In the light of the divine revelation referred to above, the cross of Christ is the greatest lack of James. The Christian perfection in James leads to self-cultivation, but Paul said that he had been crucified with Christ and was being conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection. It is this life that produces the Body life which consummates in the New Jerusalem.
Regardless of whether we are a good man or a bad man, we have to be crossed out. It is no longer I, but Christ lives in me as the life-giving Spirit to issue in the Body of Christ. Self-cultivation does not carry out God's economy, but self-denial does. We have to deny ourselves, realizing that whatever we are in the old creation has been crossed out, crucified. Every day we are dying. We are being conformed to the death of Christ so that Christ can live in us to bring forth the Body life which will issue in the New Jerusalem as God's eternal goal in His eternal economy. This is the proper insight of the New Testament revelation. These three great things—the Triune God, the all-inclusive Christ, and the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit—are for the producing of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is the real embodiment of the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit, and this Body will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
In 1 Timothy Paul teaches concerning godliness. He reveals that it is the manifestation of God in the flesh (3:16), not something of self-cultivation. Peter also speaks of godliness, saying that the divine power has granted us all things concerning life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3). Godliness does not depend upon self-cultivation but upon the divine life. Godliness is the expression of the divine life, but self-cultivation is to build up the self. The real godliness issues in the Body of Christ which will consummate in the New Jerusalem for the fulfillment of God's New Testament economy.
James pointed out to Paul in Acts 21 that there were thousands of Jewish believers who were zealous for the law (v. 20). This shows the terrible mixture in the church at Jerusalem. This mixture was also a cause for God's sending Titus, a prince of the Roman Empire, with the Roman army to destroy the city of Jerusalem, including the temple. This took place in A.D. 70, just a short time after Paul's martyrdom, and was a fulfillment of the Lord's prophecy that Jerusalem with the temple would be destroyed (Matt. 24:2). If this had not happened, the mixture of Judaism with God's New Testament economy might have continued for centuries. God, however, would never sanction or justify such a mixture. This shows that it is not a small thing to be mistaken in God's economy.
James's concept of Christian perfection was very much in the realm of self-cultivation. Job also was perfect in his way, but God stripped Job of what he was so that he could be rebuilt with God Himself. Our integrity means nothing. Only God means everything.
In the New Jerusalem there are three main items: gold, pearls, and precious stones. The whole city has the appearance of a jasper stone (Rev. 21:11). God's appearance, as the One sitting on the throne, is also like jasper (4:3). This shows that the New Jerusalem is the enlargement of God as the consummation of the Body of Christ. In the church today, people should see only jasper, God Himself. We should teach only that which remains in the New Jerusalem. We have to teach Christ with ourselves crucified by the life-giving Spirit as the power of resurrection.