“Right Hand, Left Hand”

Sunday, July 03, 2022

In the traditions and histories, James is considered to have been the driving force in the church at Jerusalem for the first couple decades, before he was martyred sometime in the 60s.  That’s an overstatement, but his opinion certainly carried a lot of weight.  For example let’s look at Acts 15, where the disagreement about which rules Jesus wants imposed on Gentile converts has escalated to a confrontation at Jerusalem between Paul and Barnabas on one side, and the legalist Jewish Christians on the other.  This group has the majority, and holds that Gentiles essentially must convert to Judaism first, in order to reap any benefit from Christ, saying, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Ac 15.1).  Paul and Barnabas know better.

So does Peter, although he didn’t always find it easy to stand up for this principle.  During an extended visit to Antioch, he chickened out of maintaining his fellowship with Gentile Christians when “certain men came from James” (Ga 2.12).  Knowing their opinion and not wanting a fracas, “he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.”  But that was then, and this is now.  Peter does stand up and, far from pinning salvation to circumcision in accordance with the Law of Moses, he reminds his Jewish brothers, “we believe that we will be saved though the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (Ac 15.11).  This point was rather important, but easy to forget for these Jews, who knew nothing for 1400 years other than an entirely works-based righteousness that had always failed to produce the kind of people God wanted.  Finally James—the author of that extremely practical book on how to live as Christians—weighs in:

“my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.” (Acts 15.19-20)

So weighty is his opinion that the rest of the apostles and elders agree to do exactly that.  Notably, in the letter, they write

“we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds although we gave them no instructions…” (Acts 15.24)

Some of these legalistic, Law-of-Moses-loving Jewish Christians had been going around to predominately Gentile churches and telling them they needed to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved.  No doubt, among them were the “certain men” who “came from James” in that earlier incident to which Paul referred in Galatians.  They got along great with James, who stressed the importance of doing, not just hearing or saying (Ja 1.22-25, 2.14-26).  But even though they were labeled his followers, he hadn’t actually sent them to do this!  He knew better, and spoke up on behalf of Paul and Barnabas when it counted, helping to sway the church toward the truth and away from the lie his own friends were promoting.

Over the centuries, Catholicism came closer and closer to mirroring the failed standard of righteousness under the Law of Moses, as if  salvation were a prize to be purchased through the sacraments of the church, and maintained by keeping in balance one’s sins and good works, including penance.  Then came Martin Luther, relentlessly harping on Paul’s writings about salvation by faith in Christ.  He so hated the book of James that he suggested it was inauthentic, not even written by a Christian, let alone inspired by God.  He, and many others as time went on, swung the pendulum from the nonsense of one extreme—salvation earned by works—to the nonsense of the other extreme—salvation completely independent of what we choose to do.  In reality, the truth is in the middle, as James himself says: “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Ja 2.17).  Is this different from what Paul says?  No, not really. 

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.  You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?”  (Galatians 5.6-7)

James is emphasizing good works to people who need to be reminded those are not optional.  Paul is emphasizing faith to those who need to be reminded, you can’t earn your salvation.  But James doesn’t say faith is unnecessary; he upholds its importance.  And Paul doesn’t say works are unnecessary, he says that our faith must be working through love, and that we must obey the truth.  They agree completely—they’re just focusing on what different audiences need to hear most. 

The Catholic establishment for centuries ignored much of Paul’s writings at their peril.  Many in the Protestant world have for centuries ignored James at their peril.  But Paul and James never wanted to split the church between them.  Paul calls James an apostle (not one of the twelve Apostles, but nevertheless performing a similar function) in Galatians 1.19, and calls him one of the “pillars” of the church in Jerusalem in the next chapter (2.9).  And when, many years later, Paul was in some trouble with the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem again, James took the lead in trying to bail him out (Ac 21.17-26).  Many people have tried awfully hard to make these two into enemies, but it’s just not true!  They have slightly different functions, as the right hand has a slightly different function from the left hand—but they’re part of the same body, obeying the same head, and working for the same goals.  Instead of ignoring one or the other based on our own preferences, we must follow the teaching of both, because it really comes from the head, who is Christ.

Jeremy Nettles

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