Chapter 2

 

            We have a few concepts that we need to understand before we launch into this chapter. The first of these concepts deals with what is called justification. The word “justification” really means vindication. There are three areas of vindication. The first: Vindication is used for God providing promotion, stability, a continuance of an individual because of faithfulness on the part of that individual to the Lord and because it is a part of God’s plan of grace. Take David, for example. David was vindicated as being the king because even though many things came along, some justifiable and some not, God never removed David. Therefore David was vindicated by God. The second one has to do with phase one, the point of salvation: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” This is the point at which we enter into the plan of God, at which we receive forty things, and this is called vindication or justification by faith. We believe, which is non-meritorious, and God vindicates us by giving us forty things immediately. The third: Phase two justification is what we find in this passage: vindication through production, the production of divine good, the grace actions of the believer. This is justification by works. It has nothing to do with salvation. No one is never justified by works at the point of salvation.

           

            Outline of the chapter

            1. The production of operational death — vv 1-16

            2. The principle of vindication — vv 17-20

            3. The illustration of production vindication — vv 21-26

 

            In addition to the problem of justification or vindication we have another one: reverse process reversionism.

            There is the person with an ECS, or building one, doctrine in his right lobe, positive toward the Word, and daily functioning under GAP, rebounding, filled with the Spirit generally. This person has from his soul those whom he loves under category #1 — the Father, the Son, the Spirit; category #2, and category #3 love. And under these conditions he expresses his capacity for love in these areas. In addition to that he has an attitude toward all believers, the RMA, and therefore is a normal person functioning clearly in life.

            For the person who has lost his ECS, the person who has emotional revolt of the soul so that doctrine is shut down, this person has reverse process in reversionism. The people toward whom this person is disinterested, despises, dislikes, or cares less, there is love in the sense of flirts, gives attention to, leads on. Then the persons who are the objects of this love, true love, this person gets the short end of the stick. They get all of the flack, the nasty attitudes, all of the vindictiveness and implacability. So the true objects of love get the shaft and people who don’t count get the attention. That is called reverse process in reversionism. We will see this in chapter two in the case of the short-sighted usher.

            Verse 1 — “My brethren,” the Greek plural a)delfoi. It is from the singular a)delfoj which means “brother.” “My brethren” refers to members of the family of God here, but not always. Sometimes it refers to people of the same nationality. Here it refers to those who are born again but a specific group — Jews.

            The rest of verse one is incorrectly translated in the King James version. The correct translation is, “My brethren, not in the sphere of partiality shall you have and hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory.”

            The key to this is in the word “partiality” which is a noun. Partiality is a manifestation of reverse process reversionism. The word “have not” is a negative plus e)xw which means to have and to hold. If you have and hold something it is rather permanent. This is having and holding partiality as a result of being in a state of reversionism.

            So let’s see the positive side. Bible doctrine comes into the left lobe — gnwsij. Then it is transferred by faith into the human spirit where it becomes e)pignowsij. It is then cycled into the right lobe’s frame of reference and it becomes part of the vocabulary, part of the norms and standards, part of the viewpoint. This is the launching pad for application. E)pignwsij builds the ECS.

            Negative volition toward doctrine causes scar tissue on the left bank of the soul. That opens up mataiothj and there is an immediate attack upon doctrine in the right lobe. That is the first thing to be attacked. This cases a change in behaviour pattern, thought pattern, and all concepts; and there are certain things that build scar tissue on the right lobe. The next thing that happens is an emotional revolt of the soul. While all of these things are going on the accumulation of scar tissue and the emotional revolt of the soul destroys the ECS. Reversionism is the removal of the ECS. While all this is going on the wires get crossed and people who are inconsequential suddenly get a lot of attention. People who are loved receive a lot of malarkey — bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, a lot of flak. There are way too many people who get hurt and confused and mixed up all because some person with whom they are associated, some person whom they love, is in reversionism and has reversed all of the directions of love, affection, attention, the expressions of the soul in every area. That is exactly the problem as we begin the second chapter of James. It is a very fascinating problem because its applications are endless.

            “My brethren, not in the sphere of partiality shall you have and hold faith.” The word “faith” here has a definite article here, and it is “the faith.” Pistij refers to doctrine accumulated from the daily function of GAP over a period of time resulting in an ECS. You cannot have and hold faith [doctrine] in your soul and at the same time have partiality. Partiality is crossing the wires. It means to give attention to inconsequential people. By inconsequential is meant people who are not in category # 2 or 3 love. We are supposed to love all the brethren, that is a relaxed mental attitude — no hatred, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, jealousy, and so on, toward other believers. Love the brethren is not an issue here at all. The issue here is the believer with scar tissue on his soul with emotional revolt of the soul, in reversionism, and his wires are all crossed. He spends time with people for whom he has no affection and with whom he will have no permanent relationship of any kind. He gives attention to that person, he mixes that person up, and he is doing this because in reversionism the true object of his love or affection is suffering from his reversionism. In his reversionism he treats them badly. That is a sign of his own reversionistic soul, the process it reversed, and gushes over and carries on over someone else and it doesn’t mean a thing, especially if that person is around — make them jealous, hurt them, get to them. The result of the reverse process in reversionism is this: you hurt the one you love and you lead on the one for whom you have no true soul affection. That is the result. But what is worse is that you have hurt yourself infinitely until you recover from reversionism.  

            You can’t have and hold doctrine and at the same time have partiality. Partiality means here to give your affection, even of your body, and your soul, and your time, to someone who is meaningless. In other words, this is talking about social infidelity, sexual infidelity, any kind of infidelity; you are unfaithful to whoever is with you in category #2, and you give time to someone who doesn’t mean anything. You cannot have an accumulation of doctrine [o( pistij — the faith] and at the same time have partiality. Partiality is making someone the object of your attention who doesn’t mean a thing to you. The answer is recovery from these things.

             The King James translation says “with respect of persons.” The Greek word means partiality and it is in a prepositional phrase — e)n plus the locative of proswpolhyia — “in the sphere of partiality.”

            Corrected translation: “My brethren, not in the sphere of partiality shall you have and hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory [The ECS].”

            Actually, it is even stronger than that: “My brethren, do not exhibit partiality as you hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory.” Jesus Christ is the glory. While He was on earth He built an ECS. Glory is often used for the ECS.

            Verses 2-3, the case of the short-sighted usher. Beginning verse 2, the word “For” is gar. It introduces an amplification of the prohibition of the previous verse. The previous verse indicates the biblical attitude toward reverse process reversionism. The Bible is opposed to it in every way because it comes through negative volition toward doctrine, it comes from the accumulation of scar tissue, it comes from emotional revolt, it comes from the function of reversionism, it comes with loss of doctrine in the right lobe, loss of the ECS. So obviously this is an anti-biblical function. “For” is now going to amplify this prohibition by using an illustration.

            “For if” — the word “if” here is e)an, and e)an plus the subjunctive mood is always the protasis for a third class condition. So we have a third class condition opening up this as a possibility. This is not an illustration taken from someone in James’ congregation but this is a possibility. “If there came” — aorist active subjunctive. We have the verb e)iserxomai which does not mean to come, it is much stronger than that. It means to enter into. It means here to enter into the local assembly and we have two people who are going to enter with an usher who is handling these two people.

            The usher is suffering from reversionism. He is still working though. it just so happens that the poor man who comes in is an object of his category #3 love, a true friend. It just so happens that the rich man is someone who has oppressed him and actually taken him before the law court. So this rich man is going to get his attention and his affection and the poor man is going to be ignored.

            “For if there enters into your assembly” — the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of sunagqwgh, used here for the assembly of believers. So we have two men entering. First, the person of no consequence to the usher, said to be “a man” — a)nhr, which means here a man of consequence, though often it means nobleman. This is further amplified by the next phrase where we have xrusodaktulioj which means gold-fingers [krusoj means gold; daktulioj means fingers]. It was customary in the ancient world to wear a lot of rings on your fingers if you were a person of influence and affluence. Often a person wore as many rings as he could get on his hand and it was quite obvious that if a man’s fingers were covered with gold rings he was a very wealthy person and he was advertising the fact. So “Goldfingers” has walked in here — “in goodly apparel,” also a prepositional phrase — e)n plus the locative of e)sqhj. We also have another word lampoj as an adjective and it actually says “in magnificent robes,” not goodly apparel. You could tell from the way he was dressed and the rings on his fingers that he was a very wealthy and very influential man. Remember that this person with all this flashy appearance has actually dragged our usher to jail on one occasion, so we have a case where the usher has even been maltreated by this man. But that doesn’t make any difference when you are in reversionism. Here is his friend standing right behind My Goldfingers and when he sees his friend he immediately starts giving Mr Goldfinger all of the attention: the best seat, all of the trimmings. In other words, we have reverse process reversionism. He doesn’t care for Mr Goldfingers, in fact he doesn’t even like him.

            “and there entered in” — e)ijerxomai again, aorist active subjunctive — “ptoxoj,” and by contrast ptoxoj is not only short of cash but is said to be a beggar who is poverty-stricken. The King James version says “a poor man.” He wasn’t a poor man, ptoxoj is a beggar who hasn’t made a dime in his tin cup. He is said to be in “vile raiment” — e)n plus the locative of r(uparoj. This word doesn’t really mean vile it means filthy, squalid and stinking. But this is the usher’s friend. He has had a bad week and hasn’t taken in much and was without a place to stay. He is poverty-stricken, probably a little hungry, and quite persona non grata to his reversionistic friend.

            Verse 3 — “And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing.” “And ye have respect is e)piblepw — aorist active subjunctive. This is a verb of flirtation. Blepw means to look; e)pi means to look on and blink. if it is a woman it is batting her eyes; if it is a man it is great partiality. So this doesn’t mean to have respect. He doesn’t have respect for this rich man, he regards him with great partiality. He bows and scrapes and makes the proper noises, and so on.

            “to the one wearing the magnificent robes.” “He that weareth” is forew which means to bear or carry. he is not so much wearing these robes, he is carrying them, because apparently his clothing has a lot of gold and silver ornamentation. he is carrying the magnificent, ostentatious clothing — “and say [unto him is not found in the MSS], Sit thou here” — the present middle imperative of kaqhmai. The present tense is linear aktionsart — keep sitting here — and the middle voice: for your own benefit because it is the best seat in the house. The point of the linear aktionsart is to indicate that he kept saying this, he didn’t say it once. He gave him a lot of supercilious attention. The imperative an order stated as a request with a flourish. In other words, he bowed and scraped. The word “here” is w(de, an adverb which means “in this place,” like a very special place. Then he adds another adverb, kaloj, which is not “in a good place” as translated in the King James version. Kaloj is an adverb meaning honourable or honourably. Literally, it should be translated “be seated in this place [honourably].”

            In the meantime his poor friend is standing, waiting his turn, and watching this scene. “and say to the poor” — aorist active subjunctive of ptoxoj — “You stand there” — an aorist active imperative of i(stemi. In other words, he came back up, as ushers do, and says, “sit there.” But that isn’t all he said, he said, “down beside my footstool.”

 

            Translation of verses 2 and 3: “For if there should enter into your assembly a prominent man covered with gold rings in magnificent clothing, and at the same time there enters a poor man [ptoxoj] in filthy clothing; but you show how partiality to the one wearing the magnificent clothes, and you should say, Be seated in this place honourably; but you should say to ptoxoj, You stand there, or sit down beside my footstool.”

            Verse 4 — “Are you now then partial.” We have an aorist passive indicative of diakrinw which means to discriminate — Have you not discriminated. But this is not discriminated in the ordinary sense of just discrimination, this is a soul failure. This is not discrimination because you have prejudice, this is discrimination because you have reversionism.

            In yourselves” — the preposition e)n plus the reflexive pronoun in the locative — in the sphere of yourself. Or we might put it this way: Were you not discriminating in your mind? This is often used as an idiom for your thinking in your soul. We have a negative o)u here for Are you not, and the o)u expects an affirmative answer. The answer is, yes, I have — if you just did what that usher did. He puts it this way in the Greek to challenge those who are his parishioners with regard to reverse process reversionism.

            That isn’t all. A reverse process reversionist has been guilty of the most awful type of judging. He has judged his friend and made a fool out of someone about whom he does not care.

            “and are become” — “become” is an aorist middle indicative of ginomai, you become something you were not before. And what you have become: the nominative plural form kritai but the form is krithj, from which we get our English word critic. Krithj means “judges.” “Have you not become judges [or critics]?”

            “of evil” — genitive plural of ponhroj referring here to an evil condition in the soul — scar tissue, emotional revolt, reversionism. And the next word is “thoughts,” dialogismoj which means contentions, contentions which come from reversionism.

            Translation: “Were you not being partial in your minds [yes, you were], and have you not become critics with evil thoughts [yes, you have]?”

            Verse 5 — the application. “Hearken” — aorist active imperative of a)kouw. The aorist active imperative means “concentrate [on this].” “My beloved brethren” refers to the Jewish believers of James 1:1. Note that the Jewish believers are “accepted in the beloved.”

            In the presentation of the doctrinal viewpoint of reverse process reversionism there are three viewpoints which are going to be presented. In verse 5 we will see the doctrinal viewpoint from this illustration. In verse 6 we will see the common sense viewpoint, and in verse 7 we will see the logical viewpoint.

            Once you begin to take in a lot of doctrine you are not only going to have doctrine to apply but you may acquire the rarest bird of all — common sense. It is possible for the worst weirdo in town do develop common sense through Bible doctrine.

            Verse 5 — the first word is mistranslated as far as what is meant, because when it says “Hearken my beloved brethren” this is referring to the next three verses and it doesn’t mean to hearken. “Hearken” here is a little stronger than that inasmuch as it is the imperative mood, especially since the person James wrote this. When you write to someone hundreds and hundreds of miles away, obviously it doesn’t mean to hear. Did it ever occur to us that when we read the word “hearken,” and we are reading it, and James says to us to “hearken,” that he doesn’t mean hearken? We couldn’t hear the voice of James unless we went to heaven! There are certain verbs, certain nouns, certain particles that when they are put into a sentence they come to mean something they are not said to mean in a vocabulary list. Obviously a)kouw in writing never means to hear because the people who write are not only filled with the Spirit but they have complete use of their senses. They are not stupid, and James is no exception. Therefore this means to concentrate, not to hear. “Concentrate my beloved brethren” — a)delfoi mou a)gaphtoi. This refers to some Jewish believers who are mentioned in James 1:1. This phrase is in the aorist active imperative. The aorist tense is the iterative aorist which means as I begin, you begin. This means I am now beginning a dissertation — verses 5, 6, 7; doctrinal viewpoint, common sense viewpoint, logical viewpoint. And as I do, concentrate. It should be translated “Begin to concentrate.”

