I wasn’t going to write tonight but a lady left a comment and I updated my last post with more information so why not “Crank one out!” Today Luigi and I got together for a tag team bible read through of the books of Romans and James for a paper we are writing on a topic of

“What is the basis for salvation in Romans and James”

We brought our bibles and our concordances and side literature from Theo 301 and sat down at a coffee shop for 5 hours today to work. He did the reading and the talking and I did all the writing. 20 pages worth of writing.

The coffee shops around campus are always glad to have students come and sit in their establishments and drink coffee and eat muffins. It was tasty. If you’ve never read the Book of James here are the bullet points:

• Faith and Wisdom
• Doing the word – Action Giving to the Poor, the widows, the hungry
• Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself
• Right speech
• Right Wisdom – gentleness
• Friendship
• Being non-judgmental
• Not being boastful
• Patience in suffering
• Prayer of the faithful
• Attention to the Law (Commandments)

James speaks about works and that they will show faith, that faith without works is barren. Works should be born of wisdom. There is a contrast between human wisdom and wisdom given by God. James is speaking to a community of Jewish Christians. In Romans Paul is addressing Roman Christians and the communities that are having issues with each other. Jews and Gentiles.

In James wisdom is the object of prayer. James 1:2-8

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

James 1: 19-27

Listening and Doing

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

These are just a few passages that we were studying from James that really impacted me today after the last 24 hours. Sometimes God speaks through his scriptures and today I was wanting to hear him.Like I said in the last post, there are times when I am not so compassionate and my mouth takes over when I disengage my brain for just the slightest moment. But that’s what happens when one is pushed against a wall…

Anyways, I digress…

James 2: 14-26

Faith and Deeds

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

There is so much to say about James and his writing.

James 3:13-18

Two Kinds of Wisdom

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

It’s so Beautiful… And here is the crux of my problems:

James 4:1-12

Submit Yourselves to God

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Sometimes I should keep my words and my thoughts to myself. But it needed to be written so that others who belong can see where my head is so no one is shocked by my departure. Everything we pray for usually gets worked out in one way or another. Like I said, God speaks through scripture. And I was willing to see the words on the page impact me in the way they did. But I am already forgiven. That comes from God. Not from man or woman. I don’t need anyone’s forgiveness tonight.

As we move into Romans there are more bullet points:

• Justification comes through Jesus’ blood
• Jews cannot boast in the law
• Justification by faith is taught in the Hebrew Scriptures through the story of Abraham
• Justification results is reconciliation and the restoration of broken relationships with God.
• Just as sin came to all through one man, Adam, God’s grace comes to all through the one man Jesus the law merely increased the sin.

So you see here the difference between the writing of the Book of James and Paul’s writing to the Romans. Jesus is the redeemer after the Old Testament.

A person is justified through faith in Christ by accepting his death as a substitute for one’s own. Justification does not come by keeping the Law of Moses any longer. Having faith in Jesus and living by the faithfulness of Jesus.

Paul engages in a diatribe style of writing here in Chapter 2 vs. 1-10 He is asking pertinent questions to receive an answer but he already knows the truth of the answers he seeks. (His truth and his faith in Jesus )

God’s Righteous Judgment

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

When you read the books written by Paul – if you study like I have studied Paul, he seems to have inside information that even Jesus’ apostles did not have. I wrote a paper once on Paul, Mary Magdalene and Judas. From Paul’s writing, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Gospel of Judas, that these three people were given “special knowledge” by Jesus. Paul exhibits a lot of the special knowledge when he writes on certain topics.

James writes about the justification of faith by referring to the Old Testament, through works and deeds – the law which states works and charity. James uses the OT to explain that salvation comes through works and deed; works of charity.

While, Paul, justifies faith through the story of Abraham from the OT. Genesis chapters 12-17. Through the story of Abraham it provides evidence that FAITH justifies. Abraham exemplifies this thesis stated in

Rom. 3: 21-28.

Righteousness Through Faith

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for the Letter to the Romans. There is so much more that I could write, but you get the idea. We found it funny this afternoon, Luigi brought up the discussion of Peter from Galatians: here is the scripture reference:

Galatians 2: 11-21

Paul Opposes Peter

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.

Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

“If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Why did Peter draw himself back? Was the question when he watched and participated with Jesus who ate with everyone at many tables, with many kinds of people. It is a critical read on Peter. We were talking over this point and a man sitting at the next table over from us was listening. And he pointed us to this scripture passage above. He had his bible on the table and was reading it. It was a King James Version.

He asked about our education and what we were doing? We as Theology students can be a bit loud at times. Luigi strives to be a scholar, and I am in Pastoral Ministry. Those were our credentials for any discussion.

If you know anything about Biblical studies, The KJV is very differently written than your every day bible and the teachings are hard line and set in stone. It is a one version bible and many Christian readers who read their KJV bibles see Christianity in a whole different manner than do others. I have learned this over 40 years of life and 8 years of Religious Studies.

Luigi engaged him in conversation while I hung back and watched. The discussion did not go very far, everything stopped when he started talking about what books Paul wrote, which ones are attributed to Paul and which ones were not. You have to Read and Study Paul in depth to understand the delineations. I have written about Paul recently here.

In the New Revised Standard edition of the Holy Bible the following books are written by Paul:

• Romans
• 1 & 2 Corinthians
• Galatians
• Ephesians
• Philippians
• Colossians
• 1 & 2 Thessalonians
• 1 & 2 Timothy
• Titus
• Philemon

Non- Pauline Literature:

• Hebrews
• James
• 1 & 2 Peter
• 1,2,3rd John
• Jude and
• Revelation

Right there you have a religious argument between those who read their bibles and those who study the bible. That’s when we walked out of the cafe politely excusing ourselves from a row over the bible. I choose my Christianity battles wisely. Wow that was a lot of writing.

It is approaching 3 am here and I need to get some sleep.

More tomorrow – Stay tuned…