The Law of Liberty

A sharp chisel can build a beautiful gate or cut deep enough to need stitches, and that’s the picture we can’t shake as we open James 2:8-13. God’s law is powerful, good, and necessary, but it has to be handled with care. We start with a real neighbor story that turns into a lesson on providence, then we step into the tension many Christians feel: Paul can sound negative about the law, while James calls it the royal law, the perfect law, and the law of liberty. 

We walk through three ways James teaches us to handle God’s commands. First, we receive them gratefully, not as a way to earn salvation, but as a gift from the Creator that leads to real freedom and human flourishing. We also confront a common fear that striving to obey is “legalism” and show why the Bible never treats Spirit-filled obedience as passive. The law exposes sin like a mirror, but grace in Jesus means the law no longer condemns those who trust him. 

Second, we handle the law holistically. Break one command and you become a transgressor of the whole, which exposes how easily we excuse some sins and scorch others. Third, we handle the law mercifully, because we ourselves will be judged under the law of liberty and “mercy triumphs over judgment.” From the Pharisee and the tax collector to the image of lift overcoming gravity, we end where James ends: with mercy in Christ that makes us merciful people. If this helped you, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review. What’s one place you need to choose mercy this week?

Transcript

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Scripture Reading From James 2

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And for the rest of us, I will invite us to stand for the reading of God's Word. This morning it comes from James chapter 2, beginning in verse 8, the Word of God reads this way. If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, Do not commit adultery also said, Do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. This is God's word. Thanks be to God. You may be seated, and may God bless this reading and preaching of his word.

A Neighborly Gate And Three Stitches

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I want to tell you a story about the importance of good neighbors. While we were vacationing in Canada, we are we go to this little fishing cabin up there that is on this island that's like boat access only. It's difficult to get to. But while we were there, a family showed up in the neighboring cabin, which is just down the way from us, and they had small children. And Julie noticed that they really needed a gate to block the stairs to their deck so that their children wouldn't fall down the stairs. They had a futon propped up against the opening. She noticed that, and I had my tools up there because I was doing little improvements on the cabin anyway. So she encouraged me and I offered to build them a gate for free if they would pay for the materials. So I did that. It was a kind deed. Well, a few days later, me and the kids were playing with my chisels, which I had just sharpened. We were carving wood, and Harvey's hand slipped and he cut himself very deeply on his thumb, and I had just sharpened them. It was obvious that he was going to need stitches. So I called the closest urgent care in Canada. It was about 30 minutes away. And they told me that it was going to cost $1,000 and that it would be about a three-hour wait. And uh I guess this is what socialized health care looks like up in Canada. Uh they basically discouraged me from coming in. I guess that maybe they just wanted him to bleed out. But Julie got an inclination to ask these neighbors, and it just so happens that one of them was a nurse practitioner who brings her suture kit with her everywhere. So I made them a gate and they gave Harvey three stitches. It was good old-fashioned trade. Win-win, one for one. Uh, it was good for everyone all around. And I share that story because it's a great story of the Lord's provision. Um, but it I also want to illustrate this that chisels are a wonderful tool. Every carpenter should have a full set of chisels, and they should be very sharp. You should keep them sharp. It's one of my favorite tools. But they're very, very dangerous, and they need to be handled correctly and with care. They are capable of making beautiful things, but they are also capable of making deep incisions that need stitches and doing a lot of damage. We're

