WE ARE LOOKING at some of the places in the New Testament where the phrase “in Christ” is not found. The Epistle of James is one. It is obvious why the phrase “in Christ” is not found in that Epistle. The emphasis there is on a moralism, an activism, good works: “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. . . . Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar?” (2:18, 21).
Luther, emphasizing justification by faith, called this Epistle of James “an Epistle of straw”—no wheat—because it emphasized justification by works. He was profoundly right, for in making justification by works your goal, you emphasize the human endeavor—you are in yourself doing your good deed and not in Christ, living by His resources and doing good deeds because you are in Him and doing what He does, for you are partaking of His life.
The Epistle of James is the center of faith, unconsciously so, for the majority of Christians in our churches. In this Epistle the name of Jesus Christ is mentioned only twice: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,” and “My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” (1:1; 2:1). Here he mentions that he is “a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ” and “the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He mentions Jesus Christ marginally, but his working faith is salvation by good deeds. That is an exact picture of much of modern Christianity: you are in yourself, doing good deeds and not in Christ, living by His resources and therefore doing good deeds as a manifestation of that life in Him.
One lives by flogging—flogging the will; the other lives by flowing—flowing of good deeds as the outcome of contact with the source.
O Jesus, in myself I’m striving and tense and strained. In Thee I’m relaxed and receptive and releasing—releasing Thy Life to others. This is so divinely easy, so divinely natural, so divinely supernatural. I’m in Thee, and all Thou hast is mine—mine for the taking. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I shall live not by what I do, but what He has done for me and through me.
