In 1:25 James says, “But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues in it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in his doing.” The perfect law, the law of freedom, is an excellent thing. This is the law of life inscribed on our hearts (Heb. 8:10), the moral standard of which corresponds to that of the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens decreed by the Lord on the mount (Matt. 5—7). Although the keeping of the perfect law of freedom is a very positive thing, James speaks of keeping this law in the Old Testament practice. This is indicated by what he says in 1:26 and 27: “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this one’s religion is vain. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” Here we see that James charges the believers to keep the perfect law of freedom in relation to three things: bridling the tongue, visiting orphans and widows, and keeping oneself unspotted from the world. None of these is a crucial item in God’s New Testament economy. By this we see that James does not tell us to keep the perfect law of freedom in the New Testament practice. Rather, by charging us to bridle our tongue, visit orphans and widows, and keep ourselves unspotted from the world, he is speaking of Old Testament practices.
As we read chapter one of his Epistle, we see that James held to the concept of keeping the perfect law. In 1:22 he says that we should become doers of the word and not hearers only. Then in 1:25 he says that the one who looks into the perfect law and continues in it, being a doer of the work, will be blessed in his doing. James is clearly saying that we must be doers of the law. A doer of the law, according to James, is one who keeps the law. However, he does not tell us the New Testament way to keep the perfect law of freedom. The New Testament teaches that we keep the law of freedom by living and walking according to the Spirit. The entire New Testament is not for us to keep by ourselves; it is for us to live by the Spirit so that we may keep it. Merely keeping is a matter of doing by ourselves, whereas living is by the indwelling Spirit who is in our regenerated spirit. Now we do not need to try to keep the law by ourselves, and we do not need to be its doers by our own effort. What we need is a walk according to the Spirit. This means that instead of being those who do by ourselves we should be those who live by the Spirit. There is a great difference between one who keeps the law by himself and one who lives according to the Spirit.
In the Epistle of James there is not much that is according to the concept of the New Testament. Instead, to a large extent, the concept in this Epistle is that of the Old Testament. Yes, James speaks of the law of freedom, but he speaks of it in the Old Testament way of keeping the law of letters. James may have thought that the Mosaic law was not complete, not perfect, but that the New Testament teaching is perfect. James may have realized that the New Testament teaching is perfect and gives us freedom. Thus, according to James, we need to keep it; we need to be its doers. His concept of how to fulfill the law is not clearly according to the New Testament. His way of handling the law was according to the Old Testament way of keeping and doing by ourselves, not according to the New Testament way of living, walking, behaving, and having our being according to the Spirit.
Some readers of the Epistle of James may think that there is nothing wrong with being a doer of the perfect law. They may say, “James is right in saying that we should be doers of the law. Surely, we all must be doers of the perfect law of freedom.” If we read the Bible this way, we read it according to the natural understanding, not according to the enlightenment of the Spirit. Actually, all the New Testament teachings are definitions of the living and the indwelling of the all-inclusive Spirit within us. To try to keep these teachings or to do them by ourselves is not our need; our need is to walk according to and by the indwelling Spirit. When we walk according to and by the Spirit, we live the perfect law, the law of freedom; we live the entire New Testament. We do not keep the New Testament by our own effort; we live by the Spirit that we may keep it. Doing is something that is of ourselves, but living is by the Holy Spirit. This is the reason Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” The New Testament concept is this: no longer I, but Christ lives in me. The Epistle of James is not clear in this matter. James knew that we have been born of God, that God has brought us forth by the word of truth. Nevertheless, his concept concerning the living of God’s people, and in particular concerning practical Christian perfection, seems to be based on the concept of the Old Testament.