Why James Praises God’s Law

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studying through the letter of James, and today we come to a section on James where he begins to talk about the law of God. And this part of James can get confusing for people, even both this week and next week, even the very best and smartest of us. And it's because of these sections in James that Martin Luther, one of the greatest minds to ever interpret Scripture, wrongly thought that the letter of James did not belong in the Bible, because of this section and what we will look at next week. And the reason is that Paul talks about the law of God in what can sound like negative terms. If you read Paul's letters, you will encounter phrases like, no one will be saved by works of the law. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Through works of the law, no human being will be justified. And we have died to the law through the work of Christ. But then James comes along, and look at how he talks about the law, what we've just read this morning. He calls it the royal law, he calls it the law of liberty, and earlier in James he referred to it as the perfect law. And James calls us to obedience to God's law, saying that a man is justified by his faith and also by his works. And we'll read that next week. Well, rest assured that there is absolutely no contradiction between Paul and James. There is an apparent contradiction, but once you dig into the details, there's no real contradiction. But they do look at God's law from different angles, and they have different concerns and questions that they're answering. James wants us to know that God's law is powerful and sharp. It is necessary and good, but we must know how to handle it. We must handle it with care because if we handle it carelessly, we can end up causing serious harm and making deep incisions to ourselves and to others. So how are imperfect people like you and I, how are we to handle God's perfect law?

The Law As A Gracious Gift

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And we learned three things from James this morning that we must handle God's law gratefully, holistically, and mercifully. Gratefully, holistically, and mercifully. So first, gratefully. In order to handle God's law helpfully, we must understand that it is a marvelous gift to be received with gratitude. When James talks about God's law, he's talking about the Ten Commandments, but also every part of Scripture that gives us any kind of command. Any section of Scripture that gives us any sort of instruction on what we should think or feel or do can be considered part of God's law. Let's look again at how James refers to God's law. In James 1.25, James calls it the perfect law, the law of liberty. In James 2.8, he calls it the royal law. And then finally, again in verse 12, he calls it the law of liberty. So James, like his older brother Jesus, has a very high view of God's law. Law of liberty might be the most surprising phrase that James uses because we normally think of these two things as opposed to one another. The less law, the less regulation, the less government, the more liberty that we have to do what we want, and vice versa. But James says that God's law is the perfect law of liberty, which means that God's law perfectly nails the balance between regulation and freedom to ensure the maximum amount of flourishing and happiness if God's law is obeyed. It cannot be improved upon, and to add to it or to take away from it can only lead to bondage. It is perfect. We cannot add an ounce to it, and we cannot take an ounce from it. The reality is that it is impossible to live without some kind of law. Even the people who reject the God of the Bible have some sense of right and wrong in some rules and principles that govern their life or that they use to judge others. If you've ever been offended by another person, it means that you have some sense of how life ought to be, and that they have violated some rule or some principle that you hold sacred, and that's why you are offended. So the question is not whether we live by the law, the question is by whose law do we live. And James says that only God has the perfect law, the one which, if we all obeyed it, if we all listened to it, would lead to a maximum amount of freedom for everybody and flourishing for all mankind. And so, in handling God's law, we first must regard it as a marvelous gift, a wonderful gift, something God gives that we desperately need in order to make life work, something that we ignore to our own peril, something that we thank God for because we don't have to reinvent the wheel or figure out how to make life work. God has made it clear to us, He has made it plain, and it's not complicated. In order to live a life of maximum liberty and flourishing, we don't need to reinvent the wheel or become a new law unto ourselves, but simply receive the wisdom of the Creator. Economic studies have shown how precarious this balance is. Because when in economics and in markets, when there is too much government interference, markets always suffer. When the government gets involved with price controls or whatever it whatever else they might do, it's most of the time it's a bad idea. And the best thing to do is to deregulate and to let the market be free, to let people make their own decisions. But this does not mean that the government has no role to play, because the opposite is also true. An absence of good government also destroys flourishing. Where governments do not maintain law and order, for example, the economy greatly suffers. The African country of the Congo is a great example of this. The Congo, by all rights, should be a rich country because it is exceedingly rich in natural resources. The country has abundant precious metals, including the rare and important cobalt, which is used in all kinds of technology. It's rich in gold and diamonds. Any Minecraft player would absolutely love the Congo. It has an abundance of timber and fertile farmland, but it remains one of the poorest countries in the world, mainly due to corruption in the government. One visitor to the Congo put it like this Kinshasa is one of the world's poorest cities, so unsafe for arriving crews that they get shuttled elsewhere for overnight stays. Taxiing down the scarred tarmac feels like driving over railroad ties. Managers charge extra to turn on the runway lights at night, and departing passengers can encounter several layers of bribes before boarding. This just shuts down economic activity. Bolivia is another example. Quote, the media are full of revelations about police links to drug trafficking and stolen vehicles, nepotism in the force, and the charging of illegal fees for services, officers on meager salaries have been found to live in mansions. End quote. So James is saying that God's law is good and perfect, and that we ought to study it and strive to obey it. But isn't this legalism? Don't we want, isn't this something we want to avoid taking God's law too seriously? Some adopt this mentality that we should not put any effort into obeying God's law. That we should, as Christians who are filled with the Spirit, that we should wait until we want to obey God's law, and we should never strive or struggle to obey. Otherwise, this would be legalistic. And that's the last thing that we want to be. I don't know where this mentality comes from. It certainly doesn't come from James or from Jesus or even from Paul. I cannot find it anywhere in the Bible. We should view the law of God as a breath of fresh air, a gift to be graciously received. And like we saw last week, it is painful to study God's law because it's a mirror. The first thing that it does is it reveals our own sin and our own need for mercy, and it condemns us as sinners before God. But this is where God's grace comes in. In Christ, God graciously forgives us of all of our sin, and the law is no longer able to condemn us. But if you desire life, if you love many days, and if you long to see good and experience joy in life, then God's law is where you must turn. It is the path of life, it is the source of wisdom, and so we must study it and strive to obey it, even when we find it difficult to obey. So in order to handle it, we must first understand that it is a good gift.

