2. Free to Speak Christ

Covering James Chapters 2-5:

In this lesson, we hope to cover the gospel verses for James Chapters 2-5. Then, as I think about explaining the five categories of Gospel Word for the introduction, I realize that is a difficult task, especially explaining the ruling verses succinctly. It would be good to accomplish that task over time. Yet I also have a second explanation of the Gospel Word as it is found in each book. I must do that for James in this lesson. I must also first attempt an explanation of what I mean overall by “Gospel Word.”

This is a tall order, for I know of no precedent for what I hope to see coming out from God into the human experience. And that is where we must start.

God Is Word. What is Gospel Word? My explanation must be a different approach than what I wrote about in “A Pure Word” for Being a Witness, because it serves a different purpose. It is the same Word, of course, but here we are setting before any reader of the Bible an understanding of that flow of knowing coming out from God into them through the many key verses of their Bibles. (This line is an important start).

God is Word (John 1:1). We are speaking of God the Father inside of Himself, separate from any movement of God towards that which is created. God is a Story of Words inside of a Spirit Self-Awareness. Inside such an infinite God are an infinite number of differing sets of words, each one containing an infinite number of words.

God Speaking. Word that is God speaking, Christ Jesus, then, is God connecting with that which is created. There is no such thing as a “time” when God did not know that which is created, for God is all here now, He does not relate with our past or future. For that reason, Christ Jesus, Spirit Word, God connecting directly with every particle that is created, is also all here now, and Personal, so that God Himself might be known as Personal.

This flow of Spirit Word out from God that is Christ Jesus has two very different aspects or purposes or tasks towards every particle, thing, and being that is created inside all that is spiritual and all that is material. One of those flows we will call Sustaining Word and the other we will call Gospel Word. They are not the same thing.

Sustaining Word. Bringing forth, carrying, and sustaining all things by His power-filled Word (Hebrews 1:3). All three of these are found inside the Greek word pheron. Jesus is doing these three things towards you and every particle that is created continuously. He does not ask your permission, neither do you have to know anything about these three qualities for them to always operate towards all.

Jesus does not ask you if He can create you or if He can carry you inside Himself inside the Father or if He can sustain your life and existence with power every moment. Sustaining Word causes you to exist and to continue, but it does not cause you to KNOW God.

Gospel Word. Gospel Word, then, is that flow of Word spoken out from God, whom we also know as the same Christ Jesus, that causes a sentient being to KNOW God. Gospel Word cannot enter anyone except with the explicit permission of that person. To do so would be violation of right, something God cannot do for it never enters His mind.

Inside of the overall purpose and action of causing us to KNOW God, then, Gospel Word serves every single way there must be of connecting us with God our Father and connecting God our Father with us. For that reason, we place the center and heart of Gospel Word as Covenant, and its ultimate end, that we might share Hheart with God.

From Flow to Verses. That flow out from God, where we must start, is God’s side of things, however. Our side of things is the verses on the pages of our Bibles. Not all verses are directly that flow of Gospel Word. For that reason, we must place “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” before our larger explanation of “Gospel Word.” We select only some of the verses in any passage as being “Gospel Word.” We must have a True explanation for that. Part of that explanation is – those are the verses that connect us directly with God in one way or another, and they are alive.

Finally, as we saw in Our Glorious Salvation, the entrance of sin altered NOTHING regarding this flow of Gospel Word that must connect us with God. It is Love as it IS that caused us to turn away from that false distraction of sin.

Gospel Word in Metaphors. That is all the space we have for that discussion, but it has helped me considerably to see what I might mean. Let’s continue with the Gospel Verses in James, Chapter 3.

3 Now, If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they will be persuaded by us, we are able to direct their entire body. • 4 Consider ships as well, being so large and driven by strong winds, yet they are directed by a small rudder, wherever the impulse of the one steering it intends. 5 In a similar way, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts great things.

When Gospel Word is contained inside of metaphors, as it is in James 3, we must have a larger reference. Nonetheless, what I had already written serves well.

Steering Your Life. • Speak Christ: The words that we speak steer the entire course of our lives, for the words in our mouth come out from what is written upon our hearts and then become that which we see, by which we judge all things. We can speak Christ personal as ourselves, seeing Him alone, or we can speak words that contradict Christ, words that are anti–Christ. But what we cannot do is speak both.

