Page 32 - July 2025 - Truth & Tidings

’mon, girl, we’ll never get there like sin, is to break the chain, and the whole thing
this! Just drive a bit faster and let fails. Nor does God give bonuses for avoiding
2
Cthem catch the next car! Why study sins we might think are more grave. Every
so hard, man? Passing doesn’t mean perfect! sane person knows murder is wrong, but
Many people are used to a “close enough” James leads us to understand that murder,
view of life, where we expect our own efforts immorality, or even lying are all equally sin.
or experience will get us through. And maybe “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing
that’s true with human authorities. The police to do and does not do it, to him it is sin” (4:17).
officer might blink, and your teacher likely What an impossible dilemma! All of us have
knows you’re a good student. sinned, and we don’t measure up to God’s
But while “close enough” might work for standard. We don’t have the ability to go back
many things, God views things differently. and fix our past, and we are sure to fail again
His thoughts and His ways aren’t like ours. in our future. What can we do? Thankfully, the
They’re higher, and they’re perfect (Isa 55:8-9; apostle James leads us to the right place. At
Psa 18:30). He holds each of us to the sinless the end of his treatise on partiality, James
standard of His Son, Jesus Christ. It’s a hard writes, “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (2:13).
truth. In Jeremiah 23:29, God tells us His Word What a beautiful thought!
is like a hammer, and in his epistle over 600 There is no greater love, no softer mercy,
years later, James swings the point home, and no deeper compassion for sinners than
“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet with the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to our
stumbles in one point, he has become guilty world, and as a perfect Man He lived out the
of all” (Jas 2:10).
1
royal law and met God’s righteous standard.
James tells us that partiality, when we He went beyond, loving us more than His own
might think we’re better than that woman, life, and died on the cross for our sins. God
or certainly more righteous than a criminal put the punishment for our failures on Him, to
on the evening news, is sin! Not living up to save our souls (Isa 53:5). His mercy triumphs
this “royal law” convicts us as transgressors, over the judgment we deserve!
as people who have stepped over the line So, what can we do? Certainly nothing
with our pride and selfishness (vv8-9). We’re to save ourselves. Thankfully, our salvation
sinners. doesn’t depend on our works but on the
Going to heaven at the end of life or Lord Jesus Christ. Accept His perfect work
pleasing God while you’re still living isn’t the on the cross, rest in His mercy, and you will
result of checking some spiritual boxes toward be saved from sin.
a passing grade. To miss one point, a single
2 Bernie Payne, The Epistles of James & Jude
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the (Cookstown, NI: Scripture Teaching Library
NASB. Limited, 2024), 38.