Law of Liberty - Part 2 A Pane of Glass

God’s law is like a pane of glass, not a stack of stones.

It’s funny what you remember, you know?

When I was, I don’t know, 7, 8, 9 years old, a man lived across the street from us who had been divorced.

His son, whose name was Randy by the way, came to visit him every other weekend.

He was my age and we became friends.

One day Randy and I were sitting on top of the dog house in the back yard and another friend came up.

He was a little older and immensely more popular and I was thrilled that he would grace us with his presence.

Only he had a game he wanted to play called, “Two’s company - Three’s a crowd.”

The idea was, Randy had to go home and if he did, the boy would stay and play with me.

I knew that was wrong, but I wanted him to stay, so I said, “Three’s company - four’s a crowd.”

But I wasn’t older and I wasn’t the most popular.

And I caved.

And Randy went home with very hurt feelings.

And I was miserably guilty.

Randy’s dad called my mom.

Mom sent the other boy home and she let me explain what happened.

She sent me to Randy’s house - I apologized and Randy forgave me.

And that never happened again.

You know what I find funny.

Maybe you never do it - but I have - and still do when I do something particularly dumb.

I can remember time after time of things I’ve done things that are particularly dumb.

I really believe it’s easier to recall our failures than it is to recall our successes.

And maybe there’s a reason for that - maybe its ingrained in our moral fiber.

Breaking God’s law - really that’s what I did that day - it wasn’t very loving to send Randy home so I could play with someone else.

God’s law is like a pane of glass, not a stack of stones.

We’ll talk about that in a minute.

Take your Bibles out and open them to James 2:8-13.

If you are watching by live stream or video, you’ll want to get your Bibles out as well so we can all read along together.

This is the Word of the Lord.

James 2:8–13 ESV

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 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. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

This is the Word of the Lord, Thanks be to God.

We talked a lot last week about how God gave the law to set us free to follow Him.

And we talked a lot about some of the specific ways God defined loving our neighbor as ourselves.

We said that loving our neighbor means we are free to care for the unfortunate.

We are free to have integrity.

We are free to have compassion.

We are free to never show partiality.

We are free to love our neighbors as ourselves.

And free means there is nothing there to hinder us from doing it.

There’s nothing providential, there is nothing in our nature or anything inside or outside of us that makes it impossible to love our neighbor.

God chose in His wisdom and mercy to set us free from our bondage to sin.

Jesus lived a perfect life so we can see what living free looks like.

Then Jesus died on a cross taking our sins with Him.

And to prove He has the power to make us free, the Father raised Jesus from the dead as an exclamation point.

There is nothing providential, inside of us or outside of us that makes it impossible to follow Jesus.

We have been set free.

There are more things we need to notice about verse 8.

First is a nuance.

Verses 8 and 9 are really set against each other, so they both could begin like this.

Verse 8: On the one hand...., verse 9, on the other hand...

It’s the comparison and contrast thing we learned in our lit classes.

So, on the one hand, if you really fulfil the royal law...

And that’s the second thing - royal is not a word I would have expected so why did James use it?

If something is royal, it belongs to a king or a queen.

And who is our King?

Jesus is our King and King Jesus said, “Love God with everything you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself.”

So, if on the one hand you are following your King by loving your neighbor as yourself - well, you are doing a good thing.

But, if on the other hand, James 2:9 “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”

Showing partiality, being prejudiced is not loving.

It’s sin.

And because we do it, we are convicted as sinners.

Listen to this: James 2:10-11 “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 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.”

Here’s the pane of glass, stack of rocks thing - I wish it was mine but it’s an illustration from a commentary I read.

We tend to look at God’s law as a stack of rocks.

Let’s make it easy - there are 10 rocks in this stack.

If we take just one rock out of the stack, that leaves 9 rocks there, right?

So if I lie but don’t commit adultery, we’ll that’s good.

In fact, we have even constructed in our minds a hierarchy of sin.

We have little white lies, right?

No sweetheart, that dress doesn’t make your bedonkeydonk look big!

I mean really, isn’t this how we think?

It’s better to tell a lie than to steal something from someone.

It’s better to steal from someone than to commit adultery with their spouse.

It’s better to commit adultery with their spouse than to murder someone.

Each one of those is a stone on the pile and if we lied, stole, committed adultery and murdered, well, there’s still 6 rocks left on the stack.

The scales are still tipped in our favor!

But that’s not the way the royal law of Jesus works because it’s not about us working to be good.

It’s about God’s goodness working to set us free.

God’s law is like a pane of glass.

Do you ever remember seeing the slapstick cartoons of two men carrying a large sheet of glass?

As they carry it to the construction site, kids throw balls and they do things to dodge them.

People open car doors without looking.

People walk out of building without looking up and all the time these two guys are scrambling to keep them from hitting that pane of glass.

Why?

Because all it takes is one thing to make the glass shatter into a million pieces.