We continue. – But the tongue, no human is able to tame, it is an out-of-control evil, full of death-bringing poison [f]. 9 With it we bless and speak well of our Lord and our Father, and with it we curse men, those continually and actively coming into being as the likeness of God. • 10 Out of the same mouth comes words of blessing and words of cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be so.

We Cannot Save Ourselves. The tongue no human is able to tame. This is so strong and absolute. Yet in the past, we understood this in only one way, “Try harder next time.” Instead of facing our utter hopelessness, we attempted to connect with God’s meaning through negotiation and performance, disturbed by the fact that we always failed, but not truly confounded.

Yet James is just repeating in a different way, what he implied earlier. – We CANNOT save ourselves. Speaking Christ does not save us. Speaking Christ causes us to know that God already has. That knowing is always experiential, coming in our every moment of need. Yet as I think about those who have read what I share, but refuse to speak Christ, I see all the awfulness James describes.

From Negative to Positive. • Speak Christ: Because we cannot save ourselves, we ask God to save us, even with tears (See Hebrews 5:7), yet also with confidence, from the poisonous death of speaking blessing one moment and speaking curse the next.

• 14 If you have bitter jealousy and self-interest inside your heart, do not boast of it and thus lie against the truth.

A strong negative, like verse 14, can serve as Gospel Word by setting out the negative, that from which we must flee, thus amplifying Word that is Life. In fact, I am now seeing this approach as James’s writing style all the way through. He makes the positive clear, such as the “wisdom from above,” coming up. But he often words his concerns in the negative, even while always implying Gospel Word.

Truth vs Lie. • Speak Christ: Inside the topic of speaking Christ, James is getting right at the heart of the Covenant inside our souls, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves. The Truth is Christ Jesus written upon our hearts (See Ephesians 3:17 & 2 Corinthians 3:3); the lie is a heart empty of God. A Christian who boasts of a heart that is deceitful and unclean is lying against the Truth. We speak only Christ our life.

This exercise of setting out the flow of Gospel Word, out from the ruling verses of the Bible, has already overwhelmed me. The urgency of God coming through us into our world is beyond anything we have ever considered.

• 17 But the wisdom from above is indeed first pure and devoted, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and of good fruits, non-judgmental and sincere [not-fake].

God Himself. 18 Now the fruit of just innocence is sown as a seed inside of peace by those making peace. – This is an extraordinary set of verses. This is God our Father, coming through us as the wisdom of Gospel Verses, of what He actually says.

“Wisdom from above” is the Words that are God Himself, now spoken by Jesus, not as Sustaining Word, but as Gospel Word. That Word then shapes our entire story of self and becomes the True blessing flowing out from us. This is being made just like Jesus. And verse 18 even more. Just innocence is the beginning of our faith, yet its fruit is a life shared with God, giving ourselves to the Father for the sake of others. This same fruit, then becomes a new SEED planted inside of those who receive blessing from us.

Wisdom from Above. • Ruling Verse 10: “Wisdom from above” is knowing the Father as He actually speaks, His gospel words flowing through us, first becoming the story of our own souls, and then going out from us as fruit and seed of True blessing.

I have marked 4:4, but I plan to include that verse with James 5:12, thus we go on to 4:7-8.

• 7 Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Be present with God, and He will be present with you. Cleanse your hands, you who fall short, and possess purified hearts, you who are split in your souls. – James 4:7-8 is also an important supporting verse to Ruling Verse 10, knowing the Father, for God carries all, and we must humble ourselves to be with Him.

Submitting to God. The truth is, rather than having 5 categories, I actually have 15, for my mind must go across every ruling verse, including Ruling Verse 11-12, to ascertain whether any of those might best fit. And the ruling verses all relate to the Covenant. To take possession of a purified heart is Hebrews 10:21-22.

• Ruling Verse 10: Knowing the Father causes us to abandon the pride of our own twisted self-story. Submitting to God begins with acknowledging His presence with us, that He alone is our Source and our Salvation from all that opposes. It continues to no sufficiency in ourselves but all sufficiency in God. It envelops giving thanks inside of and for the sake of all things, that God shares our lives with us. Inside such submission of faith, we stand opposed to all the false-speaking of the evil one, his twisting of words, and he cannot but flee.

The Words of Our Inward Story. I am getting a sense of how all the Gospel Verses give the Ruling Verses such togetherness filled with Life and power.

