ve ever known � a world of �pretending� to be what �everybody else said� was �good enough� � never ever really knowing how: never ever really having the ability to meet all the expectations- only to try harder to be perfect - The result: emptiness and bondage- a far cry from freedom. James starts right off telling them that there are benefits in trials. In chapter 1 he nails home that it�s not just about �knowing� the law � it�s about �doing� it. Problem was, these guys had been so burdened by the rules and regulations that they were barely surviving beneath them. They were sick of �doing� � it wasn�t working. So what had changed? Jeremiah 31:31-34 In verse 31 �what�s the �new covenant?� Hang on a minute. In verse 32 the covenant is the �law� � the rules and regulations that were written on tablets of stone and presented by Moses to the people. Verse 33- Where will the law be placed? Still �external?� No. INTERNAL � HOW? Verse 34: I will what? Forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. But how? Ezekiel 36:24-28 He�s going to bring the Jews back into their own land, cleanse and restore them. Verse 26: How? He�s going to give them a new heart by doing what? Putting a new Spirit inside them. What �new Spirit?� Verse 27: HIS. What will cause them to walk in obedience? Their heads? What they�ve been told? Their own �will power?� No. HIS SPIRIT. God KNEW we couldn�t do it on our own. How�s all of this supposed to happen? Hebrews 8:6 He (Jesus) is the �mediator� � the One who brings it into position- of a better covenant � Verse 7, For the first covenant (the Law � rules and regulations) didn�t work: It didn�t forgive sin. It didn�t effect the �inside of man� � And because of that � verses 7-13 He�s bringing into position a whole new covenant. How? Hebrews 9:14-15 �how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works (all the Old Testament rituals that you failed) And for this reason � what reason? To cleanse your inner man from sin � He (Jesus) is the mediator (the One who�s bringing everything into position) of a new covenant in order that (so that) since a death has taken place for the redemption (payment for) the transgressions (sins) that were committed under the first covenant (Old Testament Law), those who have been called (those who believe) may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (part of that inheritance is eternal life) Hebrews 9:16 For where a covenant is, (an agreement) there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. (We�re talking about getting an inheritance here- In the case of a will, it�s necessary to prove the death of the one who made the will. The one who made the will does not ask the one who�s getting the will whether or not it�s acceptable. Hebrews 9:17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead � for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. (The New Covenant would have never been activated unless Jesus had died: His death is what released �the inheritance.�) So back to the original battle ground: What had changed? James is writing a letter to these guys who knew nothing but do do do and do some more: And he�s saying, �Don�t just �hear� � DO! Something has changed. What? We already discovered they�d moved from head to heart � but how did that happen? Ephesians 2:3 That�s �all� of us- Circle that word. We were born in sin: bound to do whatever Satan snapped his fingers and demanded we do: unable to say ..�NO� � and walk away � Ephesians 2:8-9 For by �grace� � Grace is �unmerited, unearned favor� � you have been saved through �faith� � Faith is the �gift� that God gives to anyone who asks that gets us into the grace. It is a gift of God, not of works (not by doing, or being good enough � not by meeting all the expectations of others) should anyone brag about it- Thing is, James isn�t teaching about salvation: These Jews are already saved: Read on Ephesians 2:10 James is teaching about �CONDUCT� � He was concerned that these new Christians would take �grace� and decide that they were saved and could just go live any way they want. Nope- doesn�t work that way. James starts in with �It DOES matter how you live!� Don�t just �hear� and go do your own thing. Obey. We�re going to go there a lot. But- for the moment I want to take a look at where a lot of us get �stuck� � and walk around on �empty� most of the time. When you look at Ephesians 2:8-9 you see incredible �mercy.� When you look at all we talked about in Hebrews, you see incredible �mercy.� What happens to all the truth you�ve built around yourself to excuse yourself for the way you are, when you encounter �mercy?� How do you �defend� yourself when you encounter �mercy?� You can�t. In mercy � there�s nothing to defend because nothing is being attacked, right? This whole �heart vs. head� thing is about control: Control of �you.� Who�s in charge? Who�s in charge of your dreams? Who�s in charge of your hopes? Who�s in charge of your day tomorrow? So many times we think that if we don�t surrender who we are to God, �we�re in charge.� Not so. We never have �control� of who we are- but rather, are manipulated by what we�ve been told � by the expectations of others � by what everything around us suggests through sight, and sound is cool, or �right for me-� THOSE are the things to which we surrender control of who we are. The �control� we have is merely in the choice of Who or what we surrender our lives to. All the legalism�s, the do�s and don�ts � all the expectations and opinions of others offer false security: All these things are rooted in �fear.� I HAVE to be good OR ELSE!!! Question: Do you see any �acceptance� in that picture at all? I don�t. Actually what I do see is a LOT of self-rejection - I don�t know who I am, so I�ll be what everybody else and everything else tells me I should be � then..I�ll fit in. But.. Do you? No- The key to Ephesians 2:8-9 and to the entire book of James is �trust.� Should you get to the point in your life where you really want to start �trusting� the heart of God � the one that loves you more than any other on this planet � you will find that as you �ask� God for the faith you need to receive the grace He�s offered you and start �trusting� His heart for your day- your hopes- your dreams: you will see the slow, steady and miraculous transformation of YOU- You�ll move from whipping a prayer into the breeze in a crises, asking God to fix this or help you with that : to asking God to �include you in HIS day-� which in prayer, puts you in the proper position: one that follows. From self-rejection to self-acceptance How? It�s beginnings- It�s root- Is found in the �unconditional� acceptance of Jesus Christ: there IS NO REJECTION there. Get this: once again: Nothing you do or don�t do will ever change how deeply He loves you. The �doing� is not something you �learn� � It�s something you �follow� � And we�ll talk a whole lot more about that as we venture into the book of James. Love to all of you, Robin � copyright 2001 Jim and Robin Hibschman |
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