The Law Is One Whole

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But secondly, we have to handle it holistically. In order to handle God's law helpfully, we must understand it as an indivisible unit. James has just finished talking about showing partiality in the church or favoritism. We looked at that last week. But partiality might be one of those sins that seem less serious than others. And so perhaps easier to excuse or even to ignore or to explain away. It's not even listed in the Ten Commandments. And James makes a big deal about it here. But to that thought, James has this response. In verse 10, he says, Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. Now what is James talking about here? James wants to make it clear that we cannot break God's law into different pieces and imagine that we can obey certain parts while ignoring other parts, or if we obey certain things more, it might cover over areas of disobedience. Jesus also said that the whole law can be summarized in just two simple commands, to love God and to love our neighbor. All of God's law is just more detailed explanation of those two commands. And we could even say that the ten commandments are not really ten separate commands, but they are the same command repeated in ten different ways, or ten perspectives on one command. James is telling us that if you break any one of God's commandments, you are guilty of breaking all of them because they are all the same command. They're all the same thing. This is a simple idea, but it has profound implications that many Christians have not fully grasped. And it shows up in how we judge others. We all know that none of us are perfect, and you know the specific sins that you struggle with, or at least you know the most obvious ones. For the sins that you struggle with, that you're aware of, you typically do not judge others very harshly for those sins, because you struggle with the very same things. And if you were to judge them very harshly, well, you wouldn't want that kind of scrutiny on your own life. So you give one another a pass. You give them a pass, you give yourself a pass. We don't judge one another very harshly for the things that we know that we struggle with, but there are other sins that you don't struggle with, allegedly, things that you say that you would never do. And if others commit these sins against you, then you judge them very harshly. You might struggle, for example, with anger. So if someone gets angry at you and yells or blows up, you understand because you have done the same things, and so you deal with them mercifully. But if they lie to you, that's almost unforgivable because you would never do that. You would never lie to anyone. Yes, you may get angry, yes, you may be impatient or whatever it is, but you would never, never be dishonest. And so you judge them very harshly for that. All of us have sins that we easily forgive and sins that we harshly judge. We all have an imbalanced view of the law of God. And this just goes to show that we do not understand the unity of God's law. Because if you have broken one command, you've broken them all. They're all the same. Let's just take thou shalt not steal, for example. If you take something that's not rightfully yours, you break not only the eighth commandment, but you break all of the commandments. When you steal, you value something above God, thus breaking the first two commandments. When you steal, you are refusing to rest in God's provision, thus breaking the Sabbath command. When you steal, you dishonor your father and mother by rebelling against authority structures that God has put in place. When you steal, you murder by depriving people of their life and their livelihood. Just ask John McEwen or any contractor who has had their tools stolen. It's not just tools that are stolen, but a man's ability to provide for his family. And we could say more, but the point is that when you break one command, you are breaking them all in different ways. God's law is a unity that cannot be broken into different pieces. Now the application here is to be careful how you judge. What for you is the unforgivable sin? What's the thing that you would never do that you judge others harshly for? Paul tells us this in Romans 2. He says, Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. Now he could only say that if it is true that God's law is this unity that cannot be divided. So what can you not forgive? Who can you not forgive? For whom do you have no compassion and no mercy? If there are people coming to mind or situations coming to mind, what this means is that you have not fully understood the law of God. You have not fully appreciated your own sinfulness and your own culpability, because until you see that you are the same, that you are the same as the person who has offended you, it may not be that you sin in the same way, but you are both transgressors before God. Until you see that you are the same, you have become, in James' words, judges with evil thoughts, and you are judging with partiality, and you will not escape the judgment of God. So we must be very careful how we judge. Anyone who truly understands God's law and who loves God's law and who desires to obey God's law will not be a harsh judge, but will become merciful to others, which is a profound point because we think about those legalistic Christians and those legalistic churches who allegedly love the law of God and they harshly judge others. But really, the reality is that the more we love God and the more we understand his law and appreciate his law, the more merciful we will become. And it's to that point that we now turn.

