Part 2: True Faith Confesses Personal Responsibility for Sin

Introduction

1000 Fresh Illustrations Accountability

Each year the Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch holds a contest to highlight the lengths manufacturers must go through to avoid lawsuits resulting from misuse of their products.

The label winning fourth place in the Wacky Warning Label Contest was found on the package for a five-inch fishing lure with three large steel hooks. It read, “Harmful if swallowed.” It’s a good thing fish can’t read.

A Virginia man won $250 for a label on a snow sled, which advised users, “Warning, sled may develop high speed under certain snow conditions.” The first place warning was found on a bottle of drain cleaner. It read, “If you do not understand, or cannot read all directions, cautions, and warnings, do not use this product.”

Robert Dorigo Jones, president of the nonprofit group says the warning labels “are a sign of our lawsuit-plagued times.” He adds, “It used to be that if someone spilled coffee in their lap, they simply called themselves clumsy. Today, too many people are calling themselves an attorney.”

In our society, people don’t always take responsibility for their actions, but one day, we will all give account for what we’ve done, and God will hold us accountable.

—Associated Press, Group Points Out Wacky Warning Labels, January 12, 2004, Submitted by Jim Sandell.

No one wants to take responsibility for their actions.

One of my favorites: a window AC unit instruction book said, “WARNING: do not use AC unit in window.”

“The dog ate my homework.” “The devil made me do it.”

You cannot imagine how many college students cannot submit an assignment because they have loved ones dying--every week.Sometimes students have the same grandma dying multiple times in a 7 week time span.

We want to blame everyone else for our problems.

Not much is different when it comes to sin.

1. God Does Not Tempt Anyone (1:13)

James 1:13 (NASB95)

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 1)

No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone.

Note what the point is: that when we are going through trials, we should not think that God is trying to tempt us to sin or lose faith in him.

And it is more than just thinking it, we should not even utter such a notion:

Don’t Say It

Lit. - “Not one person who is undergoing a trial should say . . .” I.e., James is giving a command not to say that God is tempting us when we are going through a trial. It is an imperative. James is saying: “Don’t you dare say it.”

Why?

God Cannot Do It

“For God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”

The reason why should not utter that our trial is a temptation from God is two-fold: (1) God himself cannot be tempted.

Temptation is an impulse to sin and God, because he is perfectly holy, has no impulse to sin. As such, he cannot even experience temptation. What follows from this is that God cannot even tempt anyone else.

Perhaps we have heard it said that “God can do anything.” But if we slow down and think about it for a moment, this is not true. God cannot do things that go against his nature, or who he is.

Here in James, we see that God cannot tempt anyone. We also know that God cannot sin (that would be against his nature as holy and perfect). God cannot go against his promises. He cannot be unfaithful. He cannot even make a circle be a square or 2+2 = 5 or a stone so large that he cannot lift it. All these types of things would go against who he is as a rational, logical, almighty, perfect God.

So if God cannot tempt us, and he is not tempting us in times of trial, then who is? We might be tempted (!) to say that it is the devil, or Satan. There may be some truth to that, but this is not James’ point here. Rather, he says the temptation comes from ourselves:

2. We Are Responsible for Our Sin (1:14-16)

James 1:14 (NASB95)

But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

We Take the Bait

We are enticed and then dragged away by our own lust.

Fishing imagery: the bait on a fisherman’s hook entices or lures the fish, and once the fish is caught it is dragged away.

And did you catch what the bait is here? Our own lust.

It is not God who provides the bait to lure us. It is not even Satan who provides the bait and lures us. It is our own sinful desires and lusts.

Romans 7:15-25:

Amplified Bible (Chapter 7)

For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns].

16 Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

17 However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.

18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.]

19 For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing.

20 Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [fixed and operating in my soul].

21 So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.

22 For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature]. [Ps. 1:2.]

23 But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].

24 O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?

And it is not just that we have taken the bait; we have taken it hook, line, and sinker:

Hook, Line, and Sinker

James 1:15–16 NASB95

Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

When we take the bait, we end up swallowing a lot more than we can chew. Our lust tempts us, we take the bait, then we sin, and then we die.

Slide Illustration: Lust > temptation > sin > death

That’s the process.

The Point: True faith confesses personal responsibility for sin: we bring about death

Application from 1. and 2.:

(1) When we go through a trial, we ought to expect temptation. We ought to expect that our sinful desires and lusts will bubble to the top.