• 11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. The one speaking against his brother or judging his brother, speaks against law and judges law. If you judge law, however, you are not a doer of law, but a judge. – James is really after the words of our inward story of self and the words that we speak into others, that our story be inside of God and not ruled by this world.

• Speak Christ: The words of our inward story of self then become the words we speak into others, whether to build up as God’s dwelling place together, or to tear down as the evil one in our mouths. Our words impart the love of God shed abroad in our hearts (See Romans 5:5).

Faith Energeoes through Love. • 17 Therefore, to him who is aware of doing good but does not do it, to him it is falling short [of God].

Tying this flow of Gospel Verses into the ruling verses of the Bible and into the Covenant, removes the false reading we once knew in our minds from the tree of good and evil, and places God’s Word into the Tree of Life in all of our thinking. James 4:17 is a verse about Love, as is much of his letter.

• Ruling Verse 8: So-called “faith” without the actions of love is not faith. The “actions of love,” separate from acknowledging the Father as the One who loves, are not love (See 1 Corinthians 13:1-2). Faith in God energeoes through Love.

God through us into our world (faith) is Love in action, the Father just being Himself.

The Christian Life. Finally, we bring in two lines from James Chapter 5. • 7 Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, inside the presence of the Lord. Consider the farmer who awaits the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it until it receives the early and latter rains. 8 You also be patient; strengthen your hearts, because the presence of the Lord is here (i).

Here is what (i) says. – i. Nowhere does God mean, or even say, “coming someday.” God and Salvation are always present, here and now. We live only inside of His presence.

Just as in 1:2-4, James is giving us the entirety of the Christian life; this time inside a metaphor of the reproduction of Life, which is also a strong thread throughout his entire letter.

Inside of His Presence. The early rain is the planting of the Seed, receiving Christ Jesus as our just innocence. The latter rain is the Completion, God through us in the actions of Love. But the in-between is patient endurance. BUT WHERE? We live only inside of the Presence of God, that is, inside of the Most Devoted. Thus I almost have to call this as two categories, for James 5:7-8 is the Sixth Ruling Verse of the Bible, Hebrews 10:19-22, and the Sixth Ruling Verse is where and how the Covenant, symmorphosed with the image of His Son, made just like the Lord Jesus, takes place.

James is actually rebuking someone who says, “Union with Christ doesn’t work.” What did that person expect? They expected quick changes in the appearance of their outward performance.

All Night Long. This is the metaphor of Aaron’s rod inside the Ark of the Covenant inside the Most Devoted Place in the universe. Stay inside of God, rest all night long inside of His presence. Trust utterly in God that He always speaks the Truth and that His Proof is Jesus proven faithful and True through us.

• Ruling Verse 6: We dwell only inside of the Presence of God inside the Most Devoted Place, for that is where God put us when we asked Jesus into our hearts (Covenant). As we rest inside of God, we do not expect quick results in our outward appearance or our human performance. We know that in-between being conceived of God and being made just like Jesus is the proving of our faith, the meaning of patient endurance inside His presence.

James returns again to speaking Christ, the story of our souls.

Free To Be Joined with Christ. • 12 But above all things, my brothers and sisters, do not swear [promise with an oath], neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor any other oath. Let your “Yes,” be yes, however, and your “No,” no, so that you might not fall under judgment.

• Speak Christ: The words that we speak become binding to our souls and to the directions of our lives. We do not pledge allegiance to flags or swear oaths of commitment to monastic orders or to any human group. A sworn oath to some natural cause becomes an iron rule inside our hearts, directing the entire story by which we know ourselves. Those who are led by their oath cannot be led by the Spirit. Rather, as Paul and Jesus also said, let our simple words be the truth, and be not bound to this world. Friendship with the world must always disconnect our story of self from knowing the Father.

The Core Verse. James has become a completely different book for us. In fact, I must return to my description of James as a writer and of his letter and make some changes, for I did not see clearly. James is filled with the essence of Gospel Word, ruling everything he says.

I want to talk, now, about this complete picture of Gospel Word as it comes to us through James. I will write my explanation later, out from these thoughts. What is the ruling verse of the book of James? It is found in James 1:22-25, yet as is his style, it is cast as a negative, one that strongly implies the Covenant, and as a metaphor.