            First the doctrinal viewpoint. If you are going to deal with reverse process reversionism and if you are going to understand the principle you have to begin with doctrine. And you have to begin in eternity past.

             There are several principles in the verse but our first principle deals with “Hath not God,” and it is o( qeoj — “Hath not the God chosen” — the aorist middle indicative of e)klegw. The aorist tense here is a little difficult because it is not iterative, it is not constative, it is not culminative. The aorist means a point, an occurrence. Iterative is at the beginning, constative is during, and culminative is obviously at the end. But these leave out eternity past, and this is an aorist which is not an occurrence but something that can never be related to time. The aorist tense is not related to time and this is very difficult for us to understand because all English tenses are related to time. It is true that people no longer understand this because they mix up the tenses so badly today, but in principle here “the God” did the choosing or the electing in eternity past. He didn’t do it at any particular time in eternity past because eternity doesn’t have time. But this is an occurrence in eternity. It is also in the middle voice which is reflexive, He did it all by Himself. It is also the indicative mood which is the reality of the fact that all believers have been elected.

 

            The doctrine of election

            1. All members of the human race are potentially elected by “the God,” God the Father. This is the application of unlimited atonement as it is related to election in 2 Timothy 2:10.

            2. Christ was elected from eternity past — Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 2:4,6. Election for the believer means to share the election of Christ. It also has a connotation of sharing the destiny of Christ.

            3. This election of Jesus Christ occurred in the doctrine of divine decrees — John 15:16; Ephesians 1:4; 2 Timothy 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2.

            4. Every believer shares the election of Christ through the mechanics of positional sanctification — 1 Corinthians 1:2, 30; Romans 8:28-32; Ephesians 1:4.

            5. Election is the present as well as the future possession of every believer. Therefore, election is temporal as well as the eternal possession of every believer — John 15:16; Colossians 3:12.

            6. This election occurs at the moment of salvation, that is, the moment the individual believes in Jesus Christ — 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:9.

            7. The election is also the foundation of the universal church — 1 Thessalonians 1:4. Doctrine, by the way, is the foundation of the local church.

            8. Orientation to election comes through the doctrine that is taken into the human spirit and cycled into the frame of reference — Titus 1:1.

            9. The regenerate Jews of the previous dispensation, the Age of Israel, also had an election as a part of the plan of God — Romans 11:1-7.

 

            This particular passage deals with a special type of believer who is categorised in this passage as totally unlovely. By profession he is a beggar, by appearance and grooming “he stinketh.” He is called “the poor of the kosmoj. This is in the accusative plural to show there are many people like ptoxoj. We are dealing with the principle of all people in this category. God has elected the poor in the sphere of this kosmoj. It defines poverty in terms of human possession rather than poverty of the soul. We are going to have the poor of this world but rich in faith. Ptoxoj in the plural does not refer to a beggar but to people who are generally poor. But remember that ptoxoj in the plural is poverty in terms of human possession, not poverty in terms of the soul. In the plural we are talking about a principle.

 

            The doctrine of the poor

            1. God can raise the poor out of the poverty of their circumstances — 1 Samuel 2:8; Psalm 113:7.

            2. There is a special happiness for those who help the poor — Psalm 41:1,2; Proverbs 19:17; 22:9, 14.

            3. The poor are not only delivered by God from poverty but in the reality of their poverty they often see the            need for salvation and respond to the gospel.

            4. It is possible for the poor to be generous and magnificent in the use of whatever money they have — cf. Mark 12:41-44.

            5. The poor cannot enter into pseudo friendship because of his poverty — Proverbs 19:4.

            6. There is a special curse for those who ignore helping the poor — Proverbs 21:13; 22:16; 28:3. There is also a special curse for those who take advantage of the poor — Proverbs 22:22.

            7. Until the Millennial there will always be poverty in the human race — Matthew 26:11.

            8. It is possible to be poor and have great happiness at the same time — Mark 12:43.

            9. The poor are a target for hypocrisy; they are victims of hypocrisy — John 12:5; they are also the victims of reverse process reversionism — James 2:2-4.

            10. The poor [believers] have the same spiritual privileges as rich [believers] — James 2:5, application of the doctrine of election.

 

            The poor in principle — who are believers — in this application of doctrine are said to be “rich in faith.” The word “rich” is also in the plural to indicate that we are still dealing with that principle. The noun in its vocabulary form is plousioj. A believer may be in poverty but have a fantastic accumulation of Bible doctrine. How do we know it is Bible doctrine here? It says “rich in faith.” Because we have the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of pistij, but pistij has in front of it the definite article which refers to the entire body of Christian doctrine. So literally then, “wealth by means of accumulated doctrine.” Of course, that is from GAP. These people are said to be “poor in this kosmoj but rich [wealthy] by means of the accumulation of doctrine.”

            Election is the application of a doctrine which occurred in eternity past. The doctrine of poverty deals with their actual circumstances in phase two of the plan of God, and the next phrase “heirs” is primarily related to phase three. So we have the application of election, the application of the principle of poverty, the application of a phase three doctrine — “heirs.” How do we know that this is referring to phase three? Because it doesn’t say “heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ” as in Romans, it says “heirs of the basileia [the kingdom].” And this is the first time that we have had anything that is singular. Basileia refers to a realm, a kingdom governed by a king. Here it simply refers to the realm of regenerate persons in the future. And, again, to show you it is future, “he hath promised to them that love him” — aorist middle indicative of e)paggellw, which really means to undertake something beneficial for someone and to express it to them. The promise is made through doctrine accumulated, and the word “promise” here is an aorist tense referring back to rich or wealthy by means of the accumulation of doctrine. In that doctrine which is accumulated in the souls of the persons in poverty is the fact that God has promised him that God has promised them that they are heirs of the basileia. Then we have that phrase which refers to all believers, “to them that love him.” We have a dative present active participle of a)gapaw — dative of advantage here. The present active participle indicates the principle: a relaxed mental attitude toward God which comes through salvation. This does not refer to a believer who grows up and has category # 1 love which is occupation with Christ — that is filew. This love does not indicate the spiritual condition that filew would, hence this is a general term for all believers. It just happens in this context that those in material poverty are believers who have a great spiritual wealth of doctrine. Being rich as a result of accumulated doctrine is a part of expressing this principle.

           

            Corrected translation: “Concentrate, my beloved brethren, Has not the God elected the destitute of this world wealthy by means of accumulated doctrine, heirs of the kingdom [of regenerate] which he has promised to those who love him.”

 

            Verse six — the common sense viewpoint. By common sense is meant the actual application of the doctrine on the one hand, which has actually been given, and correlating it with the experience of the short-sighted usher.

            “Go back in your experience usher. In your experience have you had anything to do with Goldfinger before this? I’ll say you have.” This is common sense. “What has he done to you? He has oppressed you and dragged you into court. And what has you old friend “Ptoxoj” done? Nothing, except be a good friend.” Common sense. “Where is your common sense?” You can’t have common sense and be in reversionism at the same time. If you had common sense the moment you become reversionistic you lose it. Common sense ought to tell the short-sighted usher that he is a jackass to kow-tow to a man sitting honourably in the best seat of the house because he comes in in magnificent apparel and because he is a rich man. And this very same person dragged him to court on another occasion. But, again, believers in reversionism never ever have common sense.

            “But” — de, conjunction of contrast. There is a contrast here between the divine viewpoint of the believer in materialistic things but rich in doctrine and the human viewpoint of the short-sighted usher. “Ptoxoj” who came in in vile raiment happens to have accumulated doctrine — “rich in faith” — and his friend, the short-sighted usher — is reversionistic practising reverse process reversionism. So who has divine viewpoint? We know that “Ptoxoj” does because he came to church in vile raiment. That tells us that he really wants the Word. His friend is minus the Word, and still hustling — working in the assembly but reversionistic and minus common sense as well as minus doctrine. “But ye have despised the poor [Ptokoj].” This phrase is what is called “getting the shaft.” The words “ye have despised” is the aorist active indicative of a)timazw. A real word for despise would be something like misew, but we don’t have misew here. So this is not really a good translation. A)timazw means to dishonour, to debase, to degrade, to abuse. To dishonour is its most literal meaning in the English. It is actually a verb for the function of reverse process reversionism. “But” — aorist tense; in the point. This is an interesting aorist tense, a certain type of constative aorist. Constative is a series of dots but this is an occurrence specifically based upon verses 2-4. It is an iterative instead of a constative. But this is the time that “Ptoxoj” came to church and got the shaft. The passage speaks to the reversionistic usher: “You have dishonoured a category # 3 friend.”

            With that introduction we now have the common sense viewpoint. “Do not rich men oppress you” — in the plural to show the principle. Plusioj is in the plural this time. Now all rich people do not oppress the poor, there is a certain category who do — category Goldfinger. The word “oppress” is a present active indicative of a compound verb, katadunasteuw. Kata means “down” here; dunasteuw means to rule or to reign, hence it means to rule against, to tyrannise. it is used for those in authority abusing that authority by harsh and unfair treatment of their subjects. The real principle here is not oppression as such, but it is a certain type of rich man who because of his wealth he is arrogant. This particular category has an arrogance whereby they look down their nose at those in poverty and have a tendency to treat them as dirt. That is the first common sense application.

 

            Summary

            1. This does not refer to all people who have wealth but to a specific type of rich man who abuses his authority — being tyrannical, despotic, arrogant, extortionist, dishonouring the poor by destroying their       rights, their freedom, their privacy. (That is what the welfare state does, too)

            2. Wealth means a certain amount of power but more responsibility. Wealth carries the principle of responsibility.  

            3. Therefore wealth has both authority and responsibility, not to oppress the poor but to protect the poor in the sense of giving them their rights, their freedom, their privacy, as members of the human race under the laws of establishment. Furthermore, to provide for the helpless poor so that they continue to live and have freedom and rights and privacy.

            4. The short-sighted usher is in reversionism therefore he lacks the divine viewpoint of doctrine and resultant common sense.

            5. This common sense and observation of life should remind the short-sighted usher that by showing deference and partiality to the rich man he is digging his own grave. The rich man who has oppressed him in the past will continue to do so and in effect the short-sighted usher, through this reversionistic process, has made a fool of himself. He has catered to the wealthy.

            6. Why would the short-sighted usher venerate with obsequiousness the rich man who might oppress him?

            7. Because he is envious of the rich man’s power and influence and hopes in his approbation lust that some of that power might be siphoned off for himself. In this way the short-sighted usher reversionism is also a name-dropper. In other words, obsequiousness always resides in the soul of the person who has        approbation lust, who has power lust, and he wants some of that to be siphoned off in his direction.

            8. The short-sighted usher is therefore a name-dropper hoping to gain some attention or some approbation by contact with the rich or with the influential, with those who are considered humanly successful.

            9. As a believer the short-sighted usher manifests scar tissue, emotional revolt, reversionism, and practices reverse process reversionism. 

 

            Here is the second thing that Goldfinger has done: “and draw you before the judgement seats.” Actually, the word “draw” is the present active indicative of e(lkw. E(lkw means to drag by the heels, to drag violently by force. it is an illustration taken from the rich man’s abuse of the law and his abuse of the short-sighted usher. The “judgement seat” is the direction of the dragging as indicated by the preposition e)ij which is a directional preposition. The judgement seat is bhma but this is krithrion. Bhma is not found here. Krithrion is the court of law.

            Corrected translation: “But you have dishonoured the poor. Certain rich ones, do they not oppress you, and do they not drag you violently into courts of law?”

            This means that the law, used to protect the rights of an individual, rich or poor, is used by the rich man with power and influence to oppress the poor. You, short-sighted usher, are catering, you are obsequious, you are kow-towing to a person who abuses you and your kind. Wealth never means happiness or blessing where it is used for oppression or tyranny. Bible doctrine not only corrects the viewpoint of the usher who demonstrated partiality in reversionism, but also adds objectivity to the law and therefore stabilises the principle of establishment.

            Verse 7 — the logical viewpoint. This is also the result of doctrine. This describes further observations regarding a certain type of rich unbeliever or a rich believer who has scar tissue, emotional revolt, and reversionism. “Do they not malign” — blasfhmew means to malign. It is a present active indicative, they keep on maligning — “Do they not keep on maligning” — linear aktionsart — to kalwn o)noma, which is not “that worthy name” but “that honourable name.” This is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are unbelievers in wealth dishonour the name of Jesus Christ, they use it in profanity. This means not just in profanity but in ridicule of the Lord Jesus Christ.

            “by which ye are called” — e)pikalew, doesn’t mean to be called; kalew means to call but this is e)pikalew which means to be surnamed. It is an aorist passive participle: “having been surnamed upon you,” which is a Greek idiom meaning having been given an additional name. Your additional name, of course, is “Christian” — Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16.

 

            What is the principle here logically?

            1. When a believer has Bible doctrine accumulated in the right lobe he not only has the doctrinal viewpoint but he has common sense and logic as well.

            2. Both common sense and logic are an extension of Bible doctrine here when such doctrine has been accumulated through the consistent function of GAP. That is the phrase “rich in faith.”

            3. If certain types of rich people ridicules the name of Christ, the honourable name by which you are         called, they are using profanity and it is the lowest thing anyone can ever do.

 

 

            Verse 8 — we begin with a first class condition. We start out the protasis, which is the “if” clause, with the Greek word e)i which means “If,” plus the indicative mood. Then in the apodasis, which is the main sentence of the clause, we have any tense or any mood. This is the way the first class condition is identified.

