CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY
of the Epistle of James

Message Four

Its Lacks

(1)

Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 2:11-15

OUTLINE

1. The genuine Christian perfection is not only for living a pious life but mainly for fulfilling God's New Testament economy to make the believers God-men for the constitution of the Body of Christ that the New Jerusalem may be consummated as the eternal enlargement and expression of the consummated Triune God:
1. Although James mentions God's begetting of the believers to make them the firstfruits of all His creatures (1:18) and the Spirit's indwelling of the believers (4:5), his application is only on the negative side for the resisting of temptations and for the dealing with pleasures, the world, and the devil.
2. But in the New Testament whenever God's economy is mentioned, its application is always on the positive side for the heading up of all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10), for the ministering of the unsearchable riches of Christ to God's chosen people for the producing of the church (Eph. 3:8-10), and for the unique teaching of the New Testament, the stress and the center of which are Christ, the church as the organic Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God's eternal economy (1 Tim. 1:3-4).
3. In this sense, James is very much devoid of God's eternal purpose and His ultimate goal.
2. James does not say a word concerning the cross of Christ, but the New Testament teaching strongly emphasizes the cross of Christ:
1. The Lord said that anyone who wants to follow Him should deny himself (his soul) and take up his cross, indicating that the self or the soul of the Lord's followers should be denied by being crucified with Him that they could live not by themselves but by Christ as their life—Matt. 16:24-25.
2. Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me," indicating that the old "I" of the believers has been crucified, crossed out; in the Christian life it should no longer be their old crucified "I" that lives but Christ who lives in them—Gal. 2:20.
3. Paul also said, "I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified"—1 Cor. 2:2.
4. Paul also said, "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom..I [have been crucified] to the world"—Gal. 6:14.
5. Paul also said, "They who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts"—Gal. 5:24.
6. Paul lived a life to be conformed to the death of Christ—Phil. 3:10.
7. Thus, how could we have the genuine Christian perfection without the cross of Christ?
8. In the light of the divine revelation referred to above, the cross of Christ is the greatest lack of James.
3. Except in 1:1 and 2:1 where the title Christ is mentioned, James does not say anything further about the many marvelous aspects of Christ as the New Testament teaching stresses:
1. The all-inclusive Christ, who fills all in all—Eph. 1:23; 4:10.
2. The unsearchable riches of Christ—Eph. 3:8.
3. The embodiment of the fullness of God—Col. 2:9; 1:19.
4. God's allotted portion to the saints as the good land for us to walk in, that is, to live, to walk, and to have our being in Him—Col. 1:12.
5. The preeminent One in both God's old creation and God's new creation—Col. 1:15-18.
6. The Head and all the members of the Body and the One who is in all the members of the Body—Col. 1:18a; 3:10-11.
7. Christ as the life of the believers (Col. 3:4), who is revealed into the believers (Gal. 1:16), who lives in and with the believers (Gal. 2:20), who is formed in the believers (Gal. 4:19), who makes His home in the believers (Eph. 3:17), to the glorious image of whom as the firstborn Son of God the believers as the many sons of God are transformed (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29), and whom the believers live and magnify through the bountiful supply of His Spirit (Phil. 1:19-21).
8. Without experiencing such a Christ, how can a believer have the genuine Christian perfection, which is the issue of a life lived not by the natural life of the believer but by such a marvelous Christ who lives in him?
9. The above portrait of Christ also shows the defect in James's presentation of Christ.
4. James mentions the Spirit of God only once as the indwelling Spirit in us (4:5); in the whole book there is no indication of the Spirit of God as the following items, which items the Spirit of God was not yet before the resurrection of Christ (John 7:39):
1. The life-giving Spirit as the consummated Spirit of God, even as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God—1 Cor. 15:45b.
2. The compound Spirit compounded with Christ's divinity, humanity, death with its effectiveness, and resurrection with its power to be the anointing ointment to sanctify all the people, matters, and things in the service of God (Exo. 30:23-28; 1 John 2:20, 27).
3. The all-inclusive Spirit as the Spirit of Jesus Christ with His bountiful supply through which the believers live Christ and magnify Christ (Phil. 1:19-21).
4. The Lord Spirit, indicating that Christ the Lord is the Spirit from whom the believers are transformed into Christ's image of glory (2 Cor. 3:18).
5. The sevenfold intensified Spirit for the believers to overcome all the negative things in the degradation of the church (Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6).
6. The above items A to E indicate strongly that the book of James falls far behind the highest revelation concerning the Spirit of God revealed to Paul and John in the age of grace.