The Weight of the Law
Notes
Transcript
A. Rapport for the time
B. Reading of the text
C. Review of the text
D. Relevance of the text
The Weight of the Law: Grace Over Judgment
The Weight of the Law: Grace Over Judgment
1. Partiality Prohibits Perfect Love
1. Partiality Prohibits Perfect Love
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
Royal law—most think this would be better translated Sovereign law. The decree from the one and only God of the universe can be summarized into a horizontal law and Vertical law
Vertical law:
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Horizontal law:
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
New Testament:
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 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.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
James is writing to a people who obviously are showing partiality amongst themselves and it really makes sense if the are in the middle of persecution. They must be showing favoritism towards those they believe might be able to help them escape the persecution or lighten its weight. James is warning them that as they are showing partiality they are committing sin and have become transgressors of the law.
transgressors: to go beyond the law, a person who customarily breaks or disobeys a law
It’s a dangerous loop they have gotten themselves into by showing favorites. James is telling them if they show favorites they are breaking the very law of God that they say they are living.
Gospel:—We are all transgressors of the law but we are no longer bound they way we once were apart from Christ.
James is leading up to a discussion on real faith and if we are believers whose lives have been changes our standing with God this morning comes from our faith in our savior and Lord Jesus Christ. In turn, this changes the relationship with others in this life because now I can see them the way that the Lord sees them. As desperate for him above all others things.
Without the grace of Christ, we fail to uphold this central command. Highlight how Jesus demonstrated perfect, non-partial love, reminding us grace is available to cleanse and empower us to love without partiality.
T.S.
2. One Breach, Total Breakage
2. One Breach, Total Breakage
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
The standard for holiness is way beyond our comprehension in my opinion. To think that holiness is an attribute of God in which he separates from sin and is devoted to seeking his own honor. Sin for you and I is not giving the honor to God that he is due but instead seeking out honor and glory for ourselves. When we show partiality and judge others we are setting ourself at the center of all and declaring what we see fit as holy. The Lord has an amazing way of piercing through our exterior and coming to the center of what our hearts are clinging tightly.
10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Rich young man
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ”
20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”
21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
This is the standard that Christ gave us..we have read the verse already
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 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.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Gospel—Christ’s atoning work has provided the grace that we desperately need to wash away our failures and provides us with the power to pursue the holiness of God that we could never obtain on our own. My life should be more obedient to the ways of God today than yesterday as I pursue Christ in the power of the Spirit to walk in his ways and give God the glory he deserves. It will not be your own power that you are walking in or you will fail miserably. And if honest will more than likely give up and say what’s the point. Embrace your weakness in the strength of christ.
T.S.
3. Mercy Manifested in Us
3. Mercy Manifested in Us
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Mercy—God’s goodness towards those in misery and distress
Final judgement—the last and ultimate proclamation by jesus Christ of the eternal destinies of all people, which will take place after the millennium and the rebellion that occurs at the end of it.
vs. 12...
6 He will render to each one according to his works:
7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,
10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
11 For God shows no partiality.
12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary
mercy triumphs over judgment. The person whose life is characterized by mercy is ready for the day of judgment, and will escape all the charges that strict justice might bring against him because by showing mercy to others he gives genuine evidence of having received God’s mercy.
vs. 13
We are to be people of Mercy because of the great amount of Mercy that has been shown to us.
9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another,
10 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”
Jesus:
21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’
29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’
30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
The Letter of James, Second Edition 2. Discrimination and the Kingdom Law of Love (2:8–13)
I therefore think it more likely that he is making a point about the way in which the mercy we show toward others demonstrates our desire to obey the law of the kingdom and, indirectly therefore, reveals a heart made right by the work of God’s grace. Believers, in themselves, 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 for vindication at the judgment.
This is the transformative power of Christ’s grace, urging us to forgive and show mercy. It’s a call to live grace-filled lives that reflect the mercy we've received through Jesus.
Application: Our lives will reflect the relationship we have with our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