            “If ye fulfil the royal law.” The verb “fulfil” is the present active indicative of telew. The word means to conclude an operation. To carry out an operation you finish a circuit. The operation here is described as the royal law — greatly misunderstood, often misquoted as far as the context is concerned. So literally, “If you carry out operation royal law.” This is a first class condition and the writer, James, assumes that they will.

            The phrase “royal law” is nomon [law] basilikon [royal] in the Greek. The royal law is first expressed in Leviticus 19:18. It has often been called traditionally the eleventh commandment. That is a misnomer because the ten commandments are designed to provide freedom and privacy for the individual during the course of human history. The royal law is the Bible translation and expresses it perfectly. This is not the eleventh commandment, this is a law all of its own. It is found not only in our passage where it is quoted but it is also quoted in Matthew 19:19; 22:39-40; 1 John 3:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; 1 Peter 1:22; 2:17; 1 John 3:11; 4:7. How it is quoted in each one of these passages indicates how it is to be used. One thing we can learn almost immediately, just from the citation given, is that the royal law is for believers only. The ten commandments are for the human race and are part of the laws of divine establishment. The royal law is not establishment, it is a spiritual law. The whole concept of the royal law as far as the Church Age believer is concerned is found in Romans chapter eight verses two through four where the filling of the Holy Spirit fulfils the royal law.

            “according the scripture” — we have the prepositional phrase beginning with kata which means according to the norm of standard of the scripture. In other words, this is a quotation from the scripture — Leviticus 19:18. It is fulfilled for the believer in Romans 8:2-4; it is now quoted. What is the royal law? First of all it is a positive law, not a negative, and it is now quoted correctly, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This law is unique. It is quoted in the New Testament to be a part of the Christian way of life fulfilled by the filling of the Spirit, but since believers in Leviticus 19 were not filled with the Spirit obviously it has another meaning there.

            So let’s start with “Thou shalt love,” the future active indicative of the verb a)gapaw. A)gapaw is a thinking verb, it means strictly to think, not to do or to act. It means to have a relaxed mental attitude in your thinking toward other people. It means freedom from mental attitude sins such as envy, jealousy, bitterness, implacability, hatred, and so on. Repeat: this verb it a thinking verb, it has nothing to do with any overt expression of love. The future tense is a translation of the imperfect tense in the Hebrew. The qal imperfect is translated in the future active indicative.

            The next phrase is “thy neighbour,” and for this we have an adverb, plhsion, which doesn’t really mean neighbour in the sense that we use it. “Neighbour is a noun; plhsion in the Greek is an adverb, and it means near or nearby — “Thou shalt love the nearby ones.” Since an adverb is used for a noun in the English and since it also has then definite article, it should be translated “Thou shalt love those in your periphery [in your circumstances].”

            Next we have another adverb — “as.” This is the adverb of comparison, w(j. In other words, a norm or standard for this type of thinking love is set up. Notice that the Word of God is very accurate, it always describes any kind of love, and when you have “as yourself” you can think well of yourself but you never touch yourself. This adverb of comparison is followed by the reflexive pronoun “self.” So here is the criterion. Man must have a relaxed mental attitude toward himself. That is called living with yourself. Therefore he also has a relaxed mental attitude toward others. This is an extension of a principle called privacy and freedom, live and let live.

            Translation: “If on the one hand you carry out operation royal law [and we have seen that you do] according to the norm of the scripture, Thou shalt love those in your periphery as you love yourself ...” The final phrase is in the apodasis: “ye do well.” The Greek has a different order, it starts out with the adverb “well” which is kalwj, and adverb [with an w], and it means honourably. It is the first word in the apodasis and therefore very strong — “honourably you keep on doing” — present active indicative of poiew.

           

            Summary

            1. Accumulated doctrine provides capacity for love. In the ECS the third floor is a relaxed mental attitude. This verb is related to that. Accumulated doctrine also avoids reverse process reversionism.

            2. The royal law describes the person who capacity for love.

            3. Therefore the royal law is protection against the function of reverse process reversionism. Therefore this particular law is related at this point to the short-sighted usher.

 

            Verse 9 — a second first class condition occurs, “If” on the other hand “ye have respect for persons” — present active indicative of proswpolhptew which does not really mean respect of persons and it really doesn’t mean partiality, although that is the best way to translate it. “If on the other hand you keep on showing partiality” is a technical word for the function of reverse process reversionism.

            “ye commit sin” — the present active indicative of e)rgazomai means to do business or to be occupied. E)rgazomai does not mean to commit — “and you become occupied with sin.” The word for sin is hamartia and it actually refers to the principle or the cause of sin. It often refers to the sin nature. Here it means you are functioning under the sin nature; “and are convinced” — present passive participle of e)legxw which means to be convicted; “of the law,” but of the law is u(po plus nomoj, and nomoj refers again to the royal law; “as transgressors” — but the word “transgressor” is parabathj which means a violator of the [royal] law.

            Translation: “If on the other hand you keep on showing partiality, you are occupied with the sin nature, being convicted under the authority of the [royal] law and a violator of the law.”

            The royal law convicts the reversionist of his failure in devoting attention to inconsequential persons while rejecting true love in bona fide categories. So actually the royal law is designed to alert people with regard to reversionism.

            The second production of operational death begins in verse 10 and goes through verse 13. Now we switch from the royal to the law in general for legalism.

            Verse 10 — “For” is the particle gar which is going to amplify this concept and take it into the entire Mosaic law — “whosoever” refers to anyone. Here it is o(stij and it is with the aorist subjunctive so it has a special meaning. It is an indefinite relative pronoun and with the aorist subjunctive it is an indefinite relative clause. The indefinite relative clause is used to illustrate a principle with a principle. So verse 10 is the illustration of a principle with a principle, and now the principle which is used as the illustrator is a person who is trying to teach the Mosaic law but violates at one point. Therefore, “whosoever shall teach,” aorist active subjunctive of terew which means to guard what belongs to you. So it is a Jew trying to keep the law. He is not only trying to keep the royal law but the whole law which means the entire Mosaic law — o(lon ton nomon.

          “and yet he offends in one point,” or in one spot. The word for “offend” is the aorist active subjunctive of ptaiw which means to stumble or to fall. The aorist tense refers to any point of time during his whole life time. And so he stumbles in one. That refers to one commandment and not just the royal law but any law in the Mosaic code.

            “he is guilty of all” — perfect active indicative of ginwmai, and it should be translated “he has become” something he was not before. What is the significance of the perfect tense? The Bible regards a person innocent until demonstrated guilty. So you start out innocent. If it was the verb “is” as is translated, then you’re guilty. But you start out innocent until proven guilty by the law. It should be “become” here, not “is.”

            “For whosoever regards the entire law and yet stumbles in one command, he has become guilty of all.”

            The word guilty is e)noxoj which means liable, answerable. It means that if you violate at one point at that point you become liable to the law. In criminal law one point of the law broken makes a person a criminal. He was on one side of the law, now he is on the other side of the law. He was innocent; now he is guilty. That is the principle involved here. And how does that relate to reversionism? In this way: as long as you are a believer building that ECS, taking in doctrine day by day by day, your capacity for love follows the principles of law. In your capacity for love, category # 1, you love God, you love Jesus Christ. In your capacity for love in category # 2 you love right/man, right/woman if such a person has been discovered. In category # 3 you love your friends. This overflows into a relaxed mental attitude toward those in your periphery — not a demonstration of love but relaxed thinking. Once you start into reversionism you have become guilty at one point, and having become guilty at one point you are guilty of all. That’s reversionism. Then in reversionism all your capacity for love changes. For example, when you are building an ECS you have right pastor and you are in right congregation, therefore your attitude toward the pastor is one way, but once you are in reversionism then your attitude toward the pastor becomes something else — antagonism toward him — and you take up with inconsequential persons. You may be guilty only in one point, that is reversionism, but if you are guilty in one point you are guilty in all points. That is the practice of reverse process reversionism. Reversionism: guilty at one point; reverse process reversionism: guilty at all points. In other words, you have lost your capacity to love in reverse process reversionism. It means your capacity for love of God, and that will come out in one place; your capacity for love in category # 2, category # 3, your capacity for love regarding the royal law, peripheral people — the thinking love, RMA, your church — right pastor, right congregation, that breaks up. Your capacity is gone in all areas. You violate in one but it is gone in all. That is the illustration of reverse process reversionism.

            Next we have an illustration of the principle that illustrates the principle. These principles are all sequential. In verse 9, the principle; in verse 10, the principle that illustrates the principle; in verse 11, the illustration of the principle that illustrates the principle.

            Verse 11 — “For he that said” — Moses said this in Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18: “Do not commit adultery” — “and said also, Do not kill [murder].” The word is foneuw, “homicide.” These two commandments illustrate the principle that illustrates the principle. The two commandments are specified for illustrative purposes. So the verse can be broken down mentally and overtly. Why were these two commandments picked? You say because they are common? No. Because they have two sides. Adultery can be mental or physical, or actually a combination. Homicide can be mental, physical or a combination. Homicide mental is hatred, homicide physical is murder; mental adultery is fornication [in the mind, the soul]; adultery physical is fornication, physical type. So both of these commandments are parallel in that they have a mental side and a physical side. For example, adultery mental and overt — Matthew 5:27-28; murder, mental and overt — Matthew 5:21,22. The reason why these two illustrations are used is because they have a mental side and a physical side. Why? To set up for you the possibilities of breaking these two.

            “Now” — the particle de, this is the illustration next, having brought the two commandments into focus, “if” — first class condition, “thou commit no adultery [you do not fornicate], but you kill, thou art become” — ginomai in the perfect active indicative: you have become something, liable to the law or guilty of all the law — “a transgressor,” parabathj, which means a transgressor but that is not modern English — “a violator.”

            Translation:  “For the one having said , Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not commit homicide. Now if you do not commit adultery [either mental or overt], but you do murder [either mental or overt], you have become a violator of the law.”

 

            This verse implies eleven things

            1. There are some parts of the law one individual would never violate because that is his area of strength.

            2. No two people have the same area of strength; no two people have the same area of weakness in the old sin nature.

            3. Violation of one part of the law makes a person a sinner just as violation of another part of the law.

            4. Legalism and self-righteousness is prone to forget that the source of all sin is the old sin nature.

            5. Everyone has an old sin nature. Violation of the law merely proves the existence of that old sin nature because the area of weakness violates a specific part of the law.

            6. The legalist emphasises the commandments he keeps; the honest person recognises the commandments he breaks. The legalist emphasises the commandments not only that he keeps but from it he keeps building his egotistical self-righteousness.

            7. Doctrine removes legalism and self-righteousness on the basis of the principle of this verse.

            8. Legalism minimises the weakness or besetting sin of the old sin nature while emphasising the weakness or besetting sin of someone else’s old sin nature.

            9. Legalism condemns those who fail in their own area of strength but legalism does not recognise that all have sinned.

            10. Sometimes legalism is so string that it fulfils the two categories of 1 John 1:8, 10 — people who claim that they have not sinned.

            11. To be guilty one only has to sin once, not the thousands of times we really do sin. To become guilty of all one only has to think in the area where there is a mental attitude sin.

 

            Verse 12 — whether you like it or not the law of liberty is the basic function of the Christian way of life. It is the basis for everything. You must have freedom in the spiritual life for grace production and the basic law is liberty — always liberty.

            We begin with an adverb in this verse — o(utoj which introduces the concept of application. When you see o(utoj standing by itself, as it does here, it means we are now getting ready to apply the principles we have learned in the first eleven verses and above all, in the first chapter. “So speak ye” — present active imperative of lalew. Lalew has two meanings that really do not seem to be related. One meaning has to do with chattering, the other has to do with communication. This is a present tense, so it is linear aktionsart — whatever you are to do here you are to keep on doing it. The active voice: you must do it yourself. The imperative mood: it is a command.

            Speaking here is a reference to the prohibition against sins of the tongue — gossip, slander, maligning, judging. One of the things that characterises a believer who begins to grow up is to avoid the sins of the tongue. The tongue is easy to use. Murder by the tongue is one of the signs of a believer who has not matured. “So keep on speaking,” i.e. keep on speaking with freedom from mental attitude sins.

            This is followed by another phrase, “and so do” -present active imperative of poiew — “Keep on doing.” These two commands are followed by a principle that brings in three different doctrines to understand it — the doctrine of human good, the doctrine of divine good (we will call those two one doctrine), the doctrine pertaining to the law of freedom, and we will take up the doctrine of the judgement seat of Christ. All of these are involved in the last half of verse 12 — “as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”

            “They that” is referring to the believer at a future time, at the end of the Rapture — “shall be” is a present active participle of the verb mellw, which means they who are about to be, or they who are about to receive judgement. The word “judge” is a present passive infinitive of krinw which means to be judged in a court, and the court here refers to the time when all believers attend court in resurrection bodies. Every believer will have his day in court. The purpose is the evaluation of his production in phase two.

            First of all there are two areas where believers who begin to grow up begin to show. One is in the area of speaking which also reflects thinking — these are believers who are free from mental attitude sins — and in the field of doing which is the great principle found in James. Mellw doesn’t mean tomorrow or the next day but it means in the future. There is a definite time coming and the verb mellw refers to a definite time — mellw followed by the infinitive. The infinitive speaks of God’s purpose. It is God’s purpose to evaluate every believer in a resurrection body. There is one thing that we have in a resurrection body which must be removed, if we have it, and that is human good — good works which have their source in the energy of the flesh: human talent, human ability, human systems.

            This day in court — present passive infinitive: the present tense is dramatic; the passive voice means we receive judgement or evaluation; the infinitive means that it is God’s purpose to judge us before we spend any time in eternity in resurrection bodies to evaluate our production so that never again in heaven will any human good of any human being ever be mentioned. Human good is totally incompatible with the grace of God. Notice that it says here that we are to receive judgement by — dia plus the genitive and probably should be translated “through” — “the law of liberty. “Law” is the Greek word nomoj which means a system, in this case a divine system. The law of liberty is a divine law for Christian modus operandi. The genitive case of e)leuqeria means freedom really, although liberty is all right. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as of the point of regeneration are free to serve God. The law of liberty says that grace gives you the freedom to serve God. It says that you are free to make grace decisions on the basis of Bible doctrine, that you are free to live your life as unto the Lord and that you are not accountable — apart from criminal law and things of this sort — to other people. You must live your life as unto the Lord. Basically, once you are born into the family of God there is a whole new set of rules — grace rules and grace principles — and that you must learn these things and function under them so that the working object of your faith is always God and God’s provision, never human ability, never human talent. The law of freedom rejects any human ability, talent or system of spirituality or salvation by works. There is no place for man’s works no matter how well designed or intentioned or sincere.

