Esgetology

October 23, 2022

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA

Fellow disciples of Jesus: from ancient times the Church remembered on certain days the apostles and other martyrs. Today is set aside to remember James of Jerusalem. James is mentioned in today’s Gospel reading as one of the brothers of Jesus. The NT in other places also repeats that James is the Lord’s brother. While there is no little disagreement, this most likely means that Mary and Joseph had other children.

Those siblings of Jesus did not believe their Brother was the Christ. “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” But something changed. That something is the resurrection. St. Paul tells us that the risen Jesus made a special appearance to His brother James (1 Cor. 15.7).

James soon becomes a leader in the Jerusalem church. He is their bishop, and Paul lists James before Peter and John as pillars of the church.

Today’s first reading, from Acts 15, tells us about the first great controversy the Church faced: do the Gentile Christians have to follow Jewish ceremonial laws? It’s James who settles the controversy and gives the parameters: all Christians should stay away from false worship, sexual immorality, and the Gentiles should avoid eating meats cooked in the blood, to not give offense to the Jewish believers.

James comes to be nicknamed “James the Just,” which sounds nice in English. It meant something more like “James the Pious.” Hegesippus in his Ecclesiastical History says James “frequently entered the temple alone and was frequently found situated upon his knees asking forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard after the manner of a camel, on account of always bending down upon a knee while worshipping God and asking forgiveness for the people.”

The color is red today for the blood of James. It was spilled when they threw him from the pinnacle of the temple. James did not immediately die; he knelt and prayed, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” He was then stoned and beaten with a fuller’s club.

It’s gruesome. But it shows us that something is more important than a comfortable home and pumpkin spice coffee. Perhaps we are not martyred because we give in long before it comes to that.

James the Just was not given to compromise. Aside from his important sermon in Acts 15, we have his great epistle, from which we heard the first portion this morning.

James teaches us that temptation gives opportunity to desire. Desire begets sin, and sin begets death. Humanity is shrouded in the deception that giving in to desire will bring happiness. It doesn’t. Desire brings death. So “Do not be deceived,” writes James. Listen instead to God’s Word: “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” [1.19f].

So St. James is clear: the Word of God produces His righteousness. In the preceding verses he uses terms for Baptism, that God gave us His gift “from above,” and “brought us forth by the Word of truth.”

So salvation is God’s work. But James is very concerned that no one thinks it doesn’t matter how you live. For there are people who say they believe, but they never repent, they never turn away from sin. So after James makes it clear that God makes us righteous by His free gift, he then says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (1.22).

He goes on to rebuke the church for paying more attention to rich people, the sin of partiality (which also applies to things like racism today). Then comes the famous saying, “Faith without works is dead” (2.17). James, you see, is very concerned that we not think of faith as believing there is a god “Even the demons believe” (2.19) that! Faith isn’t an intellectual assent to a set of propositions.

All that is the background to the notoriously disputed saying, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (2.24). James is speaking here about the faith of demons, the kind of faith that acknowledges there is a god but doesn’t repent. This dead faith turns the neighbor away who is hungry.

What else does dead faith do?

Dead faith turns the Gospel into a license to sin
Dead faith views relationships in terms of power
Dead faith sees people as opportunities or obstacles
Dead faith is anxious about money
Dead faith is anxious about time
Dead faith delights in criticism
Dead faith sees the commandments as a way to judge others, never a mirror to judge the self
Dead faith likes Lutheranism because they’ve heard you can “sin boldly”

That’s a lie. On the cusp of the Reformation, remember that the best way to understand the Lutheran distinction between salvation and good works is through this important Lutheran dogmatic principle: “Faith alone saves, but faith is never alone.”

There is no contradiction between Reformation doctrine and the words of James, unless we want to say there’s a contradiction between Paul and James. Because the principle “Faith alone justifies” comes from the Bible, not Luther. Luther got it from reading the Bible. That was the whole point. Luther lived in a milieu where good works were identified as venerating bones, renouncing family life, and howling Latin in monasteries. The money went to bishop’s palaces, while people starved. Meanwhile, the people were taught nothing about faith in Christ. Context matters.

But there is no contradiction between faith in Christ and doing good works. The good works show the faith. That’s what St. James is saying. The key word is see: “You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only.” You can’t see faith, you can only see its fruits. The Book of Concord, the great collection of Reformation teaching, puts it this way:

The works spoken of here are those that follow faith and show that faith is not dead but living and active in the heart. James, therefore, did not think that we merit the forgiveness of sins and grace through good works. After all, he is talking about the works of those who have been justified, who have already been reconciled and accepted, and who have obtained the forgiveness of sins. [Ap IV.246]

This is the life of the justified. James the Just teaches in the first chapter justification, that we are saved by Christ’s work. He gives us from the above the new birth, as was begun in Miriam this morning. James then goes on to say in chapter two, here’s what that life is suppose to look like. James the Just teaches the life of the justified, a life of showing no partiality, a life that loves the neighbor.

In chapter three he then says that the justified control their tongues. “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so” [3.10]! Then in chapter four he tells us we can’t look to the world for our pleasures. Instead we must submit to God and spend our lives in repentance. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” [4.10]. But if you live for riches, he says in chapter 5, misery will come upon you. “Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire” [5.3]. The letter concludes by admonishing us to pray, confess our sins, and forgive each other.

In all of this, James the brother of Jesus, James the Just, teaches us the life of the justified. And with his own death he shows us how to die: confess Jesus to the end, and pray that God forgives those who hurt us.

All praise to Jesus, who appeared to His brother James, and made him a teacher of faith and an example of good works. +INJ+