Learning Mercy Before You Judge

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So, point three, we must handle it mercifully. In order to handle God's law helpfully, we must be judged by it and so handle it with mercy. James tells us in verse 12, he says, so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Before we can handle the law of God helpfully and help other people with it, we must ourselves be judged by the law of God. We must allow God's law to do its work in us, exposing our obvious sins and our hidden sins, showing us our own helplessness before God, and showing us our need for God's mercy. Jesus told a parable that you're familiar with, a very Famous parable about two men who entered the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. Both of them had an awareness of God's law. The Pharisee came and he prayed. He said, God, I thank you that I am not like other men. Don't pray that prayer. That's one of those lessons that is so so easy to take away. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. And he went on to list his accomplishments and the ways that he had kept God's law, the ways that he had was careful to tithe and all of these other things. Since none of us struggle with every sin, we can all find ways to congratulate ourselves and to list our accomplishments by focusing on the sins that we have not committed. All of us can do that. But the tax collector was only aware of his own failures before God. He would not even dare to lift his eyes to heaven, but he beat his breast and said, Have mercy on me, a sinner. The Pharisee justified himself, and the tax collector asked God for mercy. And Jesus' takeaway is this He said, I tell you, this man, the tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. And then Luke adds, he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. God's law is a gracious gift that we should receive with gratitude, and we should be eager to understand it, and eager to obey it, and to spell out its implications for all of life, because in general, the more that we obey the law of God and we walk according to it, the more liberty and freedom and liberality we will experience in our lives. God's law also is a holistic unit that cannot be divided into pieces, because the same person who said, Thou shalt not steal, also said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. We cannot show preference to one command over another. But God's law also exposes our sin and our desperate need for mercy, and so any student of God's law should not be puffed up in pride or in self-confidence, but rather should be deeply humbled. Otherwise, we do not understand God's law at all. A true understanding of God's law should not result in us congratulating ourselves or being pleased with ourselves, but should lead us to the same conclusion that we find in the Westminster larger catechism. The catechism spends a great deal of time looking closely at each of the Ten Commandments and asking for each of them what is forbidden in this command and what is enjoined in this command, which means what is this command to say not to do, and what is this command to say that I should do? And after it does all of that work and it spends pages and pages and pages on all of that, after it does that, it asks this question, question 149, is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? And the answer is, no man is able, either of himself or by any grace received in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed. It's not that we sometimes break God's commands and sometimes sin and sometimes need mercy, but it is that we daily break them in thought, word, and deed, and are in daily and even hourly need of God's mercy. I think that we sang about that before I got up here. I need thee every hour, is what we say. And so the true student of God's law does not become a harsh judge of others, but a merciful and a tender shepherd.