            The grace of God is described under the law of liberty here, or the law of freedom. There are basically four laws which come into function at some time in the Christian life. The first of these is the law of freedom, its direction is always toward Bible doctrine. The second is the law of love and its direction is toward other believers. The third, an inferior law, is the law which is directed toward God and only applies in a few cases: the law of supreme sacrifice. It does apply to the pastor-teacher, to those who communicate doctrine; it does not generally apply in the Christian life. The apostle Paul is a definite illustration. He had the gift of communication and he also had the gift of apostleship and it demanded that he live a rather abnormal life. The law of supreme sacrifice never deals with ordinary things, it deals with things that are legitimate and right for most people. For example, Paul did not have a wife. There is nothing wrong with certain functions in life which are normal but there is a time when these things are set aside under special conditions. There is also the law of expediency which is directed toward unbelievers and it only deals with certain witnessing situations or certain situations where Bible doctrine has to be communicated. The second law which will have application from time to time is the law of love, and it is a result of functioning under the law of freedom.

            So again, the law of freedom — Galatians 5:1; the law of love in the function of a)gaph love in the believer through the filling of the Holy Spirit — Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22; amplified in 1 Corinthians 13; the law of supreme sacrifice where certain believers give up normal functions in life to fulfil the divine plan — 1 Corinthians 9:1-15; the law of expediency, the function of believers under certain conditions of evangelism where an issue must be made out of the gospel and not anything else — 1 Corinthians 9:16-23.

            Verse 12 — “So keep on speaking, and so keep on doing, as they who through the law of freedom are about to receive judgement [evaluation].”

            The judgement or the evaluation is the judgement seat of Christ which occurs after the Rapture for the purpose of exterminating human good in the believer. It is mentioned in such passages as Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-16; 2 Timothy 2:12; Hebrews 6:7-12. The basis of reward or the basis of loss of reward is the difference between divine and human good. 

 

            The doctrine of human good

            1. Human good is identified as dead works because it is dead to God and dead to God’s plan — Hebrews 6:1; James 2:20,26.

            2. Human good is never acceptable to God or to the divine viewpoint — Isaiah 64:6.

            3. Therefore human good has no place in the plan of God or operation grace — 2 Timothy 1:9.

            4. Human good will not save mankind — Titus 3:5.

            5. The believer’s human good is revealed at the judgement seat of Christ and destroyed — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16.

            6. Human good is the basis of the unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgement — Revelation 20:12-15.

 

            Every person who rejects Christ as saviour is actually doing this. When Christ died on the cross our sins were poured out on Him and judged. The work of dying for us is divine good. The sins of the old sin nature were judged. The old sin nature also produces human good which was rejected at the cross. Divine good always excludes human good, they cannot coexist. When a person takes a look at the cross and says no, he then has to stand upon his human good and at the last judgement he will not be judged for his sins. Everything that could be construed as sin was judged on the cross for the unbelievers too, and the law of double jeopardy excludes sins which were judged on the cross ever being mentioned again. You cannot be tried for the same thing twice, you were tried once when Christ took your place. Jesus Christ was found    guilty on your behalf and was judged for your sins. Therefore, at the great white throne judgement, the last             judgement, the unbeliever will not hear anything about sin. He is going to spend eternity in the lake of fire, and in his day in court, guess what he hears. He hears about all the human good he ever performed. Everything that will be mentioned with regard to most unbelievers are things that you would applaud, but there is no human good that will ever stand up to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And no one can be saved by works, and at the last judgement the basis for being there is rejection of Jesus Christ as             saviour — “He that believeth not is condemned already.” However, what is going to be mentioned? Human good. They are judged “according to their works” it says twice in Revelation chapter twenty, verses twelve through fifteen. All of this do-good stuff that people applaud is going to be mentioned in eternity just once and then the person involved will be cast into the lake of fire. That is God’s attitude toward human good.

            7. Distinction must be made between morality and human good. This is done for us in Romans 13:4,5. Morality is a part of the laws of divine establishment and therefore is not the same as human good. Under the angelic conflict morality is necessary for the perpetuation and the function of the human race.

 

            The doctrine of divine good

            1. There are three sources of divine good. The first is from the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit produces divine good. Secondly, from doctrine in the human spirit. Doctrine in the human spirit produces divine good in the erection of the ECS and the cycling of doctrine into the right lobe. The soul, therefore, produces human good both in the launching pad — the viewpoint — and the ECS. When a believer has an ECS and functions under it he produces triple compound divine good.  

            2. Divine good resolves the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21.

            3. GAP is the means for the production of divine good under the grace perspective. You cannot perform     divine good apart from the filling of the Spirit and you cannot perform divine good apart from a maximum intake of doctrine — Colossians 1:9,10; 2 Timothy 2:21; 3:17; Titus 2:7.

            4. The believer in phase two is the recipient of grace and designed to produce divine good — Ephesians 2:10.

            5. Production of divine good is accompanied by stability in phase two — 2 Thessalonians 2:17.

            6. Therefore the grace principle of divine good is found in many passages connected with production — like 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 9:8.

            7. Divine good will be rewarded — 2 Corinthians 5:10.

 

 

            The doctrine of the judgement seat of Christ

            1. The judgement seat of Christ eliminates any need for human evaluation of your Christian life — except by yourself — Romans 14:10.

            2. The judgement seat of Christ is an evaluation of human and divine good — 2 Corinthians 5:10.

            3. The judgement seat of Christ is time of loss or gain of reward — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16.

            4. At the judgement seat of Christ the believer can be denied reward but can never lose his salvation — 2 Timothy 2:12,13.

            5. Reversionistic believers have no reward at the judgement seat of Christ — Hebrews 6:7-12.

            6. The judgement seat of Christ is beautifully illustrated by the famous athletic games of the ancient world — 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.

            7. Reward at the judgement seat of Christ is based on grace in action — James 2:12,13.

 

            Verse 13 — the challenge. “For he shall have” is not found in the Greek. It starts out “For judgement without mercy.” The word “judgement” refers to the act of judgement. The Greek word is krisij and it refers to the act of the judgement seat of Christ. “Without mercy” means that all human good, no matter how much it was revered in life by someone, receives no mercy from God. God’s attitude toward human good is one of total rejection.

            The next phrase says “for those not having [done] mercy.” “That has showed” is an aorist active participle of poiew, and it means no having done, it has a negative with it.

            Literally then, “For judgement without mercy for those not having done mercy” — the noun e)leoj means grace in action, in function. If you don’t live by grace, if you don’t think grace, if you don’t walk by grace, then you cannot produce divine good.

 

            Summary

            1. The believer who does not live by grace cannot be rewarded under grace.

            2. reward at the judgement seat of Christ is based upon the law of freedom and the action of mercy — grace        in action.

            3. To do no mercy is the believer’s failure to function in grace in phase two.

            4. All grace function depends on the filling of the Holy Spirit and demands the daily function of GAP.

            5. Everything done in legalism, human good, energy of the flesh, human ability, human talent, is loss of reward. God will not tolerate any human good in eternity.

            6. Our subject in James chapter 2 is operational death. Operational death produces human good which is destroyed at the judgement seat of Christ.

            7. There is no place in eternity for the progeny of operational death.

 

            There is a second sentence in this verse which in the King James version says “mercy rejoiceth against     judgement.” This is not correct. Again we have the word “mercy” — e)leoj — which is the subject. The word “rejoiceth” is incorrect. It is the present middle indicative of katakauomai which means to boast or to exult over, to lord it over. It should be translated “mercy exults over judgement,” or “mercy boasts at the judgement seat.”

 

          Summary

            1. The only thing that can boast in the day at court is grace production, called here “mercy.”

            2. The whole purpose of reward does not glorify the person who did it. Grace production can only glorify the source of grace, therefore God is glorified when any believer is rewarded at the judgement seat of Christ. Hence, the believer’s rewards glorify God since they are based entirely upon grace.

            3. Grace is designed to glorify God, it was never designed to glorify anyone else. Therefore grace excludes            human boasting, legalism, human glorification, human ability, human talent, etc.

            4. God will be glorified by the believer’s rewards, not the believer who gets them.

            5. The production of operational death or human good is destroyed at the judgement seat of Christ.

            6. Legalism is destroyed at the judgement seat of Christ where grace triumphs through mercy or grace in action. Therefore, who does the boasting in that day in court? Not the believer but the grace principle. There is a time for the exultation of grace; there is a time when every believer will understand grace., and that will be in resurrection body at the day in court. But then it is too late to produce anything in court. The time to understand grace is now; the time to function under grace is now; the time to learn to function under grace is day by day when you are taught the Word of God. Grace function is in the soul; grace function is overt; and grace function is the most glorious, the most relaxing, the most wonderful thing in all of God’s universe.

            Verse 14 — we begin with an interrogative pronoun which begins the third production of operational death. The interrogative pronoun is in the neuter singular — ti, taken from tij. The neuter indicates that a principle will be introduced, a principle which demonstrates then importance of Bible doctrine. People have a tendency to put the cart before the horse, and that is true when it comes to Christianity, they want to put service before doctrine or what they consider production before the word of God. The Word of God is more important than any service or anything you will ever do. In fact, works have been overestimated because of legalism and lack of doctrine. When we introduce with the word “what” an interrogative pronoun in the neuter it indicates a very important principle. The principle is further amplified by the next word which is translated “profit” — o)feloj, which means advantage, benefit, or profit. This verse looks at the situation from the standpoint of the unbeliever. The unbeliever cannot see spiritual things — 1 Corinthians 2:14. The unbeliever cannot see, for example, the believer’s faith which resides in his soul. God saw it at the point of salvation because that faith was an exhale, the object was Jesus Christ, and at that point the individual possessed eternal life. The unbeliever can only see what is visible, what is produced. The production of faith is something that he can see. Therefore the unbeliever is not impressed with anything as invisible as faith. He is not impressed with spiritual assets, with doctrine; he is totally ignorant of these things and therefore unimpressed. Therefore the unbeliever not impressed with faith could only be impressed with what faith produces, or what he can personally observe. So the interrogative pronoun introduces not only a question of principle but a rhetorical question designed to emphasise that principle — “What profit, my brethren” — reference to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. This verse considers the viewpoint of the unbeliever but remember it is expressing to the believer what that viewpoint is. The soul is invisible to the unbeliever and this passage is specifically addressed to the scattered alumni of the Jerusalem church.

            The first word in the rhetorical question introduces a third class condition. The protasis has e)an plus the subjunctive mood introduces a third class condition, which means possibility, sometimes even probability — maybe yes, maybe no. The subject of this verse is o)feloj which means benefit, profit or advantage. What is the benefit, profit, or advantage to the believer if he does not have something to show the unbeliever? The unbeliever can only see. He cannot understand the invisible, therefore he cannot deal with principles of the gospel. He can’t get past the personality, therefore he has a very difficult time unless you can show him something. The production of faith is the effective witness emphasised in this passage. Outer production is necessary to witness to certain kinds of people. These are people around whom you find yourself all of the time. This is not a “ships that pass in the night” principle. This is a principle for those who are unbelievers in your periphery. The outer production of the inner faith will impress the unbeliever. The inner faith may be strong but the unbeliever cannot see inner faith, he cannot see an ECS, he can’t see doctrine in the right lobe, he can’t see the Holy Spirit, he can’t see anything that may indicate God’s grace and God’s power.

            So, “What advantage [or benefit], my brethren, if anyone” — tij means “anyone,” and the word is generally used for stating a principle — “say” — present active subjunctive of legw. The present tense indicates this will be said many times in the history of the human race; the active voice: the unbeliever says it; the subjunctive mood goes with the e)an and introduces a third class condition. This will be said many, many times. It may or may not be excusable but as far as the unbeliever is concerned this is the way he sees life.

            You have top remember that in your periphery there are going to be a lot of unbelievers. You do not separate yourself from all unbelievers, though there are certain laws. You never marry an unbeliever, you never get too involved with an unbeliever so that they are a close friend of yours under category # 3 love — if you do they will influence you at some point in a way which is detrimental to Bible doctrine which is your life. It is an awesome thought to realise that once you accept Christ as saviour the only true friends you are going to really have are believers.

            Faith is something that is invisible. it is something we discuss a great deal. Unbelievers discuss faith, often is a derogatory manner. This passage is going to emphasise what the unbeliever can see. Now you do not have to change your personality. If you do then nine times out of ten you will change it for the worse. It is not in the realm of personality that they have to see you, it is not in the production of personality, it is in the area of relaxation. Bible doctrine, faith-rest as an exhale, provides a very relaxed attitude.

            The present tense of legw here really means “alleges” — “if anyone alleges that he has faith, but keeps on not having works.” What is alleged? The present active infinitive of e)xw which means to have and to hold. Here is someone who alleges that he has faith and that he holds on to faith. Faith here is the object of e)xw, so it is the accusative singular of pistij. Generally, though not always, pistij with the definite article indicates the body of doctrine. Here it is without the definite article so it refers to faith-rest, to Bible doctrine on the launching pad utilised. Faith-rest exhales doctrine in the viewpoint. You have a viewpoint which comes from Bible doctrine. However, your viewpoint may be heard but this is talking about seeing it, the production.

            So you have and hold faith, but you do not have — e)xw again, this time with then present active subjunctive. The subjunctive here also goes with e)an, it is a part of the third class condition which indicates potential; “and have not works — e)rgon.” E)rgon means production or works but it doesn’t mean those words in the way in which it has been narrowed down in our day. Actually it refers to anything which is based upon Bible doctrine, anything that comes off the launching pad. The launching pad is viewpoint — doctrine, and any application of doctrine overtly and any application of doctrine to the soul (in the direction of the emotions, for example) is doctrine being launched.

