At the church where I serve, we have been spending our
time together looking at a letter that is recorded for
us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of James. James was the half brother of Jesus who repeatedly
doubted Jesus claim to be God, but became a follower of Jesus who was the
pastor at the church in Jerusalem and who was ultimately killed for believing
that Jesus was God. James turned from being a doubter in Jesus to being a
pastor of Jesus church and an author of this letter that is recorded for us in
the Bible after seeing Jesus after He was raised from the dead.
And as
we look at this letter that was written by the half brother of Jesus, our hope
and our prayer is that we would be able to wrap our heads, hearts, and hands
around several timeless truths that occur in a life of faith that works itself
out in a way that results in us living lives that look like Jesus.
This week,
I would like for us to spend our time together picking up where we left off
last week. As we have talked about throughout this series, the problem with the
book of James is not that the book of James is difficult to understand.
Instead, the problem with the book of James is that it is not difficult to
understand and we have to do something with what it says.
However,
as we jump into this final section of the book of James, we will be jumping
into a section of the book of James that is viewed as a little more difficult
to understand. And it is in this section of this letter that we see James reveal for us a timeless and true principle
when it comes to the faith that works.
So let’s discover that timeless truth together beginning in James 5:19:
My brethren,
if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know
that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from
death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Now to fully understand what
James is communicating in this single sentence, we first need to ask and answer
several questions. The first question that we need at ask and answer is “who
James is referring to when he says “My brethren?” As we have seen throughout this series, when James uses the
phrase my brethren, he is referring to followers of Jesus who were reading this
letter.
But if that is the case, then the next question that
immediately arises here involves the phrase “if any among you strays from the
truth.” When James refers to the truth here, he is referring to the content of
Christianity as contained in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel
as being the ultimate truth. In addition, when James uses the phrase “if any among
you” he is referring to someone who has been outwardly identified as a follower
of Jesus.
This would be a person who has
participated at some level in the life of the church. This could be a person
who attends a corporate worship gathering. This could be a person who has
attended a community group. This is a person who professes to others that they
are a Christian who follows Jesus.
However, this person who has professed
to be a Christian that follows Jesus has strayed from the message and teachings
of Jesus as being the ultimate truth. This person who claims to be a follower
of Jesus has turned their back on following the message and teachings of Jesus
to instead wander away in a direction that is heading away from Jesus.
Now that leads us to the next question
which we need to answer, which is “what does James mean when he uses the phrase
“and one turns him back?” This phrase, in the language that this letter was
originally written in, literally means to cause a person to change a belief or
course of conduct with a focus on what they are turning to. Now another
question that could arise here is “Well, who turned this person back to Jesus?”
Most likely this is a follower of
Jesus who has engaged this individual who had turned away from Jesus. In other
words, this person, who professed to be following Jesus but then wandered away
from Jesus, was engaged by a follower of Jesus in such a way that the one who
turned away from Jesus then turned back to following Jesus. This person who was
heading away from Jesus was engaged by a follower of Jesus in such a way that
they ended up heading back to Jesus.
Then, in verse 20, James reminds
the readers of this letter "let
him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his
soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." Now that leads us to
the next question that we need to ask and answer, which is “Who is James
referring to when he states “let him know”? In other words, who are we supposed
to let know?"
James here is referring to the
follower of Jesus who engaged the person who turned away from Jesus in such a
way that resulted in them turning back to Jesus. James then explains that what
we are to let the person who engaged the person who turned away from Jesus in
such a way that resulted in them turning back to Jesus know is that he who
turns a sinner from the error of his way will accomplish two things.
First, James explains that he who
turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save his soul from death. But
what does that mean? As we talked about throughout this series, when James uses
the word sinner here, this word refers to someone who is involved in acts of
omission and commission against God and others in selfishness and rebellion
against God. When James uses the word save here, this word means to save or rescue from transcendent danger or destruction.
In addition, the word soul here refers to the seat and
center of our lives that transcends our earthly life.
As we have talked about earlier in this series, when we
see the word death in the Bible, the word death conveys the sense of
separation. As
a result of sin’s entrance into the world we experience physical death. When we
physically die, our soul is separated from our physical bodies. But not only do
we experience physical death as a result of sin; we also experience spiritual
death, which is the separation from God and the relationship with God that we
were created for as a result of our rebellion against God. Now if we physically
die, where our soul is separated from our bodies, while we are spiritually dead,
or separated from God, we experience eternal death, or eternal separation from
God.
So if James was communicating
this phrase in the language we use in our culture today, this phrase would
sound something like this: “Let the person who engaged someone who had turned
away from following Jesus in rebellion against Jesus in a way that resulted in
them turning back to following Jesus know that they have rescued their life
from spending an eternity of being separated from God as a result of them
turning away from Jesus”.
But whose soul, whose life, was
rescued from spending an eternity separated from God? Was the life that was
rescued that of the one who had turned from following Jesus but had been turned
back to following Jesus? Or was the life that was rescued that of the one who
turned the one who had turned from Jesus back to Jesus?
Some have tried to take James
statement here to mean that the person who is being rescued from their
selfishness and rebellion is the person who is turning the one who had turned
from Jesus back to Jesus. In other words, the “his” in the phrase “save his
soul from death” refers to the follower of Jesus who engaged the person who had
turned away from Jesus in such a way that they turned back to Jesus.
However,
to take James statement in such a way would be to violate a fundamental
principle of language. And that fundamental principle involves the relationship
of pronouns to their antecedents. This principle, or rule of thumb, so to speak
is that, when it comes to pronouns, the nearest antecedent is best. In other
words, the nearest antecedent, which is the noun or subject that the pronoun is
referring to is best.
In
the case of James statement, the nearest antecedent is the word sinner. So
James here is revealing for us the reality that the person who engaged someone
who had turned away from following Jesus in a way that resulted in them turning
back to following Jesus should know that they have rescued the person who had
turned back to Jesus from spending an eternity separated from God as a result
of previously turning away from Jesus.
Now
another question that has been provoked by James words here is “Well Dave, is
James saying that we could lose our salvation?" We will see James answer
that question tomorrow...
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