Douglas Moo, The Letter of James (E. While God Tests His People, He Never Tempts Them to Sin (1:13–18))

Every trial brings temptation. Financial difficulty can tempt us to question God’s providence in our lives. The death of a loved one can tempt us to question God’s love for us. The suffering of the righteous poor and the ease of the wicked rich can tempt us to question God’s justice, or even his existence. Thus testing almost always includes temptation, and temptation is itself a test.

It is always at our weakest moments—facing trials—when our old sinful selves—our old sinful lusts and desires—arise from the depths of the sea and send out a hook to lure us in.

(2) We cannot blame others for our sinful actions. We must take responsibility for our sins. No excuses.

We cannot blame our parents, siblings, authority figures, environment or circumstances, genetics, God, or Satan. We must confess that we are sinners. We are tempted by our own lusts.

We must confess with Paul in Romans 3:10–12 “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.’”

We must confess along with the tax collector in Luke 18:13: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”

(3) We humans are the answer to the question of the problem of evil in the world.

Humans: “Why does God allow so much suffering and death in the world? Why does God allow evil in the world?”

If God were a loving God, he would stop all the evil. I suppose they assume that God ought to be a helicopter parent who swoops in every time their children are about to make a wrong decision or experience an unpleasant circumstance and save them.

But this is not God. He is not going to override your’s and other’s free will to make you or others always do good. If he were to override your free will, he would be eliminating the very thing that makes love possible. You must have a free will in order to genuinely love.

Another way to look at this: Why does God allow evil in the world is the wrong question.

God: “Why do you humans, whom I created good, commit so much evil in the world?”

Douglas Moo, The Letter of James (E. While God Tests His People, He Never Tempts Them to Sin (1:13–18))

While God may test or prove his servants in order to strengthen their faith, he never seeks to induce sin and destroy their faith

If we were to leave our discussion here, it would be rather depressing. But James does not do this. Rather, he shows us what God is known for. After telling us that God cannot be tempted and does not tempt us, he tells us what God does, in fact, do.

3. God Gives Only Good Gifts (1:17-18)

James 1:17 NASB95

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

God Can Give Only Good Gifts

Just like God cannot be tempted and does not tempt anyone, the opposite is true: the only thing he can do is that which is good.

Every good thing in this world comes from God. James did not say “some”; he said every good thing.

It is easy to think that we or someone else has a hand in the good things in this life--to give ourselves the credit.

Humanity often prides itself on its accomplishments, e.g., engineering feats, going to space, technology, AI, etc. But, ultimately, all these good things are from God. No matter what good there is in this world--the beauty of a sunrise or sunset, food, clothes, housing, family--it is all from God. He is the ultimate author of all good things.

And this would even include God allowing us to face various trials. Recall that God uses trials to teach us perseverance, which then leads to becoming like Jesus. And we can take this to the bank because of who God is:

“There is no variation or shifting shadow” with God.

“variation” = “passing from one hand to the other,” transmission, i.e., change; God does not change (aka immutability); God is always good.

“shifting shadow” = the casting of a shadow like a sundial; the shadow moves as the sun moves across the sky. There is no movement of change in God.

God is concerned with giving us ONLY good gifts.

We know this because of the greatest gift he gave:

God Gives the Greatest Gift

James 1:18 NASB95

In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

The gift given is none other than salvation from sin, death, and decay.

“brought us forth by the word of truth” = brought forth lit is “to give birth to.” It is parallel to v. 15 (when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin).

“Word of truth” = the Gospel (as James uses it)

Literary genius here: We give birth to sin and death; God gives birth to goodness and life.

And note the emphasis that it is God who gives us new birth:

“In the exercise of HIS will HE brought us forth by the word of truth.”

We did not bring make ourselves new; God did.

Romans 7:24-25 (AMP):

“O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death? O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

The Point: God gives nothing but good gifts of which salvation (life) is the greatest one; we produce sin and death. We must blame ourselves for when we are tempted and sin. We cannot blame God.

Conclusion

What this means for us is simple: we must take responsibility for our own sin.

There will come a time when we will be held accountable for it:

Romans 2:6–8 NASB95

[God] will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.

Here’s the problem: no one fits the category of being good. Rather, all of us are not good. We have sinned.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”