            Now the rhetorical question. “Can” — present active indicative of dunamai which means to be able; “faith” — pistij again; the faith-rest exhale, Bible doctrine on the launching pad — “save?”

            Remember there are two exhale faiths. The first of these is the exhale from the right lobe, e)pignwsij gospel is in the frame of reference, there is a positive response and the exhale is salvation faith. But there is also viewpoint, the launching pad, and the launching of Bible doctrine. This is the faith of the believer and the thing that confuses everyone is that we have the word “save” in the translation — “can faith save.” The answer is yes, faith can save in salvation but James is not talking about salvation. Swzw here, the word for “save,” refers to deliverance. It is in an aorist active infinitive plus mh. The aorist infinitive plus mh in this kind of a question expects a negative answer — “no, faith cannot deliver.” The question is, Is faith able to deliver. The point is, here is a person who is saved and he says he has faith. Well, he was saved by faith. Having faith actually means to have doctrine on the launching pad. Now, is that doctrine on the launching pad able to deliver? The answer is yes, it is. But faith by itself is not able to deliver. Faith is merely the trigger mechanism that fires doctrine and if there is no doctrine the gun is not loaded. In other words, what James is saying is that the only gun that does any good is a loaded gun. If the gun is empty you can pull the trigger and nothing happens. Faith saves, but we are talking about deliverance in time. Faith does not give deliverance in time, it is merely the trigger mechanism for the launching pad. Faith must have an object that for it. In salvation the working object is Jesus Christ. That is not the issue here. The working object in phase two is doctrine, and only doctrine can deliver. The rhetorical question is designed to show that unless you have doctrine on the launching pad you do not have the production necessary around unbelievers. And production might just be being relaxed, it might be something in the soul. You don’t have to be doing something.

            * From the standpoint of the unbeliever faith in Christ saves. Faith will not save; faith is a system of perception; faith is a part of the human soul. Only faith having an object is efficacious faith. The object of faith in salvation is Christ. In the Bible you will find that faith when the object is Christ, and when the subject is the unbeliever, the result is salvation — swzw, deliverance. So that is one way that swzw is used — Acts 16:31. Obviously faith does not have any works. The object of faith has already done the work and the object is Jesus Christ. Therefore faith does save and this is Paul’s message in Romans, like 5:1. But that is not in view in James. James is talking about another working object — the mind of Christ which is doctrine. It is assimilated through GAP.

            * This passage, however, is looking at faith from the standpoint of the unbeliever.

            * Therefore the negative mh anticipates the negative answer of the unbeliever. Can faith deliver? The unbeliever says no. Why? Because the unbeliever cannot see your faith having an object delivering you. The only thing that the unbeliever can see is when the deliverance takes place he knows of your circumstances. Remember, this passage is dealing with unbelievers around whom you live. We are talking about Jews who have settled down and around them at certain places are unbelievers. They see these Jews, some under pressure, and they can’t see the faith but they can see that in pressure there is a relaxed mental attitude, and so on. They are impressed by that. The unbeliever cannot see your faith in Christ but he can observe any production that comes from Bible doctrine. Therefore the unbeliever is going to say no, faith is not able to deliver. But faith is able to deliver if it has a working object and James will get to this later on in the chapter.

            * From the viewpoint of the unbeliever it is the production that impresses him rather than your statement of faith or rather than your inner victories of the soul. They don’t impress the unbelievers — or in fact, a lot of believers.

            * In effect, faith without production is described here as operational death — verse 20.

            * From the divine viewpoint only faith in Christ can save — the point of salvation, Romans 1:16,17; 5:1; Galatians 3:26; John 20:31.

            * While faith saves you it does not convince the unbeliever that you have faith in Christ. Only the production of faith will convince him — 2 Corinthians 3:3.

            * The believer with faith in Christ at the point of salvation but learning no doctrine afterwards — therefore having no production — is operationally dead.

            * The believer under operational death has not lost his salvation. Operational death is a sign of reversionism.

            * The believer in operational death is not convincing. In fact, the believer ion operational death should never witness for Christ, he should keep his mouth shut.

 

            Translation of verse 14 — “What the advantage, my brethren, if anyone alleges he has faith but keeps on not having production? is the faith able to deliver him?”

            Verse 15 — an illustration. “If” — third class condition, e)an plus the subjunctive; “a brother or a sister” — a)delfoj and a)delfh. In both cases, to show that it is true both ways, the brother is a male believer who is destitute, the sister is a female believer who is destitute — both are destitute. “Be,” but this does not mean to be. This is the present active subjunctive of u(parxw which means to exist. The present tense: they keep on existing destitute. The active voice: they are destitute; the subjunctive mood goes with the third class condition e)an — “if a brother or a sister exists.” Then we have “naked” in the nominative plural from gumnoj. This word “naked” also means inadequate clothing, and inadequate clothing varies with then individual. It is in the plural here to indicate that they do have at least something but not enough. So the word “naked” really doesn’t stand here, it really means to have insufficient clothing. That is why it is in the plural. Not only are they inadequate in the area of clothing but they are “destitute” — present passive participle of leipw which means here “deficient” — “constantly being deficient,” “of daily food.” The word for “food” here is food that is nourishing, trofh .

            “If a brother or a sister exists in a state of inadequate clothing, and being deficient of daily food.” It is a third class condition and it is a continuation of the protasis to indicate the illustration.

            Verse 16 — Now we get the application of doctrine and the illustration of the principle in verse 14. “And one of you” — the conjunctive participle introduces a believer in emotional revolt — de. A believer in emotional revolt is operationally dead. “And “one of you” is any one of you. Again we have the word tij. This is a reference to another believer who is not destitute, who has sufficient funds, sufficient clothing, or who has some way of alleviating the situation. That “one of you” is the person who has faith without works. Apparently the person has come and made known his need and this person now expresses his soul, what is in his soul. “And anyone of you say” — aorist active subjunctive of legw — literally, “might allege” or “might say” — “unto them,” dative of disadvantage. It is to their disadvantage to be starving and to get words. It is to their disadvantage to be insufficiently clothed and to get words. You cannot eat words and words do not clothe the body.

            Here are the words of operational death: “Depart in peace.” That isn’t what it says. It is the present active imperative of u(pagw. The present tense here is not quite linear aktionsart. It means to repeat, “Go away, go away” — “in peace,” e)n plus the locative of e)ihnh. A typical nice word answer! There are some kinds of reversionism where people in reversionism become nice, sweet, have good personalities. A person who is destitute does not have peace by receiving your word. The implication of this passage is that the believer is in reversionism and under operational death.

            Not only do they say, “Go away in peace” but the add some advice. The first command now added to a second one. The first is a present active imperative, the second is a present passive imperative to tell you what to do in case you have insufficient clothing. How do we know it is cold weather? “Be warmed,” the present passive imperative of qermainw. You command them to be warmed. This does two things: it knocks out the idea of people performing miracles; it also knocks out the idea that you can help people who have a very definite physical need like that with words. If a person is starving, if a person is cold because of insufficient clothing, they cannot hear the Word of God. There are a lot of conditions beside carnality which make doctrine difficult to take in, if at all.

            “be filled” is also a present passive imperative — “keep on being filled,” and xortazw means not to be filled but to be satisfied. Passive voice: “receive the filling of words.” Hungry people cannot be filled and satisfied with words, they need food. The believer who sends them away and has plenty of food to give has demonstrated operational death which is an expression of reversionism, just as reverse process reversionism is an expression.

            Next we have another particle, de. This time it is a conjunctive particle and it sets up a conjunctional contrast — “but.” And here is the contrast: “you give them not” — “you do not give to them” — aorist active subjunctive of didomi. The negative is mh going with the rhetorical question showing we are still talking about the same subject introduced by the rhetorical question.

            “those things” — the Greek word here is ta — that means food and clothing. You have both to give and you do not give them either; “which are needful” — there is no verb here “which are.” We have again the neuter accusative plural of e)pithdeioj, which means necessity. Here it is in the plural — “necessities,” not “to the body” but “for the body.” This is a descriptive genitive of the noun swma. Notice that the soul lives inside of a body and any function of the soul which is a function of Christianity cannot be divorced from the body. The soul has an effect upon the body. We call that, humanly speaking, psychosomatic. There is no question about the soul and its relationship to the body in so many fields. But the other is also true: the body has an effect upon the soul.

            Then the repetition of the rhetorical question, and again it is in the neuter interrogative, ti — “what”; to o)feloj — “gain,” “profit,” “advantage.”

            Translation:  “And one from among you should say to them: Go away, go away in peace, keep on being warmed, keep on receiving food; but you do not give them those necessities for the body; then what profit?”

            The whole thrust of James is not just to be a hearer, the function of GAP, but to be a doer; and that depends upon doctrine in the right lobe of the soul. This is the energy, this is the fuel by which we become producers for the Lord.

            This leads, then to the emotional revolt of the soul. there are three categories: category # 1 has to do with mental attitude sins; # 2 is lust pattern; # 3 is the human good, the “worksy” system. The emotion, the right woman of the soul, takes over. That shuts down doctrine in the right lobe or the heart, kardia, and that begins a process: scar tissue of the soul, blackout of the soul. the opening of mataiothj, the vacuum, and the emotional revolt of the soul, and eventually reversionism which destroys the ECS.

            In the middle of all of this James is at this point going to emphasise the principle of operational death. Remember we have two kinds of faith throughout James. First of all we have inhale faith. That is the function of GAP — doctrine into the mind, doctrine into the human spirit, doctrine into the heart or the right lobe. Then we have a launching pad and here is where faith-rest utilises that doctrine. So GAP is inhale faith; exhale faith is the faith-rest technique.

            Verse 17 — “Even so,” O(utwj kai which refers to the illustration of the previous verse in which one person gives the words instead of the necessities of life. Therefore we have a picture of a believer functioning under operational death. In preparation for operational death remember that operational death is a state of reversionism. In reversionism we have scar tissue on the left bank of the soul, scar tissue on the right bank of the soul, emotional revolt of the soul — the emotion runs the soul, and we have the destruction of the ECS. There is therefore no doctrine any more in the frame of reference, no doctrine in the vocabulary and categories, no doctrine in the norms and standards, and no doctrine in the viewpoint. The doctrine goes. There may be nothing wrong with his production — it isn’t immoral or sinful — but it is the production of human good based upon the energy of the flesh rather than divine good based upon the power and the energy of God.

            Now we are faced with a very difficult problem because we have next the word “faith” which is a little mistranslated in the King James version. We have h( pistij here which is “the faith.” The definite article is technical and important here. H( pistij is technical for doctrine. However, in this case h( pistij refers to the exhale of faith, and in this case it is an exhale of faith at the point of salvation. In other words, it is the believing by which the individual is saved. That is the first grace function by a member of the human race — to exhale from e)pignwsij gospel in the heart or the right lobe; “with the heart man believeth” — and he exhales faith in Jesus Christ. The moment he does is the moment of his salvation.

           

            Summary

            1. H( pistij can refer to the body of that which is believed in Christianity, i.e. doctrine, or it can refer to inhale or exhale faith. So there are three possibilities for h( pistij.

            2. Here it refers to the exhale of faith at the point of salvation.

            3. Faith implies the absence of human merit — Acts 18:27; Romans 4:16.

            4. More than that, faith is non-meritorious thinking.

            5. In salvation the whole value of faith lies in the object, Jesus Christ. The merit is always in the object.

            “Believe” is a non-meritorious function, therefore the subject can have no credit. The object takes all of the credit; the object is Jesus Christ. This ties up with propitiation because God the Father made a decision to treat man in grace but He can’t change His character. He can’t have maudlin type love. The whole objective in salvation is for love and eternal life to come to man but it can’t be done at the compromise of righteousness and justice. So when Christ went to the cross He was +R in deity and humanity, satisfying the Father’s righteousness. he bore our sins in His own body on the tree, satisfying the Father’s justice. That means that at this particular point, when anyone believes in Jesus Christ he passes the point of propitiation so that God the Father can love this person — carnal or sinful, mature or reversionistic — with maximum love and not compromise His righteousness and justice. God cannot compromise His character. He is immutability.

            Now that all comes into the picture because God found a way to save us. He found a way whereby we cannot possibly take the credit because faith is non-meritorious. The object of faith always is efficacious if there is any efficacy at all.

            6. In phase two the object of faith is the Word of God under the principle of GAP. Bible doctrine comes into the left lobe but it is no good there if it is just simply gnwsij. The ministry of the Holy Spirit makes gnwsij a reality. This is objective understanding and is being “a hearer of the Word.” But if you are going to be a doer you must have doctrine in the heart, the right lobe, to be a doer. The only possible way to get it over there is by faith, and faith is positive volition expressed in a non-meritorious way. The power in phase one is in Christ. The gospel is the power of God to salvation, the gospel is about Jesus Christ. But in phase two it is doctrine that is important. Your faith must have a working object, and you are not doing the working, the object is doing the working and Bible doctrine is the working object of faith. That is what James says. When Bible doctrine is the working object then we have impact, and when Bible doctrine isn’t then it is just Madison Avenue all the way down to the Jesus (reversionistic) Freaks.

            Every day of your life the only way that God’s provision can function in your life is to make doctrine the working object for your faith. It is doctrine that does the work. And there is no place, then, for any human glory. It is strictly who and what God is and it is wonderful that He found a way, and He found the thing that people overlook all the time: Bible doctrine. He found a way for His power to function in the kosmoj. The thing that the devil can’t stand is not some jackass standing on the corner passing out tracts, but when the believer gets Bible doctrine on that launching pad; because this is his kingdom and he can’t   stand Bible doctrine. He knows its power, its dynamics and its effectiveness.

            7. All the believing in the world on the part of the unbeliever secures nothing but condemnation at the great white throne. So don’t ever tell an unbeliever to have faith — because he does have faith, lots of faith. That is the way he learns. All normal members of the human race have faith and all the believing in the             world secures nothing but condemnation. It is the object of faith that counts — Acts 4:12. After salvation there is one working object: Bible doctrine, the mind of Christ — 1 Corinthians 2:16. But the tiniest faith in Christ secures salvation at the moment we believe in Him.

