At His Word

Has anyone else struggled with the book of James? You’re spending time getting to know God as Father, Jesus says that He is the exact representation of who our Father is, we’re saved by grace through faith (Jesus on the cross, remember?) and then we get to the book of James. The joy of the Lord comes to a screeching halt and there’s a strong tendency to allow guilt and condemnation to sweep all over you. What the heck?!?!

We go from reading the book of Romans, we’re justified by faith and not by works, but then it seems that we’re told the opposite in the book of James. And it’s not just the book of Romans – we can read about our righteousness coming by faith in every other book of the New Testament!

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT

We can’t take credit for our salvation. Period. This means that our salvation is not dependent on our behavior. Then there’s James.

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. James 1:22-25 NLT

For quite a long time, this passage didn’t convict me – encouraging me to be better – but it condemned me. There is a difference and it’s important to know the difference. I struggled because the Law (the Big Ten) was perfect! It was perfect and holy – but it wasn’t given to set us free. It was given to open our eyes to see that we needed a Savior. We would never be able to keep the Law, so Jesus came to save us.

Please don’t take this as an excuse to go out and live a sinful life. That is absolutely not what I am saying. What I am saying is that the Law, in all of its perfection could never make us perfect. It could only come through Jesus.

What, then, was James rattling on about? I was recently listening to a pastor out of Ohio who pointed me in the right direction. Take a moment to read John 4:43-54 (the story of Jesus healing a government official’s son).

Jesus has just come from a stay in Samaria where many people came to believe in Him. Then He comes into Galilee. Kind of like crossing the tracks. On one side is one type of people and the other is another type – and you never associate yourself with someone from the other side. Even though He was from the Galilee side, they were only interested in what He could do – they only wanted to see a bunch of miracles. They weren’t hungry for Him, they just wanted to see the show.

A royal government official – someone who had authority and clout – had heard about Jesus. He heard where Jesus was and decided that he would journey the one to two days to beg Jesus to journey back with him one to two days so that his son would be healed. This man was desperate to have Jesus come to his home to heal his son (a four-day roundtrip journey). This man of authority was probably used to ordering people around and having them hop to it. But when he came to Jesus, he was begging.

Now remember – the Galileans wanted the show. The Message translation tells us that they were impressed with Him, but they had no clue who He was or what He was up to. Jesus did nothing without there being a purpose and the purpose of the miracles – the signs and wonders – was to reveal the heart of God, the Father, and to reinforce His identity as the Son of God. Jesus knew what they wanted and called them out on it. He said that they won’t believe anything unless they see miraculous signs and wonders – they won’t take Him at His word (John 4:48).

But the royal government official was different. In John 4:50, when Jesus told the official that his son would live, we’re told that the official took Jesus at His word – he believed the word that Jesus spoke.

Do we? Do we take Him at His word? Or do we forget as soon as it’s not in front of our face?

Do we take Him at His word when He tells us that He came to bring us abundant life (John 10:10)? Do we believe Him when He tells us that He’ll never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5)? There’s a lot of people who believe that sin still separates us from God, but that’s not true – it’s not what His Word tells us (Psalm 103:12). Do we believe that it’s God’s will for us to be sick, diseased, or disabled? That’s not what His Word says (Psalm 103:3, Isaiah 53:5, Jeremiah 17:7-8, John 10:10, II Peter 3:9 to name a few).

Do we take Him at His word when He tells us that we’re forgiven (Ephesians 1:7-8, Colossians 1:13-14)? That we belong to Him (Isaiah 43:1)? That He loves us (Zephaniah 3:17, John 3:16-17, Romans 5:8)?

When we take Him at His word, we’re going to naturally walk in His ways. The desires that would pull us away from God will lose their appeal, and we’ll walk in obedience seemingly without even knowing it. We’ll look in the mirror, see our identity that is in Him (Acts 17:28), and when we walk away from the mirror, we won’t forget what we saw. We will take Him at His word. We will see His perfect love and find freedom.

Are you taking Him at His word?