Back to James today…the whole passage is great; I’m looking at verse 25, which caught my eye because it talks about the “law of liberty.”
Frankly, law has gotten some bad press as Christians have rightly understood that salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone (and all the other great sola’s!). Here’s the verse, wrapping up a sub-section of James’ passage that began with “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”:
“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer that acts, …shall be blessed in doing.” Jas. 1:25
What is this law of liberty? I wondered. Yesterday I quoted a friend to the senior small group: “Don’t should all over yourselves.” We live missionally, we go into all the world to make disciples, to tell the amazing story of the good news of the gospel, BECAUSE we were made that way. It is the only natural response to being created by God and redeemed by Christ. I would argue it’s a “LAW OF NATURE.”
Here’s what Alec Motyer says about it:
“We see, then, that the Lord gives his law not as a means of salvation, but as a life-style for those who have been already saved. It is the way he wants his redeemed ones to live….He goes on to say that he is speaking to those whom he has brought out of bondage (Ex. 20:2b): not to those whom he is bringing into bondage by imposing his law upon them, but to those who are now (for the first time) enjoying liberty, and to whom he gives his perfect law in order to safeguard the freedom he has secured for them.”
The law of liberty refers to all of Scripture. It is far far more than a list of rules for how we SHOULD act. It is a description of the great joys we have as we act according to the nature of a free woman or man.
What do you think? What has your understanding of LAW been? What freedom can you see in living according to the law of liberty?
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