A man looking at his natural face in a mirror. • 24 For he has perceived himself…

Seeing Salvation. Here is the positive into which we turned the ruling verse of James. – • Covenant: The mirror is Christ Jesus, for we are free, in liberty, to see Him alone, the Salvation of God. Seeing Jesus is the only way we perceive ourselves to know what we are. Liberty is no attachment to anything else. Out from this metamorphosis, then, we act with Love in confidence.

Around this ruling verse, then, James knits together his two main topics, back and forth. 1. Faith shows itself through the actions of Love. 2. Speak only Christ your life, your “one-souled” story of self. Twice he gives the entirety of the Christian life in sets of two verses, first inside the Seventh Ruling Verse, from Hebrews 4, and second inside the Sixth Ruling Verse, from Hebrews 10. And yet James’s purpose is much deeper than all of this.

To Know the Father. James’s purpose is that we might KNOW the Father, that we might share life with a God who is always flowing through us as every Gospel Word that He speaks. That is Paul’s purpose, that is John’s purpose, that is Peter’s purpose, and that is God’s purpose. We put the “Tenth” Ruling Verse last only because it has brought us full circle and placed us now at the right hand of the Ruling Verse, the Covenant made personal as us.

So, we have supporting verses for Ruling Verses 1, 6, 7, 8, and 10. We have definitions for God, us, sin, and faith. We have one “Life” reference, that is, using the metaphor of human reproduction. Nonetheless, James also uses the metaphor of plant reproduction throughout, and other verses fit into Life.

The Law of Liberty. Then there are three Covenant references and six titled “Speak Christ,” which is a major topic for James. In fact he ties speaking Christ directly to seeing Jesus as He is.

I did not mention the “perfect law of liberty.” James includes that concept inside his primary thesis. That seeing Jesus alone, that we are just like Him, places us into the “perfect law of liberty,” and that we are to remain, abide, continue always inside of that “law of liberty.” “The perfect law of liberty” is also “the law of the Spirit of Life inside of Christ Jesus.” However, a title I just now wrote gives us James’s meaning – “Free To Be Joined with Christ.” When our story, our identity, is caught up in other things, we will not join ourselves with Jesus. FREE – to see Him alone.

A Gospel of Life. One picture of what I feel like right now is that of a school boy in his desk, getting his paper back with many things marked “wrong.” That is my previous explanations of James. Yet I am also overwhelmed with the power of the Gospel Word, and especially this, that it is a Gospel of Life, that Jesus makes us to be just like Himself, that unlocks for us the True meaning of every line in the Bible. I am humbled on the one hand, and greatly strengthened on the other.

The goal of the evil one is to chop the Bible up into scattered, disconnected, and tiny pieces, organized around several non-Biblical points and coming from a God who “knows evil.” A Gospel of Life is overwhelming; it is One continuous flow.

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson will be Thessalonians. I do not know what it’s title will be, for I have not yet written it, and I do not know how many lessons will take us through Thessalonians. The JSV of Thessalonians is on the website for you to read. I cannot guess how much we will cover. The bullet points that are already there are not my final choices. I also want to spend time discussing “rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” This will become part of the overall explanation of what “Gospel Word” is.

I must add this realization. It has just dawned on me that we are seeing the Father more clearly than ever before. The “Patterns of the Kingdom” are also God revealed. Thus I need to finish this study before I can write those. Gospel Word is the flow of God coming through us into our world.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, Your Word, flowing so freely through us, causes us to see the Lord Jesus as He is and to know that He makes us to be just like Himself. Father, You are birthing Your knowledge through us now into this world.

“Father, even as we stand in confidence that Your Word is True and fulfilled inside of us, so we ask that Your Compelling Spirit would flow into Your Church, bringing the conviction of this same Word to all. And Father, give us as well the conviction we need to see Your entire Church, all who belong to Jesus now upon this earth, to see her pure and undefiled, with no accusation standing against her, a new creation clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Father, we know that we are asking for You, coming as pure and gentle wisdom, You as Gospel Word expressed, without measure or hindrance. We are asking that You show Your Face through our human forms, through our togetherness. Father, You have given us all that we ask. You have answered us. Father, You have caused us to share Your Heart with You.

“God, our Father, this precious and Devoted thing You are birthing through us now is so big, so mighty, so not of this world. To us, it seems impossible that such a thing could fit through us. Yet we know that You have made us for this very purpose. Father, be Yourself through us now into Your Church. Oh God, You are altogether Glorious. You are Devoted, and You have Devoted us to Yourself, inside of being made like Jesus.”