Mercy Triumphs

Last week what did we talk about? Favoritism. Don’t show favoritism, especially because when we show favoritism it is based off of worldly opinion or materialism. Both of those revile Jesus Christ- why show favoritism to those that hate Jesus? 

With that said, we need to find the biblical solution to favoritism. The title of this post does give a big hint, but we'll really dig deep into scripture today, and if we have eager hearts and really soak this all in, it will dramatically change us. 

Read through today's passage, and then answer the questions that follow. Don't worry if you aren't sure about the answer right away- once you finish reading this post you can go back over the questions to make sure you understand. 

James 2:8-13:

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. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for 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. 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.

1.        According to James, which law should believers carry out? (verse 8) 

2.        Why do you think James called it a “royal law”? 

3.        This law (verse 8) is actually Jesus’ own words. Where in the bible did Jesus identify this law? 

4.        Fill in the blanks using verses 10-12:

·         If you ___________________________________________, then you _________________________________________________________.

·         James told us to ___________________ and _____________________ using the law of freedom as our guide.

5.        What is the “law of freedom/liberty”? What does it mean that we will be judged by it?

6.        What is the rule of thumb that James gave us in verse 13?

One who does not _____________________________ will not __________________________.

7.        What ultimately triumphs?

8.        Why? 

The Royal Law

We find the “royal law” in the OT:

Leviticus 19:18-

 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.

This shows Jesus fulfilling the law, and that he is God as well. In Luke 10:25-37 we see Jesus further explain the true meaning of this Levitical law when a lawyer challenges him to who should be considered a neighbor:

²⁵ And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him,” What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” ²⁷ And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

²⁹ But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. ³² So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴ He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

According to this passage, who is our neighbor? A better way to word it is who are WE a neighbor to? We are to show mercy to everyone as our neighbor. Just as in James 2:13, loving our neighbor is explained as showing mercy.

Now, let’s bring our attention back to James 2:9-11. 

Break One Law, Responsible to All

We see that in these verses he shows that if you break one law, you are accountable to all of them. Why do you think he chooses to use the example of committing murder? (Hint: after all, he IS only talking about favoritism, right? Isn't murder so much worse?)

The bible shows that the sin of murder is from the heart-

 1 John 3:15 says: ¹⁵ everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 

When we show favoritism, at the opposite end we are showing hatred and bitter feelings to others for whatever reasons we have. Showing favoritism reveals the true condition of our hearts: murderous and full of hatred. So the answer is that James, by using murder as an example, is trying to show us that favoritism IS a very serious sin and should convict us of how we truly are in our hearts.

Continuing with these verses, why does James make that strong statement, that if we claim we are keeping the law but have one sin, we break all of the law?

-          This is what separates Christianity from all other religions or ideas of how to live a good life. Many people’s (including our own at some point) idea of being righteous is doing more good things than bad. People justify themselves by comparing themselves to other people, saying “at least I don’t do drugs, don’t murder, don’t cheat, can’t lie” etc.

-          Romans 3:21-23 Has a lot of familiar language from what we've read in James and the gospels doesn’t it? “all the law and prophets depend on..” and “no distinction” (distinction = favoritism). More importantly, it shows the most important truth about our condition : 

“³ for ^fall have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. We are all guilty of sin. None of us can claim that we have never broken any of God’s laws or standards. 1 John 1:8 says “^8 sIf we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and ^tthe truth is not in us.”

We are ALL in need of God’s mercy. We are in bondage to sin, but the awesome hope that God has given us is that Jesus made a way to set us free from sin & hell.

What's Most Important

Now many of you already know the gospel, but we NEED to learn it continuously every day, because our lives depend on it

(1 Corinthians 15:1-4)  Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received,  in which you stand, ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

So the gospel is definitely NOT just for nonbelievers- we need to everyday, when we wake up in the morning, remind ourselves of how we are being saved. If you aren’t, you aren’t living it, you are not a Christian. It says if we don’t, then our belief is in vain.

