Grace is the message of the church that is meant not only to characterize its mission to the world but determine its own mode of life. The apostle Paul describes the features of life in a believing community that has been graced in an authentic way by the graciousness of God: Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity (Colossians 3:12-14). Conceptually the passage has great charm but in reality Paul’s exhortation can only find fulfilment by the exercise of amazing grace through a deeply humbled people. The demands of grace upon its recipients are colossal. The virtues delineated by Paul run counter to natural tendencies. Their motivation requires a genuine and mature self knowledge (Forgive as the Lord forgave you) that erases pride and self-righteousness, and also an adequate comprehension of the scope of divine mercy to the unworthy. These “awarenesses” begin to provide a platform for the demonstration of attitudes and actions that are truly, deeply, Christian. It is necessary for the Holy Spirit to create a concerted effort towards holiness among the people of God. It is the responsibility of the people of God to cultivate the principles of godliness imparted to them by the indwelling Spirit. The means of grace and the power of God are available to transform Paul’s ideals into the actual identification marks of the folk who belong to God and represent his character to the world.
But there is enough sin and temptation in Christian experience to counter the development of the grace-filled community. Believers are retarded by much that remains of the old self-serving nature. Paul’s encouragements are aimed at the battleground of the heart where contrary principles are in intense conflict with each other (Romans 7). He is not prescribing an easy course of action among believers but a goal that necessitates struggle, self denial, and discipline – an earnest exertion that derives its energy from grace present, promised, and sought through continual prayer. To say that Paul’s instruction is aspirational is not to deny that it is also obligatory as a spontaneous expression of the new life. Reliance and responsibility are concurrent in the lives of the regenerate. There is a “must” that must be met by supernatural enabling. Grace is a gift that generates desire, volition, and action. The impossibility of perfection here in this life does not nullify the divine imposition upon us (Colossians 1:28). Failure drives us to the all-sufficient Saviour, deprives us of the right to boast, and discloses the marvellous forbearance of God in the forgiveness and assistance he bestows. Law or commandment is never intended to suggest any capacity within us to comply. It is meant to be a compulsion that causes us to resort to the Redeemer because of the startling discovery of our absolute impotence. Grace makes law both duty and delight. Grace affords us the perception that law (protective and life enhancing) emerges from divine love and expresses human love. Paul expounds the essence of law which, if operative as love for God and neighbour, precludes every breach of the moral law. The renewed believer eagerly complies with the behavioural norms of the Lord Jesus through likeness to him. Love is the fulfilment of the law of Christ – his disposition and deeds, his habits. We are given a care for what God cares about and a care for those who are his concern. Love of law consists of personal rectitude, generous compassion, and social justice: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). In exercising obedience we are given the guidelines of Scripture and the guidance of the Spirit and between the two there is no variation. If our sense of “right” conflicts with Scripture it is not of the Holy Spirit.
There are several powerful influences within the life of the Church that are corrosive of the law of love and disruptive of genuine harmony, mutual acceptance, and sincere fellowship.
a) The first amounts to a disregard of morality on the basis of a perverted view of grace (antinomianism). There is a casual approach to the Decalogue and Biblical ethics on the basis of a presumption that bad behaviour can be condoned and easily forgiven because grace is indulgent towards our peccadilloes. This is a view that does not assess sin with gravity, misunderstands our calling to holiness, and cheapens grace horribly. It is a travesty of the gospel and a serious misreading of the nature of salvation as deliverance from sin, not safety in it. Paul stalwartly repudiates this brazen attitude: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2). James endorses Paul’s statement with the observation that justification is proven, not attained, through holy living: “A person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Our profession of faith is vindicated by a transformed life and a struggle against sin, not a compromise with it.
b) The teaching of James has often been characterized as moralistic and works based. Luther deemed it a “right strawy epistle”. But James’s instruction is firmly grounded in a rich appreciation of grace – i.e. enabling grace that is evident in Christian character and conduct. He starts with the full recognition of supernatural empowering through the implanting of the soul saving word and the wondrous fact of regeneration (1:18). There is a vast distance between moralism and the morality of the born again, both in kind and motivation. Moralism emerges from a self-righteous confidence in one’s own competence to abide by the law. It does not appreciate the spiritual depths and requirements of the law and is content with a decent external conformity to it. It is harshly critical towards the flaws of its fellows, grimly, relentlessly, judgmental, and forgetful of our common unworthiness and wretchedness which is healed through the extravagant generosity of God alone. God’s gracious reinstatement of the penitent sinner is hardly conceded and yet Biblical examples abound (David, Jonah, Peter, Mark, etc). Moralism holds grudges, and intends evils alien to the mercy of God.
c) James tackles another issue that must have been prevalent in the early church or he would not have addressed it. He poses a test as to the graciousness of every congregation in the reception accorded to strangers – a rich man and a shabby man (2:1-13). James deplores partiality towards the rich and seemingly significant and the discrimination against the poor and uninfluential. James Adamson describes this kind of behaviour as maintaining “pernicious distinctions”. It does not accord with the poverty and humility of the Lord Jesus whilst with us on earth. Christians are not to be esteemed according to worldly standards. Snobbery and the snubbing of others is nothing less than a gross evil, especially if we explore at depth the humbleness and compassion of God as principally exhibited in the Saviour.