            8. Faith, therefore, is not something we do but the channel by which we appropriate what God has done for us.

            9. Faith, therefore, is non-meritorious perception. Christianity and the Christian way of life is on the inside; it is the function of the soul by Bible doctrine, the function of the soul under the filling of the Holy Spirit. The Christian way of life is different from anything else in that it is inside, it reaches you there.

            10. Faith in itself is nothing but faith in an efficacious object is everything. There are two efficacious objects for faith: phase one, Jesus Christ, the God-Man; phase two, Bible doctrine.

            11. All believers who are functioning under operational death have faith, but their faith does not have a working object because they are in reversionism. In reversionism emotional revolt of the soul, scare tissue of the soul, the destruction of the ECS, the locking up of the right lobe, the emptying of the launching pad of any doctrine, means operational death — human function, human good, and it is filthy rags in God’s sight.

 

            Now we come to the word “if.” This is a third class condition — e)an plus the subjunctive in the verb — “if it hath not works,” and the third class condition says maybe it doesn’t and maybe it does; “hath not” is the present active subjunctive of e)xw plus the negative mh — “if it does not have and hold works,” the accusative plural of e)rgon, referring to the production of the divine good. Notice: reducing it to its utmost simplicity faith must have a working object. The working object is doctrine. it is the doctrine that produces everything else. It produces motivation, it produces mental attitude, it produces function. Out of doctrine in all directions goes divine good. But do not eliminate doctrine or you convert divine good into human good. That is the problem and the big short circuit of Christianity right now — the elimination of Bible doctrine. Faith after salvation is still in the soul of the believer but now faith has to produce.

            “it hath not production” — you still have faith but faith must have a working object before there is production. What is the missing link? James is asking. The missing link between faith and production is the object of faith which does the working. You can’t produce, you can’t skip doctrine; only reversionism skips doctrine and that is operational death.

            “is” — present active indicative of e)imi, absolute status quo, “keeps on being dead.” There are a lot of words for death, the one we have here is nekroj which means corpse, observable dead. “So also the faith, if it does not have production, keeps on being observably dead.” Then we have “being alone,” the preposition of norm or standard, kata. Then we have a reflexive pronoun, “according to the standard of itself.”

 

            Summary

            1. Faith must have as its object something that works for it. Faith is non-meritorious so it has to depend upon something to do its work.

            2. Therefore faith must be exercised in something that works. For example, in salvation the object of faith is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ does the work, the saving, on the cross.

            3. For example, in our passage (Chapters one and two) the working object of faith is Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine does the working and it does the providing — viewpoint, attitude, concept, orientation. etc. So Bible doctrine is a grace provider.

            4. Faith without a bona fide working object (Bible doctrine) is observably dead, therefore non-productive. This is operational death.

            5. That means that the prepositional phrase kaq e(authn — “according to itself,” means that without a bona fide working object faith is totally non-productive.

            6. Bible doctrine must be the working object of faith and all function depends upon the Word of God          which is alive and powerful, not on us.

            7. Therefore inhale and exhale faith must have an object to be productive. This is the thrust of this chapter.

 

            Verse 18 — we go to a debater’s technique. We have a hypothetical conversation used to amplify the principle of the previous verse. We start out with the word “Yea” which is the Greek word a)lla, a conjunction which should be translated “But.” The conjunction introduces the hypothetical conversation for setting up the straw man. “But a man” — there is no man saying this, it is a straw man, so it is tij without the accent which is someone or anyone: “But anyone or someone [might say this].” Then we have the future active indicative of legw — “say.” “Thou hast faith” — present active indicative of e)xw in its strongest sense, which means to have and to hold. The present tense, linear aktionsart. This person proclaims to keep on having and to keep on holding faith. The active voice: this person claims it. The indicative mood is the reality of the claim.

            Then we have the accusative singular without the definite article — pistij. This is something new, we haven’t had pistij without the definite article so far. The absence of the definite article generally gives great emphasis on the noun that follows. Sometimes the absence of the definite article also, as in English, connotes some obscurity. You have to translate it here, “But someone will say you have and hold a faith.” The obscurity is the concept in the debater’s technique since this is a hypothetical conversation. If this was a specific quotable conversation then it might be talking about doctrine, but it isn’t, it is talking about faith without an object — in other words, a faith dangling. Faith is left dangling because it does not have Bible doctrine as an object.

            “and (continuing the hypothetical conversation) I have and hold works” — kagw, “I.” Instead of kai e)gw we have kagw, a blending of the words. The reason for this is to catch the person off-guard, it is a part of classical Greek debater’s technique. Kai e)gw is perfectly permissible, although there are too many vowels often for the Greek. Kagw goes back to classical Greek and it also tells us something else. James knew something about Hellenistic debater’s techniques. “You contend that you have and hold a faith, and I have and hold works.” So we have a plural in contrast to a singular — pistij is singular [a faith], but e)rgon is in the plural. In other words, “You have a little bit of something, I have a whole lot of everything.”

            The straw man is still speaking when he continues “show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.” “Show me” is aorist active imperative of deiknumi . Deiknumi means to exhibit, to demonstrate, to make known, to teach. This is an ingressive aorist of urgency which is a part of the debater’s technique, and again this is classical Greek. We will translate that, “begin to show” or “begin to exhibit.” You can see what I am doing, you can’t see what you are doing. The active voice: the subject produces the action. The subject here is the hypothetical person, the straw man. The imperative mood: the straw man demands under debater’s technique a demonstration. “Thy faith” — thn pistin sou — “the faith of you,” “demonstrate the faith of you.” Then he says “without,” the adverb xwrij — “apart,” then “from” or “without,” and then we have the genitive plural of “works” — “apart from works.” The overt demonstration of faith with a working object is the production of divine good, but faith without a working object is dead or non-productive, observably dead. When faith has a working object e)rgon is the overt expression of that faith, but this person is trying to set up by a debater’s technique recognition of works. What he will not recognise is what produces bona fide works — doctrine. This is typical of reversionism: “you are studying too much and listening to too much Bible teaching; you’re like a stagnant lake. You are always taking it in and you’re never giving it out.” That type of thing.

            The whole issue as far as James is trying to present it is not the production. The production is incidental. The working object, doctrine, is the big thing. The working object must do the producing.

            Translation: “But someone will say, You have and hold a faith, and I have and hold works [I’m a working believer]: begin to demonstrate to me your faith apart from works [you show me your faith minus works. The straw man is leaving out the most important thing in the Christian life — daily food, doctrine], and I will demonstrate my faith by [out from the source of] my works.” The straw man eliminates doctrine.

            One of the apparent contradictions in the Bible is the fact that we have in Romans justification by faith whereas in James we have justification by works. Even a casual glance at passages involved clarifies the situation. Justification means vindication and there are all kinds of vindication. “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is Romans 5:1, justified by faith at the point of salvation. The illustration is always give: “Abraham .Abraham believed in the Lord and it was credited to his account for righteousness.” That is justification by faith. So at the point that Abraham believed in Jesus Christ he was justified by faith. But even a casual glance at our passage in James tells us that Abraham was justified by works when he offered Isaac. That has to be more than half a century after he was saved, but he was finally vindicated by works. Offering Isaac was works. Rahab hiding the spies and then sending them out another way for their safety was works. When she believed in Jesus Christ she was justified by faith. She had faith in Jesus Christ a long time before she ever got around to doing something that indicated it. When you do something great that indicates your faith, that is justification by works. Doing something great doesn’t get you to heaven, faith in Christ does that. In the case of justification by faith the working object of faith is always Jesus Christ. That is salvation; that is justification by faith. However, in phase two faith must also have a working object (doctrine) and when doctrine works that is justification by works.

            So now we move on to the illustration from the angelic conflict. “All right straw man [straw man is a Judaiser.” ]

            Verse 19 — “Thou believest” — present active indicative of pisteuw, keep on believing in God. Remember that the Jews believe in God. We also have a personal pronoun here in the emphatic position and it refers to the Jew involved in Judaism. In Judaism the object of his faith is e(ij plus o( qeoj — You believe that “one is the God,” i.e. the word order in the Hebrew. We have e(ij plus e)imi. Why give it that word order? Because “one is the God” means you believe that there is only one God — not three persons; one person.

 

            Summary

            1. James demonstrates that Judaism does not have a working object for their faith because they do not believe in Jesus Christ, they have excluded Him by the word e(ij, which means “one.” Therefore, in effect, you do not believe in the one who died on the cross — Jesus Christ. There is only one person who has done anything by which a man can be saved; and faith must have a working object, and the working object must be Jesus Christ distinguished from the Father in that he is Man, distinguished from the Holy Spirit in that he is man, but coequal with the Father and with the Spirit because He is God — the God-Man. Judaism excludes this entirely. They simply believe in one God.

            2. The creed of Judaism is deism.

            3. While belief in the existence of God would be a step in the right direction it does not save. No one has ever been saved by believing in the existence of God.

            4. One must have a working object for faith in salvation. That working object is one: “There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” — only Jesus Christ.

            5. Therefore Judaism has faith without production. They have faith in God without salvation.

            6. Therefore a perfect illustration of the principle.

 

            “thou doest well” — actually this is a question, not a declarative statement. Thou doest is a present active indicative of poiew, but it is a question. It should be translated “Do you do?” — “well,” the adverb kalwj — “Do you do beneficially?” Does your faith produce anything? This is an idiom.

            “the devils” — ta daimonia, “the demons.” These are operative fallen angels. Demons have faith too. demons have perceptive ability, including faith. The demons “believe” — present active indicative of pisteuw, the same morphology of the same verb. 

 

            Summary

            1. The object of demon faith is not producing salvation. And there is an analogy between Judaism and demons. The Jews hated demons and the very thing that they hated is used as an analogy.

            2. Therefore the demons advance on Judaism because the object of their faith is Jesus Christ as Judge at the end of human history. They know that Jesus Christ is going to judge them.

            3. The object of their faith is working in the period of the angelic conflict, but working to produce their eternal judgement. They are going to wind up in the lake of fire — Matthew 25:41.

            4. Consequently demon faith in the God produces something. It produces pride and human good in the Judaisers; it produces trembling in the demons.

 

            “and tremble” — present active indicative from frissw. frissw means to shudder with fear.

            Literally: “You believe that The God is one God; do you do beneficially by so believing: the demons also believe and shudder with fear.”

 

            Summary

            1. The inner faith of demons, having as their object the God, is expressed overtly in shuddering with terror because their judgement is certain in the angelic conflict — Matthew 25:41.

            2. The object of faith does the working. In this case the object of their faith judges them at the end of time.

            3. Again the question, does one do well or beneficially to believe in God? Does one benefit from believing in God?

            4. The answer is no, definitely not. To benefit faith must have as its working object the saviour, and there is only one saviour — Jesus Christ.

            5. Now the demons have rejected Christ and have passed the point of no return. Once man’s history began eternity began for the angels. Human history began with the creation of Adam and at that point eternity had already begun for the angels. Human history is to prove that Satan’s appeal is fallacious.

            6. Therefore their faith, i.e. demon faith (they have passed the point of no return), cannot express itself in any way except in terror and fear. Their judgement is certain, the lake of fire is a reality to them.

 

            The application to mankind

            1. Only in time can faith appropriate salvation by having as its working object Jesus Christ.

            2. Once man passes the point of no return, which is physical death, faith in Christ can no longer save.

            3. In eternity faith in Christ can only produce the same shuddering of terror in anticipation of judgement that the demons have — Hebrews 9:27,28.

            4. James illustrates from the negative production of terror in eternity. Once the unbeliever passes the point of physical death he has nothing to look forward to except the second death.

            5. Once mankind passes the deadline of physical death without believing in Christ all of the faith in the world toward God cannot save, it can only produce terror, shuddering.

            6. This is a warning to unbelievers. As long as mankind is alive he has the opportunity for salvation.

            7. But once death occurs there is nothing but judgement — Hebrews 9:27,28.

           

            The question to Judaism

            1. “Jews, do you believe that there is one God? Does that benefit you?” James says no.

            2. Judaism is in bondage to religion which neither saves nor produces anything positive toward God. It produces only negative things such as legalism.

            3. Therefore Jews, take a look at the demons. They have passed the point of no return. The demons are in eternity.

            4. Their faith, like yours, expresses something negative — terror.

            5. Here is the challenge to the Jews of Jerusalem from James to believe in Jesus Christ.

            6. While the Christian’s faith in Christ is invisible it has a working object which produces salvation.

            7. Regeneration is invisible, only the results of regeneration can be seen.

            8. Therefore believers in phase two are provided in grace objects of their faith for phase two by which visible production can have an impact in time. The object of faith is doctrine.

            9. Thereby ambassadorship is fulfilled in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The only thing that counts after you are saved is learning doctrine so that your faith will have a working object in your soul which will produce overtly. Doctrine produces in many, many ways.

            10. When faith does not have a working object in phase two (that means no doctrine) the result is operational death — no visible production, no obvious existence in the plan of God even though you are.

           

            The principle of operational death is restated in view of the fact that the demons are in eternity, and what does their faith produce? Shuddering with fear.

            Verse 20 — “But” is a conjunctive particle, de. It sets up a contrast between both Judaism and demons of the previous verse, and there is a contrast between that and believers under operational death in this verse. Both Judaisers here and demons fall into the category of unsaved in each of the two creations. The demons are unsaved angels, the Judaisers here are unsaved Jews. The Judaisers have as the object of their faith the one God, not Jesus Christ. Therefore they are not saved. The demons also have the same object of faith but it does produce something in them because they are in eternity — it produces shuddering with fear.

            On the other hand now let’s take a look at the believer. “But wilt thou” — present active indicative of qelw. This means “do you wish?” or “are you willing?” Then we have an aorist active infinitive from ginoskw, which means to learn from experience. “Are you willing [present tense] to learn [aorist tense] now from experience of study?” The aorist tense is constative: study today, tomorrow, the next, the next, the next, and so on. The active voice: every believer must study or take in and listen and function under GAP so that he has a working object for his faith, other words he is operationally dead. He is producing wood, hay, and stubble.