 Also the truth is that a lot of us here probably don’t know what the gospel is, other than it means “the good news”. I know this because for 4 years, I claimed to be Christian while having little understanding of what the gospel was, what it meant to be saved or why I even needed it. I think this is a good opportunity for us to go over it since we just explained the first part of it in Romans.

What is our condition? Sinful. We have all sinned. When we sin, the just punishment given by God is hell- eternal death. We are so sinful but we can’t help but to be drawn to sin, ever since we were born. We just can’t deny this because we KNOW all the the bad things we’ve done (and still do), especially when no one was looking.

But God gave us hope:

Romans 3:21-25

²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 

Romans 5:6-11

⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

So we see from these verses that Jesus satisfied God’s wrath (propitiation) by taking on our sin and dying in our place. Not only that, but he lived a sinless life and rose from death- That’s the righteousness that is given to us when we have faith in Jesus Christ. This is how God is able to pass over our sins. THIS is the gospel, or the good news.

Take a moment to write down, in your own words, the gospel. This is very important because without it, we are not saved from hell and do not have Jesus' righteousness given to us. It is also important because it is the one thing that we need to tell people, especially our loved ones, that can save them from their sin. 

(If you need help- the gospel in basic terms is that: we are sinful and deserve hell because we sin against a perfect loving God, but God is so loving that he gave his son Jesus Christ to die and conquer death in our place- and so we gain his righteousness as a gift IF we put our faith in Him)

Finally Free!

Now looking back to James- in verse 12 James calls it “the law of freedom/liberty”. How does a law free us?

Turn to John 8:31-36

³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³³ They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 

1. What or who will set us free? – The truth. (Jesus says he is the way, TRUTH, and life in John 14:6)

2. How do we obtain that freedom? – The Son sets us free. Jesus IS the Truth.

3. How does the Son set you free? – What did we just learn from going over the gospel in scripture? Romans 8:1-2 says “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

OUR RESPONSE: What is our response to this? God shows us true mercy by freeing us from sin. Because he sets us free and shows us mercy, we are free to show mercy to others as well.

BUT WAIT!

Verse 13 in James 2 says “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.”.

Does that mean we can lose our freedom and salvation if we show favoritism sometimes? That we will no longer be given mercy if we don’t give it? How can we be saved by grace (eph 2:8) But be denied mercy?

James is writing to Christians here. He is showing us what it looks like to live in God’s word. 

Remember us learning about not just hearing, but doing what the word of God says?

In other words- don’t look at this backwards. If you don’t show mercy to other people, then that just shows that you have never really experienced the depths of God’s great mercy to us. When you REALLY see the depth of your sin, and then see the depth of God’s mercy despite how much sin you have against Him, Then you WILL offer mercy to others.

If you constantly show judgmental and harsh attitudes to others, then you probably haven’t received God’s mercy in the first place. And because you have rejected God’s mercy, you remain under judgment (John 3:17-18 “ For^lGod did not send his Son into the world ^mto condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ^18 nWhoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not ^obelieved in the name of the only Son of God. “)

The good news at the end of James 2:13 is that, through Jesus, mercy triumphs over judgment. God’s love and grace conquer sin and death.

Take a few minutes to reflect and pray to God-

If you haven’t ever thought about your sin and God’s mercy, and haven’t accepted his offer of forgiveness through his Son, I encourage you to take time to ask yourself some important questions. What’s holding you back from receiving God’s mercy? Really think about it, and write it down if you need to- then talk to one of the leaders at GBS. I assure you you will not be judged and we will be so happy to help, because every single one of us have had the same issues as you if not worse. I assure you.

And for those of us who do understand God’s mercy and are committed followers of Christ- take some time to think about God’s mercy that saves you. Remind yourself of what God has saved you from and how he shows his mercy to you everyday. Be willing to share these things to other girls that need God and haven’t experienced a life of faith.