But there is enough sin and temptation in Christian experience to counter the development of the grace-filled community. Believers are retarded by much that remains of the old self-serving nature. Paul’s encouragements are aimed at the battleground of the heart where contrary principles are in intense conflict with each other (Romans 7). He is not prescribing an easy course of action among believers but a goal that necessitates struggle, self denial, and discipline – an earnest exertion that derives its energy from grace present, promised, and sought through continual prayer. To say that Paul’s instruction is aspirational is not to deny that it is also obligatory as a spontaneous expression of the new life. Reliance and responsibility are concurrent in the lives of the regenerate. There is a “must” that must be met by supernatural enabling. Grace is a gift that generates desire, volition, and action. The impossibility of perfection here in this life does not nullify the divine imposition upon us (Colossians 1:28). Failure drives us to the all-sufficient Saviour, deprives us of the right to boast, and discloses the marvellous forbearance of God in the forgiveness and assistance he bestows. Law or commandment is never intended to suggest any capacity within us to comply. It is meant to be a compulsion that causes us to resort to the Redeemer because of the startling discovery of our absolute impotence. Grace makes law both duty and delight. Grace affords us the perception that law (protective and life enhancing) emerges from divine love and expresses human love. Paul expounds the essence of law which, if operative as love for God and neighbour, precludes every breach of the moral law. The renewed believer eagerly complies with the behavioural norms of the Lord Jesus through likeness to him. Love is the fulfilment of the law of Christ – his disposition and deeds, his habits. We are given a care for what God cares about and a care for those who are his concern. Love of law consists of personal rectitude, generous compassion, and social justice: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). In exercising obedience we are given the guidelines of Scripture and the guidance of the Spirit and between the two there is no variation. If our sense of “right” conflicts with Scripture it is not of the Holy Spirit.
There are several powerful influences within the life of the Church that are corrosive of the law of love and disruptive of genuine harmony, mutual acceptance, and sincere fellowship.
a) The first amounts to a disregard of morality on the basis of a perverted view of grace (antinomianism). There is a casual approach to the Decalogue and Biblical ethics on the basis of a presumption that bad behaviour can be condoned and easily forgiven because grace is indulgent towards our peccadilloes. This is a view that does not assess sin with gravity, misunderstands our calling to holiness, and cheapens grace horribly. It is a travesty of the gospel and a serious misreading of the nature of salvation as deliverance from sin, not safety in it. Paul stalwartly repudiates this brazen attitude: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2). James endorses Paul’s statement with the observation that justification is proven, not attained, through holy living: “A person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Our profession of faith is vindicated by a transformed life and a struggle against sin, not a compromise with it.
b) The teaching of James has often been characterized as moralistic and works based. Luther deemed it a “right strawy epistle”. But James’s instruction is firmly grounded in a rich appreciation of grace – i.e. enabling grace that is evident in Christian character and conduct. He starts with the full recognition of supernatural empowering through the implanting of the soul saving word and the wondrous fact of regeneration (1:18). There is a vast distance between moralism and the morality of the born again, both in kind and motivation. Moralism emerges from a self-righteous confidence in one’s own competence to abide by the law. It does not appreciate the spiritual depths and requirements of the law and is content with a decent external conformity to it. It is harshly critical towards the flaws of its fellows, grimly, relentlessly, judgmental, and forgetful of our common unworthiness and wretchedness which is healed through the extravagant generosity of God alone. God’s gracious reinstatement of the penitent sinner is hardly conceded and yet Biblical examples abound (David, Jonah, Peter, Mark, etc). Moralism holds grudges, and intends evils alien to the mercy of God.
c) James tackles another issue that must have been prevalent in the early church or he would not have addressed it. He poses a test as to the graciousness of every congregation in the reception accorded to strangers – a rich man and a shabby man (2:1-13). James deplores partiality towards the rich and seemingly significant and the discrimination against the poor and uninfluential. James Adamson describes this kind of behaviour as maintaining “pernicious distinctions”. It does not accord with the poverty and humility of the Lord Jesus whilst with us on earth. Christians are not to be esteemed according to worldly standards. Snobbery and the snubbing of others is nothing less than a gross evil, especially if we explore at depth the humbleness and compassion of God as principally exhibited in the Saviour.
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