CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY
of the Epistle of James

Message Six

Its Vague Vision,
the Side Effects of James's Teaching,
the Tragic Issues of James's Mistake,
and
the Wiping Out by God

Scripture Reading: James 1:1

OUTLINE

1. Its vague vision concerning God's dispensation:
1. Calling the Jewish believers "the twelve tribes"—1:1:
1. The Lord Jesus told His Jewish disciples that the kingdom of God would be taken from the Jews and given to the church—Matt. 21:43.
2. According to God's economy in His New Testament dispensation, the church is separate from the Jews—1 Cor. 10:32.
2. Calling the meeting place of the Jewish believers a "synagogue"—2:2:
1. "Synagogue" is a particular designation used for the meeting place of the scattered Jews—Acts 6:9.
2. The synagogue was the place where the Jews persecuted the believers—Matt. 10:17; 23:34.
3. The synagogue was called by the Lord Jesus the "synagogue of Satan"—Rev. 2:9.
3. Teaching the Jewish believers to keep the law of the Old Testament—James 1:25; 2:8-12; 4:11-12:
1. This is confirmed by James's word in Acts 15:21 and 21:20-25.
2. James appreciated the law, calling it the "perfect law of freedom" and the "royal law," as the psalmists did in the Old Testament—Psa. 1:1-2; 19:7-11; 119:10-11, 43, 142, 151.
3. But in God's New Testament dispensation Christ has ended (terminated and taken away) the law—Rom. 10:4; Heb. 10:9.
4. According to God's New Testament dispensation, the believers are not under the law but under grace—Rom. 6:14.
5. In the New Testament economy the believers have been freed by Christ from the law's yoke of slavery, no longer indebted to the law; if they will still keep the law, Christ will profit them nothing, they will be separated from Christ, and they will fall from grace—Gal. 5:1-4.
6. Hence, Paul said that the believers have died to law—Gal. 2:19.
2. The side effects of James's teaching under his vague vision concerning God's economy:
1. A mixture of God's New Testament dispensation with God's Old Testament dispensation:
1. It uses the terms of the Old Testament Jews, such as "the twelve tribes," "synagogue," and "the Lord of hosts [Jehovah of hosts]" in 1:1; 2:2; 5:4.
2. Its words in 1:27 and 4:14 bear the element and flavor of the Old Testament.
3. The examples it uses are only of the Old Testament, such as Abraham and Rahab in 2:23, 25 and the prophets, Job, and Elijah in 5:10-11, 17.
2. A mixture of God's New Testament chosen people —the believers—with God's Old Testament elect—the Jews.
3. A mixture of the church practice with the Jews' way of meeting to worship God in the synagogues.
4. In his teaching of the Jewish believers concerning the virtues of Christian perfection, James did not warn them, as Paul did in dealing with the Corinthian believers (1 Cor. 2:14), that the virtues of Christian perfection should only be produced and carried out by the regenerated persons and not by the natural persons. Here a hidden mixture is implied: a mixture of the regenerated persons in their regenerated humanity mingled with divinity, with the natural persons in their fallen humanity, in the producing and carrying out of the virtues of Christian perfection. In the church as the organic Body of Christ everything must be done by the regenerated persons, in whom is God's delight, and nothing should be done by the natural persons, for whom is God's condemnation.
3. The tragic issues of James's mistake:
1. The blinding of thousands of believers:
1. From James's time to today.
2. From seeing the clear view concerning the economy of God that they may participate in the producing and building up of the Body of Christ as a precursor of the New Jerusalem.
3. The divine revelation in the Scriptures is progressive in different degrees, and its progression is according to the four different ages of the Scriptures:
1. Job's perfection (Job 1:1, 8) was according to the divine revelation of the age before the law, which was Job's goal in seeking after God and replaced God in Job's satisfaction; thus, Job was stripped by God of his perfection.
2. Saul of Tarsus's perfection (Phil. 3:6) before his salvation was according to the divine revelation in the age of law, which was opposing God's New Testament economy and was rejected by him after his salvation by receiving the vision of the divine revelation of the age of grace.
3. The perfection stressed by James was according to his vague view of God's divine revelation and was a mixture of the divine revelation according to the age of the law with the divine revelation according to the age of grace.
4. The genuine perfection is according to the pure vision of God's highest divine revelation of the age of grace and is brought forth by the fullness of the riches of the consummated Triune God and through the crucifixion of the cross of Christ for the bringing forth of the Body of Christ to consummate in the New Jerusalem as God's eternal enlargement and expression.
2. The snaring of the top apostle:
1. Paul, according to the pure vision of the divine revelation concerning God's eternal economy, rejected the law in Galatians 2:16, 19; 3:2, 5, 10-13; 5:1-4, 18 and condemned the Jewish believers who sinned willfully by going back to Judaism and offering the sacrifices of cattle in Hebrews 10:18, 26.
2. James persuaded Paul to go back to the law, even to enter into the temple and wait to offer sacrifices for the completion of others' Nazarite vow.
3. But the Lord did not tolerate it and came into the situation to blow away the whole deal.
4. However, that snare caused Paul to be arrested and eventually transferred to the prison of Caesar in Rome—Acts 21:18-36; 25:10-12.
4. The wiping out by God:
1. By the thorough destruction of the city of Jerusalem with its temple in A.D. 70, God terminated the Jewish religious service to Him, symbolized by the temple, and the nation of the Jews, symbolized by the city of Jerusalem.
2. By the destruction of Jerusalem God also wiped out all the vague situation and mixtures among the believers caused by James's vague vision and mistake and separated the believers from the Jewish people and anything Jewish.