How Grace Lifts Us Up

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It was commonly believed by the most respected minds in the early 20th century that heavier than air flight was impossible. Flying was for the birds, not for human beings. In 1903, the New York Times published an editorial that said that practical flying machines would take one to ten million years to develop. Just a few weeks later, the Wright brothers accomplished sustained flight at Kitty Hawk. The reason that so many great minds of the time thought that flight was impossible is because of the law of gravity. It's obvious. According to the law of gravity, it's impossible for a Boeing 747, which weighs 87 tons, to sustain flight. There's no way. What they didn't understand, which the Wright brothers began to discover, is that there's a greater force than gravity at play. It's the force of lift. If a machine can be given enough thrust, the aerodynamic force created by the wings will push the craft upward and will triumph over the force of gravity. So it is with the law of God. The law of God reveals our sinfulness and our brokenness, and it is sufficient to weigh us down with guilt and to condemn us. And we can use it to condemn others, and we can use it to condemn ourselves. And focused on that alone, it is impossible to rise above our fallen condition. But there is a force in the universe more powerful than guilt and shame. It is the force of mercy and grace. The law of God shows us that our sins are many, but it also shows us that God's mercy is more. And in Jesus Christ, God's mercy triumphs over judgment and allows us to rise above guilt and shame and to become recipients of mercy and so to become merciful toward others. So what does this mean? This doesn't mean that we ignore God's law or that we tolerate sin or let it go undisciplined or unchallenged. It means that we call one another to obedience, as we call one another to obedience, that we remember mercy. Jesus Christ came as a man, and he lived a difficult and painful life with all of our limitations as human beings. He was tempted in every way as we are, and yet was without sin. Hebrews 2, 17 through 18 tells us, therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Do you know when Jesus was tempted the most? I think that it was in the Garden of Gethsemane. When he was weary, when he was about to be betrayed and abandoned, and he began to feel the weight of the cross and to see what was coming for him, and he prayed, Father, is there any other way? If there is any other way, take this cup from me, let it pass from me, yet not my will, but your will be done. He never sinned nor disobeyed his father. He suffered when tempted. Something that we can all relate to. And so Jesus Christ can both encourage you and can call you to follow him in obedience, and he can also pick you up and dust you off when you fail and fall short. He is able to help those who are being tempted. That is our God. And we should become like him as well to be able to help others. God's law is a gift to be graciously received, it is a unit to be fully obeyed, and it is a high standard that shows us our need for God's mercy, which triumphs over judgment.

Prayer And Final Blessing

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To these ends, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your wonderful law. Lord, without the knowledge of Jesus and what he has done for us, the law is a fearful thing because we cannot obey it in our fallen condition. It shows us our brokenness, it reveals sin which lives within us, it even exacerbates sin, making us want to rebel against you. This is our fallen nature, and there's nothing that we can do to help ourselves. But we need your law, Lord, because it is the way that we were designed to live, and if we ignore it, it will lead only to our peril, both now and in eternity. But we thank you that you have provided the grace of Jesus Christ, and that in him the law can no longer condemn us. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ and by his obedience. And so now the law cannot condemn us. But it still guides us on how we ought to live, and so we pray that you would help us to handle it in that way, to receive it as a gift, to be merciful to others, and to be careful not to pick and choose what we judge harshly, not to be partial in our judgment. We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let us stand and give glory to God.