James. Part 6. James 2:14-26. Pt. 1

I have to take a moment here in this video description to explain how glad I am that I’m just as excited to teach these things today as I was to teach them some twenty years ago. As I grabbed the book I cite from today (info below) I’m just so humbled and glad that I’ve been consulting it for as long as I have. I just never tire of talking about the Gospel and the mechanics of God’s amazing grace. I hope you’re blessed to consider a bit more about what we Christians mean by “Grace alone” today.

We have to take some time to introduce this powerful section of text. It is just as inspired as every other section of text, but the confusion men have brought through it is something we’re going to labor to avoid by creating a sound framework for understanding it. We are always to interpret Scripture by Scripture for safety. We interpret any passage of James in its immediate context, then in the wider context of all of James, then in light of the New Testament, then in light of the whole of the Bible in our theology. Today, we have to being to lay a foundation for the Gospel so that James is heard in the context he deserves to be heard in. We’ll return to this again next week. We had some wonderful conversation after class and the folks here are excited to keep diving in, Lord-willing, in weeks to come. I hope you’ll join us.

The book I cited from today is from Baker Academic and was edited by Mr. Walter A. Elwell. It’s called the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Second Edition. I cite briefly from J.I. Packer’s entry on “Regeneration” on page 1000. That article can also be found digitally here: https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/packer_regen.html.