“Steadfast Under Trial”
James 1:12-18
3/4/09
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Tonight’s epistle text begins with the words,
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under
trial...” The word “blessed” reminds us of the
Beatitudes from our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are
the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek,
and so forth. The Psalms begin with this word
“blessed,” when in Psalm 1 the author writes,
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but
his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day
and night.” To be blessed is to be under God’s divine
favor, to be the recipient of His good gifts, to be the object of His
love and mercy. All of us would like this word
“blessed” to be descriptive of us. And yet, when we
look at these Scripture passages and who it is that they declare to be
blessed, it becomes apparent that we don’t qualify.
Take, for example, James’ words. The one
whom he declares “blessed” is the man who remains steadfast
under trial. The blessing that such a man receives for doing this
is the crown of life, which God promises to those who love Him.
And so it appears that there are certain conditions, prerequisites, or
tests that have to be met and passed before one can qualify for the
coveted “blessed” label and receive the gifts that come
with it. Some think they have passed the tests and met the
requirements and therefore deserve the title
“blessed.” But if we’re honest with ourselves,
we’ll have to come to the conclusion that we’ve failed and
fallen far short.
Remaining steadfast under trial is just one of the
requirements that we fail at keeping all the time. There are many
trials in this life for the Christian. Trials are not necessarily
temptations, although they can be. The difference between a trial
and a temptation is that a trial is a kind of test that God puts you
through to see if you will fear, love, and trust in Him above all
things, loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind as
well as loving your neighbor as yourself. A temptation, on the
other hand, is an attempt by the devil to get you to fail at fearing,
loving, and trusting in God above all things and loving your neighbor
as yourself. Sometimes God allows the devil to tempt you, just as
He allowed it in Adam and Eve’s case, in order to see if you will
continue to listen to His Word, trust in His promises, and obey His
commandments. But as James says here, God never tries to get you
to sin. The devil tempts; God tests.
And yet, when we sin, we can’t blame the
devil, which is exactly what Adam and Eve tried to do. The
saying, “The devil made me do it!” just doesn’t fly
with God. The devil may tempt you to sin, but he cannot make you
sin. You and I sin when, as James states here,
“[we’re] lured and enticed by [our] own desire [or
lusts]. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and
sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” So, the one
who is responsible for your sin is you alone. You sin when
instead of following God’s commandments you follow your
lusts. Instead of listening to God’s Word you listen to the
devil’s words and fall for his temptations. The devil knows
where you are weakest, and so that is where he’s going to
attack. You might be strong in the faith, but you might struggle
with some sexual sin. You might be strong in doctrine, but you
might struggle with worry. You might believe that God has saved
you, and yet you might trust in your money.
The devil rarely launches a full frontal assault;
instead, he attacks from behind. The result is that we fail the
tests all the time. We’re constantly falling to the
devil’s temptations. We don’t remain steadfast under
trials. We do not fear, love, and trust in God above all
things. We don’t love our neighbors as ourselves. We
don’t fulfill the requirements for achieving the title
“blessed.” Therefore, this word cannot possibly
describe us. And lacking it disqualifies us from receiving the
crown of life.
And this is where James would leave us, if he
hadn’t written the next few lines. If we didn’t read
any further, we might conclude that there’s no hope for us, that
we would suffer under God’s sentence of death and die in despair,
only to suffer eternally in hell under His wrath. Yes, there
would still be those who would try to delude themselves into thinking
that they had, in fact, done enough to earn the title
“blessed,” but James leaves us no wriggle room and allows
no partial credit for good behavior. Instead, he writes that when
you have broken just one of God’s commandments, you’ve
broken them all.
But James doesn’t leave us in despair.
Suddenly, he starts talking about gifts, good gifts, perfect gifts,
from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due
to change. God is true to His Word. He threatens death and
punishment for all who transgress His commandments. Instead of a
blessing, His Law puts us under a curse. But God has another
word, the Word of Truth. It’s a Word that delivers gifts,
not punishment. And the gifts that it delivers is the gifts of
our Savior, Jesus Christ and His righteousness, which He won for us
through His perfect obedience and His sacrificial death on the cross
for our sins.
Jesus is the man that James is describing. He
alone is blessed, because He alone remained steadfast under
trial. He alone was able to fear, love, and trust in His Father
above all things and love His neighbor as Himself. When tempted
by the devil, He held His ground, holding fast to His Father’s
Word rather than being carried away by lust. Jesus was tempted in
all things, just as we are, yet without sin. Every temptation of
the devil that you’ve fallen to, Jesus has overcome, even the
really tough ones that you struggle with every day. There’s
no temptation that has overtaken Jesus. The greatest of the
devil’s temptations for our Lord was for Him to come down from
the cross. But He resisted that temptation, too, and passed the
test, refusing to let anything disqualify Him from the prize. He
took the curse that was upon you upon Himself, becoming the sinner of
all sinners in our place, and He died under the wrath of God, as He
atoned for your sins with His blood. Having finished the work
that the Father gave Him to do, the prize of the crown of life was
awarded Him at His resurrection from the dead. And now He lives
and reigns forever, highly exalted at the right hand of God the Father
Almighty.
So, what does this mean for you and me? Jesus
didn’t earn the prize for Himself. While you can’t
meet the requirements yourself for earning the title
“blessed,” Jesus has met them for you, in order to give His
obedience to you, so that through faith in Him you might be declared
blessed. Clothed with Christ as you are now through your Baptism,
as St. Paul writes, the blessing that describes Jesus now describes
you, even though you still fail the tests and fall to temptation.
Even though you don’t remain steadfast under trials and are still
lured and enticed by your lusts and desires, you remain under
God’s sentence of blessing, because Christ is your
righteousness. A glorious exchange has taken place: Your
sin has been given to Jesus, and His righteousness has been given to
you. Now, instead of being on the end of the Father’s
wrath, you are on the end of His gifts, given to you through His Word
and His Sacraments. And on the Last Day you too will receive the
crown of life, just as our Lord did, when He raises you from the dead
and takes you to live and reign with Him in His heavenly kingdom
forever.
Does this mean that we can go on sinning, following
after our lusts and desires, since we live under God’s blessing
in Jesus? When Paul was asked such a question, his response was,
“May it never be! How can we who died to sin still live in
it?” According to Paul, we died to sin with Jesus in our
Baptism. At the same time we we’re raised with Jesus and
made God’s beloved children. As such, we live to please
Him, saying “No” to the temptations of the devil and
walking according to God’s Word by the power of the Holy Spirit,
who lives in us and works in us what is pleasing to Him. We
don’t live in sin, because that’s not who we are now in
Jesus. If we were to insist on living in sin it would mean death
for us. But when we do sin out of weakness, falling to the
temptations of the devil and the lusts of our flesh as we do on a daily
basis, we don’t need to despair, but we can remind ourselves that
we live under the blessings of Jesus, for whose sake God forgives our
sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
Hear those words of absolution for yourself again
tonight, which are spoken to you from the one who brought you forth by
the Word of Truth, that you might be a kind of firstfruits of His
creatures. Purchased and sprinkled with the blood of the
Firstborn, the only-begotten Son of God, you belong to Him, you live
under His blessing, and you’re an heir of the crown of
life. Amen.