The Man and His Trial :: James 1:2-18

By

4.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the expression: If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Harry Truman is credited with coining that. It’s one of the reasons he became known as the no-nonsense president from Missouri. If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. His point was clear ... be ready for rejection and condemnation as soon as you dare make an unpopular decision. I believe we can easily use this axiom regarding our epistle reading today. We are constantly faced with making unpopular decisions. In which case, today is a great day to turn to our epistle for guidance on how to face the heat because the epistle of James was written for you. As Christians, we know we will find ourselves constantly facing the heat of life in this world. 

So are you ready to stand trial and face the heat? 

Blessed is “a man” who abides under trial, because after being tested, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those loving him (Jas 1:12). Now let me repeat that because we may not have clearly understood what James is telling us. Blessed is “a man” who abides under trial, because after being tested, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those loving him. 

3.

Conventional human wisdom regards the trials of life as totally unwelcome and unpleasant. When you are on trial, the world says, you must be guilty, therefore you must pay. That is the conventional human wisdom.  

In stark contrast, James joins all the Biblical authors in encouraging us to view trials as a reason for rejoicing (cf Mt 5:10-15; 2 Cor 6:2-10; 1 Pt 4:12-14), for you know that the testing (or trials) of your faith produces (or brings about) perseverance, and let perseverance have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (Jas 1:3).

A number of years ago, a Christian magazine conducted a study of its readers asking them to rank their greatest spiritual challenges. The top five responses were ... 1) materialism, 2) pride, 3) selfishness, 4) laziness, and 5) a tie between anger and lust. Those temptations are certainly unwelcome and unpleasant. 

While materialism, pride, self-centeredness, laziness, anger, lust top the list that overwhelm most of us ... there are many, many more that are just as destructive with all of us. Each of these temptations cause you to doubt the genuineness of your faith.

Which ones do you struggle with? Which cause you to doubt your status as one of God’s own? Is it gossip? Is it being tempted to give only that truth that you think will make you look that good? Is it the temptation to repeat what you heard someone said someone said? 

Or is it despair ... believing that God could not possibly forgive you if you kept 5, 6, and 7, but broke 1, 2, or 3? Is it ingratitude? Jealousy? Thoughtless words? 

Do you even recognize the sin in your lives? 

Or are you too wrapped up in trying to be perfect?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you are truthful with yourselves, you will hear James, who echoes Paul, declaring that we are double-minded ... unstable in all our ways ... we are saints and sinners. We are sinners and saints. We boast in our exaltation and humiliation, flip flopping between the two. And then we will repent. 

As Paul said it so well in Romans 7 ... I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing (vv. 15-19 ESV). 

But thanks be to God, we are not saved by what we do. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. 

BEHOLD, THE MAN HAS OVERCOME THE TRIALS OF LIFE AND HAS FACED THE HEAT IN YOUR PLACE TO GIVE YOU THE CROWN OF LIFE

2.

This is why Jesus came to us. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (v 17). 

You can’t change this good news, or improve upon it. It doesn’t get better than this. Jesus has stood trial for you, and was declared innocent. Jesus has stood trial for you and has defeated the devil’s temptations. God has overcome the evil in your life with his love in Christ, who humbled himself. Jesus united himself with you, giving you his very body and blood. He has become one with you, clothing you in the righteousness through his baptism. And you can now stand confidently in trial before the Lord of heaven and earth, knowing that on account of Christ, you are being declared right before God ... innocent. 

Blessed is the man ... our Lord Jesus ... who abides under trial ... because he stood the test ... facing the cross ... and he received the crown of life, which God has promised to those loving him. 

And so you are.

On account of his life, death, and resurrection, you who stand on the truth that Jesus is Lord and believe God raised him from the dead will receive the crown of life. And you don’t have to allow the old passions, the old cravings, the old desires to rule over you. You who are baptized into Christ were united in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the man. Your sin died with Jesus, the man. God has given you new life with the Man. He raised the Man from the dead to give you hope, a living hope, a real hope that you will remain with him forever, that you will walk in the newness of life. 

1. 

Even during the season of Lent, as we reflect on our own sinfulness, we can now stand confidently before the throne of grace, knowing that our Father sent us the perfect gift from above, the Man after God’s own heart. He has saved us by grace through faith in this news. And now because of it, you have hope. Jesus remains steadfast under trial for you. He is your advocate, reminding the father how he has stood in your place ... how he has washed you, sanctified you, fed you. 

Through these means, he knows you can’t fail the testing of your faith, because it’s in him. So you can now rejoice in this, as we contemplate the glorious results that can follow upon such struggles. You can now rejoice that the trials of life build patience, constancy, perseverance, the ability to endure, to stand up and face the heat without losing heart because you rest on the promises of Christ. He will carry you home. 

By his will he has brought us forth by his word of truth (v 18).


Brothers and sisters in Christ, blessed are you now ... all of you who believe in Jesus Christ, the son of the living God ... who confess that he is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead. Jesus has won the crown of life for you. Bask in the righteousness now and forever. 

In his name. Amen

 

Popular posts from this blog

The Good Shepherd Comes to Rescue and Restore - Ezekiel 34:11-16

By
  For thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I myself will search diligently for my sheep and I will seek them. As a shepherd seeks out to care for His flock in the day he is among His scattered sheep, so I will seek out to care for my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on the day of cloud and thick darkness. 500 years ago today, Martin Luther answered the Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Emperor who questioned his teachings. If he were to recant and take it all back, the Diet of Worms would barely be a blip in history. If he did not recant, he would be putting his own life in absolute, mortal danger. Being held captive by the clear Word of God as found in Holy Scripture, Luther stood up before the authorities of the church and the of world and gave his famous “Here I Stand” confession. He rested his case on Jesus as his only Shepherd - not the leaders of the Church or the Government. He relied solely on the Good Shepherd who promised neve...
Read more

The Mind of Christ :: Philippians 2:5-11

By
The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, took the branches of palms and went out to meet him and began crying out: Hosanna! Blessed is the one coming in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel (Jn 12:12-13). No story has ever had a bigger buildup to a greater letdown than this one. The Jews were all of the same mind: They had been looking forward to this day for more than a millennia. And here he came! Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee (Mi 5:2)! The prophet like Moses (Dt 18:15)! The son of David (2 Sm 7:12)! Our Messiah (Is 61:1) ... Here he came, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zec 9:9), fulfilling the scriptures. Zechariah, Micah, Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Samuel, the Psalms. This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps 118:24). ... These things are written so that you will believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God and that by believing you will have life in his name (Jn 20:31...
Read more

The Eyes Have It :: Luke 10:23-24

By
What do you see? What do you hear? These are the questions of the day on this Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. What do you see? And what do you hear?  Before we get ahead of ourselves by jumping to conclusions and declaring you can see and hear just fine ... you need to know ... not everybody sees what you see or hears what you hear. Every week your pastor gives three sermons: the one I write, the one I preach, and the one you hear. And each of you might be hearing a different sermon than the person next to you. More than that, some of you may be seeing one thing and others may be seeing something completely different. And some of us will just fall asleep not seeing or hearing anything at all.  As Jesus tells the disciples ... For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to witness what y’all see and they didn’t witness it, and to hear what y’all hear and they didn’t hear it (v. 23-24). That is to say they longed to see Jesus, living, dying, rising, ascending. They long...
Read more