I was weed eating one day and the weed eater threw a rock into our glass storm door.

One rock - and immediately we had a pile of broken glass where a door once was.

See, the law isn’t a reflection of who we are trying to be, it’s a reflection of who God is.

And when we take one piece of God away - God isn’t God anymore, is He?

We de-God, God.

That’s exactly what Adam and Eve did - and we’ve been doing it ever since.

They are in the garden and the Lord has set them free to do everything except one thing.

And of course the one thing is the thing they wanted to do - but do you remember exactly what drew them to it?

Yes, the serpent tempted Eve but what was it that pushed her over the edge?

Genesis 3:6 ESV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Ok, it was good for food.

No biggie there - lots of trees for food.

It was a delight to the eyes - no biggie there either - I can only imagine the beauty of a garden unsullied by sin.

But here’s the kicker - “…the tree was to be desired to make one wise...” and what’s unstated there is this phrase, “…the tree was to be desired to make one wise....like God.”

Two rocks stayed in the pile - food and beauty.

They only picked up one rock - wise like God - and the whole pane of glass shattered.

What part of God can we remove, and still have God?

If we don’t rest on the Sabbath, we’re ungodly because God rests.

If we don’t honor our parents, we aren’t Godly, because the Father, Son and Spirit are one.

If we murder, we aren’t Godly because God created all people, born and unborn in His image.

If we commit adultery, we aren’t Godly because God is ultimately faithful.

If we steal, we aren’t Godly because all things belong to God.

If we lie, we aren’t Godly because God is the author of truth.

If we covet, we aren’t Godly because God provides for all of His creation.

What part of God can we take away and still have God?

We can’t.

We can’t be free in 9 places but in bondage in one.

We’re still in bondage.

I’m free in 49 states, I just happen to be in jail in Georgia.

It doesn’t make sense.

Society is fighting so hard to have some sort of order but it can’t.

It’s impossible to de-God God and have things work.

That’s what we are seeing all around us, humanity de-Goding God.

We want God’s order but without God.

It’s why we are offended when politicians tell us lies when we know that they are lies.

It’s why we are confounded when Supreme Court nominees refuse to define what a woman is when everyone knows what a woman is.

It’s why we are frustrated when everyone can go to Walmart, but no one could go to a graduation like a virus could know where it could infect and where it could not.

We are trying to define our own right and wrong and that’s not going to work.

When we take one part of God away, there aren’t nine parts left in the bucket.

There’s nothing left but a pile of broken glass laying on the ground.

That’s what James in saying in verses 9 - 11.

I read this and Romans 12:3 kept running through my head.

Romans 12:3 ESV

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Paul and James are saying the same thing here.

James 2:12-13 “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Paul says this in Galatians 5:13-15

Galatians 5:13–15 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

And there is the ultimate partiality - if we bite and devour one another.

If I think so highly of myself - if I am so partial to myself - that I’ve got to destroy you.

We’re watching that, aren’t we?

We’re on the brink of World War 3 and Civil War in our own nation, because of this very thing right here.

“Watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

It doesn’t have to be this way.

We are under the law of liberty.

That means we are free to follow Jesus to the best of our ability.

We are free to love our neighbor.

We are free to not be prejudiced.

We are free from any societal or worldly constraint to do any of those things or others.

And yet, right this moment, you can remember a time when you failed.

James would say, don’t dwell on those - but remember them.

Speak and act with those things on your mind.

I taught a Discipleship Training class once and adultery was one of the lessons.

And I made the statement that we need to be careful because it could happen to any one of us.

And this middle aged deacon got pretty hot.

And he said it could never happen to him.

And I said something like, “Well, maybe not,” to defuse the situation.

But just two weeks ago, the Southern Baptist Convention released it’s Sex Abuse Task Force report.

And right there, in the very front of the report was one of our top denominational leaders called out for what Jesus in the sermon on the mount would call an adulterous relationship.

I hope he did not set out that day to do that - but he did.

We - all of us - have the best of intentions.

But we have feet of clay.

Don’t ever forget that.

The last sentence is part of my ministerial philosophy.

James says, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

I suspect he’s remembering something his Brother said:

Matthew 9:12–13 ESV

But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Once again though, that’s not original with Jesus.

Jesus didn’t make a new law, He fulfilled the Old Law.

He quoted Hosea 6:6

Hosea 6:6 NIV

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

James took his Brother’s words and repeated them to us.

Mercy triumphs - mercy has more power - than judgment.

Judgment destroys.

Mercy gives life.

And in all of this - the law of liberty never fails.

You and I are free to follow Jesus to the best of our ability.

Knowing for certain we’ll fail.

But knowing for certain that our Lord is merciful.

Living, He loved me.

Dying, He saved me.

Buried, He carried my sins far away.

Rising, He justified freely forever.

One day He’s coming.

Oh glorious day.