            “O vain man” — the word “vain” is a vocative masculine singular from kenoj. Kenoj means empty, fruitless, void of effect, without content, without truth — empty of doctrine, non-productive or fruitless, void of effect, no impact, without the content of doctrine/truth. This refers to a believer who is minus Bible doctrine as the working object of faith. It might be a believer who never grew up or it might be a reversionistic believer, the two kinds of believers who do not have doctrine and therefore become vain or empty. So this is an ignorant, carnal believer, one who never got started, or a reversionistic believer who lost his ECS. Both are minus doctrine, therefore faith does not have a working object.

            The word for “man” is also in the vocative — a)nqrwpoj.  he may be an ignorant believer or he may be a reversionistic believer but the principle is that a believer must be filled with doctrine under GAP to be a producer. No doctrine = no production. It means doctrine in the soul. That which is produced in your life apart from doctrine is nothing. Empty production is human good based on the energy of the flesh. Ignorant believers are never producers of grace. “O vain man” refers to the ignorant or to the reversionistic believer. Both, of course, are in ignorance.

            Now we have the moment of truth for the negative believer: “that faith” — h( pistij, the faith. This refers to faith which continues to exist after salvation: xwrij twn e)gwn — “apart from the works.” Xwrij means “apart from.” This is a case where the believer’s faith has no working object because of negative volition toward doctrine: “faith apart from the works keeps on being” — present active indicative of e)imi — “an obvious corpse.” But we do not have nekroj as we had in verse 17. Nekroj is a corpse, something you can see. Instead we have a compound used as a contraction — a)rgoj. This compound is made up of an alpha negative, the a, plus the noun e)rgon, and it means “not working.” The compound is then a contraction and we have a)rgh. “Not working” means to be unemployed, therefore to be idle, and therefore to be barren. You are not making any money, you are unemployed. Nekroj in verse 17 is a corpse. Why? A corpse is there but it doesn’t produce anything. Now nekroj and a)rgoj go together. A)rgoj emphasises the production; nekroj emphasises the source. A dead man can’t produce, therefore this is operational death. “Faith without production is unemployed” — faith without a working object. That is operational death. The adjective was used for a field lying fallow or money which yields no interest. Operational death is the failure of grace production in the life of the believer.

            “But are you willing to learn. O empty of doctrine man, that the faith apart from production is unemployed, barren, and non-productive?”

            Verse 21 via Genesis 22:1-5; Hebrews 11:17

            We are in that part of James chapter two where we have illustrations of production vindication. One of the greatest lessons we will learn is that worship not only includes the intake of the Word of God, as in James chapter one, but in chapter two worship also includes the exhale of the Word of God under the faith-rest technique. There is a worship that is confined to the local assembly where you are listening to the Word of God but whenever you are justified by works it is a worship function. Justification by works, of course, is the application of doctrine from the launching pad to your experience.

            Verse 21 — the first of two illustrations: Abraham, the founder of the Jewish race. The second one will be a Gentile prostitute in verse 25.

            Abraham is called by James (who is a Jew) “our father.” This means that the Jewish race originated with Abraham. For part of his life Abraham was a Gentile. Then when he crossed the river he became a Jew. He is the only person who ever changed his race by crossing a river. He crossed the Euphrates river and was known thereafter as the one who crossed the river, the word being “Hebrew.” James is writing to the alumni of the Jerusalem church which was scattered in Acts chapter eight verse one. This alumni was composed of Jewish believers, therefore a perfect illustration for the pattern of justification. Abraham, of course, always causes the Jews to sit up and take notice, he too being a saved Jew.

            Abraham had two kinds of justification. The first kind was when he believed in Jesus Christ. Remember that justification means vindication. There was a point when Abraham had as the working object of his faith Jesus Christ, called “the Lord,” in Genesis 15:6 (quoted in Romans chapter 4). In the first part of Romans chapter four we have the salvation of Abraham mentioned again. Abraham was vindicated (salvation justification) at the point when he believed in Jesus Christ. As it says in Genesis 15:6 literally, “Abraham had believed in the Lord and it was credited to his account for righteousness.” That is justification by faith which is salvation.

            After salvation there came a time, many years afterward, Abraham did something where a maximum amount of doctrine was used. He did something over a period of three days at the end of which he used more doctrine in a few moments than most people use in all of their lifetime. As a result he was justified by works — or vindicated by what he did. What he did vindicated the content of doctrine, the existence of the edification complex in his soul. Interestingly enough in Genesis 22 this is called “worship.” The use of doctrine is always worship. Worship always revolves around doctrine. Worship isn’t a posture. Worship is always related to doctrine. Other things, such as communion, are the application of doctrine. The intake of doctrine is the basic concept of worship, the output of doctrine is justification by works.

            “Was not Abraham our father...” Before God Abraham was justified when he believed in Christ — Romans 4:1-16; before man Abraham was justified when he offered up Isaac — James 2:21 — and not only was man impressed but even God expresses the same concept. Remember, justification by works is the use of Bible doctrine, the application of Bible doctrine to experience. The Greek here says literally, “Abraham our father, was he not justified.” The verb is the aorist passive indicative of dikaiow. Dikaiow actually means to vindicate, to treat as just, to pronounce righteous, to stand approved or accepted. This is a culminative aorist. In other words, looking back on Abraham he reached a peak in his life when he put his son Isaac on the altar and at that point he was vindicated by what he was doing. He did something — works, he was justified by works, but remember Abraham’s faith had a working object — doctrine. it took him a long time to get there and because doctrine was the working object of his faith there was production under pressure. So he was vindicated by what he did, but what he did simply vindicated the content of doctrine in his soul. In other words, when you get doctrine in your soul it does work! The culminative aorist looks back on this point as the high point of Abraham’s life.

            Principle: The high point in your life is that time when you will use the most doctrine. Learning doctrine is not the end, learning doctrine makes doctrine the working object of your faith. When doctrine becomes the working object of your faith works are produced and the works count, and these are the works that are preserved forever. The Word of God in the Bible is preserved forever and the Word of God in your right lobe is preserved through the works that you do — gold, silver, and precious stones — and you will have them always. Throughout all eternity these works will be a monument to the fact that the Word of God is alive and powerful.

            The passive voice: “Abraham received vindication.” Men talked about his actions that day and for years afterward but God recorded it forever. The indicative mood is the reality of vindication by works at the point of offering Isaac. But the works are merely what is seen, it is the doctrine that produces the works.

            “by works” — e)k, out from the source of e)rgon — “works.” Notice that “works” is in the plural here. Why? Because for three days Abraham used doctrine. He fought a three-day battle. On the first day, departure with Isaac and two witnesses. On the second day, travel. On day three, arrival at Golgotha (called Moriah in those days), the climbing of Moriah, the building of an altar and the placing of his son as a sacrifice upon the altar. These are three greatest days in the life of Abraham.

            “when he had offered” — the aorist active participle of a)naferw. Ferw means to carry, a)na means again and also means up. It means to carry upward. It means to lift up the body of his son and place it in the altar. it is an aorist active participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, the main verb is justification, the aorist passive indicative of dikaiow — “having offered.” “Having offered Isaac was he not justified?” is the chronological way of the sentence.

            “Isaac his son” — the word “son” is u(ioj, and that means adult son. Isaac was an adult when Abraham offered him.

            “upon the altar” — e)pi ta qusiathrion. A qusiathrion is an altar only used for killing and burning the sacrifice. It is a special offering.

            Translation:  “Abraham our father having offered up Isaac his son on the burnt offering altar, was he not vindicated out from the source of works?”

 

            Genesis 22:1-5

            Verse 1 — “And it came to pass after these things” — the time when Abraham had learned a maximum amount of doctrine and was probably wondering how he was going to use it. This was after God had removed every human prop from Abraham. First of all God separated Abraham from Chaldea — a separation from idolatry. But when he left he left with his father and God had told him to leave his father. So “after these things” means after separation from his father. This also means after separation from Haran, the dried up place. This means after separation from Egypt — Abraham had to go back from Egypt to the land. This means after separation from Lot, from Ishmael. This means after Abraham learned to faith-rest it. God promised him a son and he finally got around after all that time to believing the promise. When he finally got around to it he was in the most totally hopeless situation — sexually dead, his wife had passed the menopause, there was no way they could have children. At that point God intervened and they had Isaac.

            — “it came to pass that God did tempt Abraham’” — ‘tempt’ here is the piel perfect of nasah, and it is not really tempt. “Proved him” or “tested him.” God tested the doctrinal content of his soul. it is in the piel stem which means the test is going to be intensive.

            Verse 2 — “And he said, Take now thy son” — qal imperative of laqach which means to seize violently but here it means to take under your authority. Notice: “take now.” There is no time for preparation. Then the Hebrew says “your only one,” it is a noun for the greatest possible love, “Isaac.” Then he adds the qal perfect of ahabh — “whom you have always loved.” When God commands He never leaves in any doubt; when He tests He makes it painfully plain. When? Now. Whom? The son whom you love. Where? To the land of Moriah. Moriah is from ra’ah, but it is a hophal participle. Hophal is passive causative and the hophal participle is morijah. And morijah means Jehovah sees — “Jehovah (or Jesus) is caused to see.” But ra’ah has another meaning — “Jesus (or Jehovah) is caused to provide.” That is what Moriah means. Under what conditions? Under the conditions hereinafter described. Under conditions that are so great that not only does James make note of it in chapter 2:21-24 but also the writer of Hebrews in chapter 11:17-19.

            “but offer him” — the hiphil imperative of alah. But alah is not the ordinary word for offering, it means a burnt offering. It means kill the body and burn it. The hiphil stem is causative active voice: “caused to sacrifice and burn him.”

            Verse 3 — “And Abraham rose up early in the morning.” To rise up early is a hiphil imperfect of shakan. Shakan means to get up but the hiphil means to get up early; “and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him,” two witnesses, “and Isaac his son.”

            “and clave the wood” — split the wood, baqa, piel imperfect — “for the burnt offering.” There is no nonsense about Abraham, he intends to follow the Lord’s instructions for a burnt offering. That wood that he is cutting is going to burn the body of his son, and remember, he loves his son.

            “and rose up” — he got them on the road; “and went” — with a good mental attitude. The use of Bible doctrine. When Abraham got up to cut firewood for burning his son he was producing from doctrine in his soul.

            Principle: What you do is significant to the extent that what you do is related to the doctrine in your soul. How can it be related to the doctrine in your soul? Faith: inhale faith; exhale faith. How do you take in the Word of God? By faith. How do you exhale it? By faith.

            Verse 4 — “Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes.” “Lifted up” is the qal imperfect of nasah, and nasah is used in the word two different ways. Nasah is used for the eyes looking up, it is also used for lifting up the body of Jesus Christ on the cross — Isaiah 52 and 53. Little did Abraham realise that when he lifted up his eyes and looked up the hill he was looking at the very spot where the angel of the Lord who will provide for him on this occasion will provide for him in the future — eternal salvation. Nasah is used here by the Holy Spirit to indicate two things: a. That Abraham looked up the hill; b. The Son of God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, would be lifted up on that same wonderful spot for everyone.

            Verse 5 — “Abide ye” is the qal imperative shubh, and it usually means “return,” but right here it means “stay here.”

            “I and the lad, we will go and worship.” The verb is shachah. Shachah means to worship. It means in the hithpael to prostrate one’s self in worship, and this is very close to the hithpael form which is reflexive. It has that concept here, except form is not hithpael, it is the rarest of all morphology of the Hebrew verb. It is the ishtaphel which is a double reflexive, a double hithpael. Now when you have an ishtaphel imperfect he is saying this: the subject is “we,” first common plural. “We” includes Abraham and Isaac. “Abraham himself “ is the hithpael but the hithpael is doubled to an ishtaphel, “Isaac himself” — both are going to worship. Isaac is not just a sacrifice, he is a part of the worship. This indicates the whole realm of Bible doctrine in one man’s soul. When he put this in the ishtaphel he put that in a form which indicated “I am going to worship; I am going to offer the sacrifice. My son is going to worship and he is the victim.” Worship is not ritual, worship is doctrine in the soul. What you do with doctrine is worship.

            How did Isaac worship? Hebrews 11:17, 18 — “By means of the faith-rest technique [doctrine was the working object of Abraham’s faith] Abraham, having offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises [the promises were a part of doctrine, they were the working object of his faith. Abraham didn’t work, the promises worked. he believed them; they worked] offered up his only one [his most precious possession] of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called; ...”

            Now next is what he thought. He said “we are going to worship,” here is the ishtaphel which includes everyone, Abraham and Isaac. Isaac as the sacrifice cannot worship. Isaac as the sacrifice will die. He can’t worship while he is dead. But how was he going to worship?

            .".. Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.” He believed that after he had killed and burned that body that God was going to bring him back. He had to. Why? Because Abraham believed what it says in verse 18: “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” He believed the promise. His working object of faith was a promises and behind that a promise — resurrection. He knew that he was going to get back Isaac and they, with Isaac, would worship together. That means that he had in mind two kinds of worship. Abraham will be alive the whole time and do what God said. He will apply doctrine at every point. Worship depends on doctrine.

            In Genesis 22:5 at the end of the verse he says, “we shall return.” He did not say “we will come again.” It is the qal imperfect of shubh — “we shall return.”   

            Genesis 22:6 — “and laid it upon [Isaac].” Isaac carries the wood. The word for “laid it” is the qal imperfect of sum which means to lay it or to place it. He packed it on him. Abraham carried the matches and the knife — “and they went both of them together.” “Together” in the Hebrew means they had a common doctrine in their soul that gave them a rapport greater than most fathers and sons would have. Doctrine in the soul amplifies the rapport in every human relationship. If you want to have capacity for life and you want to have true love in your life where it should exist then Bible doctrine in the soul is the only answer.

            Verse 7 — Abraham did not say “Here am I.” Isaac knows he is there! He used an idiom: “Behold me,” which means “You may speak.”

            “And he [Isaac] said, “See [ra’ah again] the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burn offering?”

