It's high time I started writing again. Invert Student Ministries has just completed a school-year-long series through the book of James, so I'd like to share some of the highlights from our year. Enjoy!
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ..." -Js. 1:1
How did James go from not believing in Jesus (Jn. 7:5) to calling him Lord in this verse, to becoming an authoritative voice at the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), to (according to church history) dying for the name of his half-brother?
In the words of Tim Keller, "How hard would it be for me to convince you that your brother had been raised from the dead and was God" (paraphrase)? The truth is that James was either part of a movement of mass hysteria and delusion involving hundreds of people, or... he had actually seen his brother die and rise from the dead.
James' encounter with the risen Christ brought him new birth (see Jn. 3), and this new birth set him on the path to becoming the bold witness and leader we see in Scripture.
The truth is that unless we have the same new birth as James, we will not be able to read and understand and obey the words of his letter. James gives many challenging and encouraging thoughts in his book, but to attempt to follow them without the internal change that he experienced will only leave a person frustrated because of failure or self-righteous because of some level of external conformity.
So if you've not experience this internal change, the change that makes it possible for you to live obediently to Christ, I encourage you to seek it out! A great place to start is by reading through the Gospel of John. Ephesians 2:1-10 is also a good, short explanation of the gospel.
The gospel is the truth that God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ, lived a sinless life, died on the cross on our behalf to take away our sin, and rose from the dead to bring us new life. If you want to talk more about this, let me know. I'd be glad to answer any questions that you may have!
2 comments:
Great post man! It would be crazy to believe that one of my younger brothers died and rose from the grave. On top of that to have to call him Lord, that ain't going to happen.
It is only as the Spirit changed James inwardly that his outward life and proclamation changed. Powerful truth to realize as we seek to live a life of Faith that is demonstrated with works.
Absolutely!
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