            Verse 8 — “My son God sees.” We have in the English translation “God will provide” but this is the qal imperfect of ra’ah which means to see. It should be translated “God will see to it” which means God will provide. So the translation is all right. The form of the word in the Hebrew is jireh. That is the qal imperfect of ra’ah .What Abraham says, in effect, is: “Jehovah jireh.” But here it is not down to one person of the Godhead, it is the whole Godhead, and Abraham said, “Elohim jireh” — “Elohim himself will see to a lamb for a burnt offering.” This does mean to provide but it isn’t what it says. It says “God sees the lamb.”

            Verse 9 — Abraham built the altar, not Isaac. All the time Abraham is using doctrine. Then he put the wood in the proper place for a burnt offering and explained it to Isaac: “God is looking at you son, you are commanded to be the offering.” And Isaac submitted to becoming the offering, he obeyed his father just as Jesus Christ obeyed God the Father in going to that same altar thousands of years later when it was a cross.

            Verse 10 — “And Abraham stretched forth his hand to slay,” the qal infinitive construct of shachat. It means to cut the throat. The qal stem means to cut; the infinitive: it was his purpose; the construct says that there has to be something to go with it, and there will be.

            Verse 11 — the divine interruption. “The angel of the Lord” — a Christophany, a reference to Jesus Christ. Remember that Jesus Christ is the only member of the Trinity who is manifest. Before the incarnation there was no Jesus Christ in the flesh and so He is manifest in various ways — called theophanies or Christophanies. Jesus Christ as the manifest God is so declared in John 1:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12. The angel of Jehovah is identified as Jehovah in certain passages. He is also distinct from Jehovah as in Genesis 24:7,40; Zechariah 1:12,13. The angel of Jehovah is the second person of the Trinity as Jesus Christ is the only manifest person of the Godhead.

            So, “the angel of Jehovah called to him” — stopped him with His voice out of heaven — “and said, — and what he said at this point is vindication from Jesus Christ, vindication that doctrine works. Doctrine in the soul works! The doubling of any word means perfect or mature, and when He said “Abraham, Abraham” this was the highest honour ever bestowed upon anyone up to that time. Of all the compliments that have ever been given in the Old Testament this is the greatest — those two words: “Abraham, Abraham.” This is what James means when he says, “Was not Abraham justified by works when he offered Isaac.”

            Abraham responds, and he didn’t say, “Here am I.” He said, “Behold me,” “Look at me.”

            Verse 12 — “Lay not thine hand” is the qal imperfect of shalach which means here, Don’t drop the knife on him. Abraham is poised with the knife above Isaac’s throat. Then he adds something else: “neither do thou anything to him.” He changes to the qal imperfect of asah, which means to manufacture something out of existing materials. And he uses asah because Abraham was manufacturing this action out of doctrine. Out of doctrine Abraham was manufacturing this sacrifice.

            “for now I know” — He always knew but this is said so that we can all understand — “that thou fearest.” “Thou fearest” is translated like a verb but it isn’t a verb at all, it is an adjective — jeree, and it means “fear” or “occupation with.” Here it has the technical meaning of occupation with God. Occupation with God comes through maximum Bible doctrine, the ECS completed and functioning.

            “seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only one from me” — I know that you are really on the ball in this connection.

            Verse 13 — “And Abraham lifted up his eyes” — nasah, same verb used for lifting Christ on the cross in the Hebrew. He lifted up his eyes, and this time what does he see? He told Isaac going up the hill, “Jehovah sees, (Jehovah jireh).” Notice now that Abraham sees the lamb too.

            “and behold, behind a ram,” a male lamb, “caught in a thicket by his horns.” The word “caught” here is the niphal participle of achaz and it means to be trapped or entangled. The niphal participle means “being entangled by its horns.” The horns of the ram were his power; his own power trapped him.

            “and Abraham went (with doctrine) and took (seized) and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.” The word “offered” is the hiphil imperfect of alah. The ram was the substitute for Isaac; Christ is our substitute on that very same spot called Moriah.

            Verse 14 — “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh” — the qal imperfect of ra’ah: “Jehovah will see.” Literally it means “Jehovah will see to it” or Jehovah will provide.”

            “as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord [Golgotha] it shall be seen” — same verb again, it is just another jireh only this time it is the niphal imperfect.

            Verse 15 — “And the angel of the Lord [Jesus Christ] called unto Abraham out of heaven a second time,

            Verse 16 — “And said, By myself I have sworn” — the niphal perfect from shaba. Shaba means to “seven”: I have sevened. That was considered to be the most solemn oath you could take. “I have made a solemn oath” — the niphal is reflexive here [“I by myself have made”] — “saith Jehovah, for because thou hast done this thing” — asah again, but this time it is the qal perfect” “Because you have manufactured this thing out of doctrine.” What does that mean? That is worship!

            What you manufacture out of doctrine is worship. What you manufacture out of doctrine is works! And the only works that God recognises, divine good, is what you manufacture out of doctrine in your soul. That is works.

            “and hast not withheld thy son.” The word “withheld” is chasak which means “you have not kept back.”

            Verse 17 — “That in blessing I will bless thee.” There is no “in blessing” at all here. We have the doubling of barak which is a verb. When you double a verb it means great intensity. Abraham has already had +H for a long time but now he has super +H. He is in a place all by himself which is rare, for very few ever reach it.

            Once you break through in the greatest possible pressure with the use of Bible doctrine, from then on for the rest of your life you are going to have the greatest happiness. Doctrine was the working object of Abraham’s faith and he manufactured this thing out of doctrine.

            Returning to James 2:21 where he starts out the verse by saying “Abraham our father,” not “Was not Abraham.” Literally it says, “Abraham our father, was he not justified [vindicated] out from the source of works, having offered Isaac his adult son upon the [burnt offering] altar?”

            Verse 22 — the application. “Seest” — blepw is the Greek for ra’ah; “how” — o(ti, introducing something understood through perception; “the faith” — h( pistij, lots of doctrine, what is believed; “wrought with his works.” “Wrought” imperfect active indicative from sunergew. E)gew means to work; sun means with — to “work with” or “to co-operate” or to “function with.”

            “See how the faith [doctrine] kept on working together with his works, and out from the source of works the faith was made perfect?”

            “was made perfect” — aorist passive indicative of teleiow which means to reach its goal. Out from the source of works doctrine reached a goal. All doctrine needed was a real series of pressures. And doctrine met all of those pressures and reached its goal. You get to the goal by going through pressure. This word teleiow means three things: to reach the goal, to consummate, to complete. Abraham believed the doctrine and the result here was works. Faith must have a working object to be completed and the working object is Bible doctrine.

 

 

 

            Summary

            1. Faith must have a working object in phase two, even as in phase one. The working object in phase two is Bible doctrine.

            2. However, the working object is Bible doctrine not in the Bible but in the right lobe of the soul.

            3. No Bible doctrine means no scoring with your faith — no production.

            4. This is why James in 1:21-22 emphasises the importance of being a doer of the word, not a hearer only.

            5. To be a doer of the Word the believer must function under GAP daily, he must store up doctrine to be used.

            6. The missing link between faith and production is Bible doctrine in the right lobe.

 

            Verse 23 — “And the scripture was fulfilled.” The scripture here refers to Genesis 15:6 plus 2 Chronicles 20:7 plus Isaiah 41:8.

            Genesis 15:6 — there are two verbs here, aman and chashabh. “And he believed in the Lord” — aman is there, a hiphil perfect. He didn’t believe in Genesis 15, he had already believed in the Lord — “and he counted it to him” — the qal imperfect of chashabh, “it was credited to him for righteousness.” He had believed in the Lord and it was credited to him for righteousness. Notice something. Abraham had at the point of his salvation a working object for his faith — Jesus Christ [Jehovah]. Jesus Christ hadn’t gone to the cross yet, but He would. He is the one who does the work of salvation and aman or faith has a working object. Abraham had already believed in Christ and Genesis 15:6 says that since he had already believed in Christ, since he was already saved, his faith must have another working object. Abraham had already passed phase one, he is now in phase two of the plan of God. Faith must have a working object after salvation. Doctrine is what he needs.

            James 2:23 — “And the scripture was fulfilled,” aorist passive indicative of plhrow. The aorist is a culminative aorist. The passive voice: it received fulfilment. The indicative mood is the reality of the fulfilment; “which saith” — present active participle of legw. We are now going to have a quotation from Genesis 15:6; “Abraham believed” — aorist active indicative of pisteuw; “God” — notice that we have o( qeoj which means “the manifest God.” O( qeoj usually means the Father; here it means the manifest God, Jesus Christ, and is equivalent to the tetragrammaton: Jehovah, translated “Lord” in Genesis 15:6. Abraham believed the God. Faith must have a working object.

            “and it was imputed” — logizomai, aorist passive indicative. Logizomai is an accounting term, it means to credit to the account of. We have the aorist passive: he received +R at the point of salvation.

            “unto him” is dative of advantage. It is dative singular because it refers to Abraham at the point that he believed in Christ — “for (ei)j dikaiosunh) righteousness.”

            “and he was called” — quotation from 2 Chronicles 20:7. This is the aorist passive indicative — kalew. Abraham received at the point of salvation +R — logizomai. That was at the cross when he believed but fifty or sixty years later he offered Isaac, and there he received that highest honour — filoj of God. Filoj without the definite article. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the noun. The noun filoj is the strongest word for love in the Greek language. “The God loved him” in a very special way. He was called “the loved one of God,” not “friend.”

            Verse 23b — “and he was called the Friend of God” — quotation from 2 Chronicles 20:7. “He was called” is the aorist passive indicative of kalew, and it means a designation, a citation of honour here. He was honourably cited the Filoj of God. Filoj is the strongest noun for “love.” In Abraham’s case it was used for the fact that he was occupied with the person of Christ.

 

            The doctrine of occupation with Christ

            1. The basis for occupation with Christ is the intake of Bible doctrine through the function of GAP —   Jeremiah 9:24; Ephesians 3:18,19; 4:20.

            2. With doctrine as the working object of faith the believer has a maximum category # 1 response causing him to be designated filoj qeou — “friend of God.” “Friend of God” is a title for occupation with Christ in James 2:23 and 2 Chronicles 20:7.

            3. Occupation with Christ is based upon the fact that Jesus Christ has been glorified — Colossians 3:1,2. (Deity always glorified; humanity glorified by the ascension.)

            4. Occupation with Christ is the standard operating procedure for the mature believer — Hebrews 12:1,2.

            5. Occupation with Christ is illustrated in the doctrine of right man- right woman — 1 Corinthians 11:7; Ephesians 5:25-33.

            6. The function of GAP is not only the basis for capacity for life but is the believer responding to Christ’s   love in time — James 1:21,22.

            7. The sealing of the Holy Spirit guarantees an eternal love relationship between Jesus Christ and the         believer — Ephesians 1:11-14.

            8. Occupation with Christ includes a total dependence upon grace provision — Psalm 37:4,5.

            9. Occupation with Christ is related to both stability and inner happiness — Psalm 16:8,9.

            10. Occupation with Christ is the basis for blessing in suffering. While reversion intensifies suffering occupation with Christ minimises suffering — Psalm 77.

 

            Verse 24 — “Ye see,” but it doesn’t say “Ye see.” The verb is to see all right — o(raw, but this is the present active imperative and the imperative mood demands a little different translation — “keep on seeing,” present tense, linear aktionsart.

                        “that” — o(ti. “Keep on seeing that by works” — e)k plus e)rgon, out from the source of works. The       works are the combination of faith with doctrine as the working object.

            “a man” — a)nqrwpoj, which is not so much a man as mankind, male and female; “is justified” — present passive indicative of dikaiow which means to be vindicated — “keeps on receiving vindication.”

            “and not from the source of faith alone” — or, “not by faith by itself.” Faith has to have an object. “Not” — strong negative, o)uk; “from the source of faith” — e)k plus pistij. Then we have the adverb monon which means faith” by itself,” or “alone.” Faith by itself simply means faith without an object.

            “Keep on seeing that out from the source of works a man receives vindication, and not from the source of faith alone.” Faith alone cannot produce anything.

           

            Rahab

            1. She was saved — Hebrews 11:31.

            2. She was one of the great producers of divine good — James 2:25

            3. She stands as one of the great trophies of the grace principle in the genealogy of Matthew 1:5.

           

            Verse 25 — “Likewise,” o(moiwj. “Likewise” puts Rahab in the same bracket with Abraham, the father of the Jewish race and the first hero of the Jews. Abraham became the friend of God; so did Rahab. Before the reconnaissance patrol came to Jericho Rahab was occupied with Christ. He real love life was all straightened out — category # 1 love — before her right man came along.

            The word for “harlot” in this verse is pornh. It is derived from an Attic Greek word pernaw which means to sell, to sell yourself. Pornh means to sell your body in sex. Rahab became a believer by hearing the story of the Exodus, and long before the spies came to Jericho she had trusted in Jesus Christ as her saviour. She had taken in doctrine in whatever manner was available, she had an ECS, she was Filoj Qeou — “Friend of God.” With all this doctrine in her right lobe she just needed the opportunity to express the doctrine.

            “And in a similar manner was not Rahab the harlot justified” — aorist passive indicative of dikaiow, which means to vindicate or to stand approved or accepted. It is a culminative aorist which means vindicated by this series of actions that began with the hiding of the patrol and ended with the rope out of the window, and being delivered and becoming the wife of Salmon. Passive voice: Rahab received this vindication from the doctrine in her right lobe. The indicative mood is the reality of vindication by the production doctrine.

            “by works” — e)k plus e)rgon, out from the source of works; “having herself received the messengers” — aorist middle participle, u(podexomai. Dexomai means to receive or embrace, to receive with love. U(po means authority. She accepted authority immediately. She recognised and welcomed the authority of the patrol and “sent out another way” — the aorist active participle of e)kbalw which means to send forth.

            Verse 26 — the illustration of physical death. “For as the body without the spirit.” Literally, “the body apart from the spirit”; “is dead, so is faith without works.” The word “is” — present active indicative, “keeps on being.”

We have an adverb, o(utoj, to complete another analogy. So, “faith apart from works keeps on being nekroj” — a corpse. No doctrine in the right lobe.

            “For as the body without the pneuma [life] is dead, so faith without production keeps on being a corpse.”