[AI translation] When we started explaining the letter of James a few months ago, I mentioned that one of the main features of this letter is that it almost echoes the word of Jesus a lifetime later. And now, when we come to the end of the letter, the last sentence again reminds me of Jesus' last words. In different words, but the same words that Jesus said to his disciples the last time he wrote: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, ... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt 28,18-20). The very essence of the Church, its biography, its vocation, is to be the instrument of the good news of Christ in the world and, by the power of this good news, to save souls from death for eternity.And the practical result of this life-saving ministry is described in the Book of Acts: "And the Lord multiplied the church daily with those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). This is why Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Mt 5,16); and, "Make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28,19). (1 Cor 9,22) That is why James' last message to the church reading his letter is, "Brethren, if any of you err from the truth, and someone converts him, let him know that he who converts a sinner from his erring way saves a soul from death and covers many sins." (James 5:19-20)
"If any man... err from the truth..." - but what is the truth? James does not elaborate on this here. He assumes that the congregation already knows. And we do know, because we are involuntarily reminded of the One who said of Himself, "I am... the truth..." (John 14,6) So the truth is not something I believe to be true in my head or in my heart. The truth is not something, but Someone, the only Someone: Jesus Christ. But what does it mean that Jesus is Truth? And to answer this question, let us use these words that James uses here: it is the truth, the truth of Jesus Christ, that many sins are covered and that the soul is saved from death!
So the truth is that we are burdened with many sins, both individually and corporately. We are people destined to die, imprisoned in the prison of death, but God is a forgiving God, a God who covers sins and delivers us from death. This covering of our sins was accomplished by Jesus. There in the Garden of Gethsemane, there on Calvary, in His terrible lonely struggle and agony, He covered our sins, covered our sins from God's eternal judgment with His own blood. There He paid the price for us that we would have been unable to pay, because it is such a terrible price. And on the third day, on Easter morning, in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea, there He broke down the wall of the prison of death, there He obtained for our souls also an escape from death. This is the truth. This is the truth of Jesus Christ. And from this truth we live! This truth is our life, our life-giver: Jesus Christ! And if it is the truth, the reality, that human sin was covered by the blood of Jesus and human life was redeemed from death by Jesus, then James is right: there is nothing more tragic than to live in the world departing from this truth revealed by God, because it means total abandonment to sin and death! He who has already known this truth cannot rest as long as there are people around him who do not yet know it or have strayed from it!
As James would say: Look around you, there are people living around you, some of whom do not yet know what you know! They do not know the truth, they do not know grace. No one has told them yet. They have never really met it. Look around you, surely there are people around you who don't even know that they need grace and that there is grace for them! There are those who do not pray, do not read the Bible, do not belong to the church and yet belong to us, yet are our brothers and sisters, because they are also children of the Father! And deep down in his soul he is restless, he is at peace, if he does not talk about it, if he hides it from himself, perhaps he is unhappy, he cannot cope with the problems of his life. He stands bewildered in the confusion of the world, drifting listlessly in a life without purpose, towards a meaningless death. James says: you who know the truth, go to him and tell him. Tell him that God lives and that you have known him as a good and compassionate God! Tell him that you too live out of this goodness and compassion, that you too are a child of God, that your Father is God! Give him the life-saving good news that there is salvation from sin because Jesus died for it! There is victory over death because Jesus rose from the dead! James says, "Be instruments that they who have gone astray from the truth may have their sins covered by the blood of Christ, that their souls may be saved from death! For, "He that turneth a sinner from his wayward way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover many sins."
Yes, to convert a sinner, to save a soul: that is the task of the Church. Our task, yours and mine! To bring the reality of the Christian life to the world, the victory of deliverance from sin and death, so that the world may know and love the truth that God has revealed in Jesus Christ! But this is the theory - and what is the practice, what is the reality? Let us be frank: it is the very opposite of what should be the Church's animating mission. It is so beautiful to say that "he who converts a sinner from his erring way saves a soul from death" - but is this what happens? If it does happen that a sinner is truly converted, is it not rarer than the white raven? Who among us has last witnessed, much less been the instrument of, that great joy which even the angels of heaven rejoice in, that a sinner is converted from his erring ways? But we all know the reverse of that, don't we? That a brotherly son of ours may go astray from the truth, and slowly fall away, and then be cut off from the church altogether! It is not that the church grows day by day with the saved, but on the contrary: it dwindles day by day with the backsliders!
It is so beautiful to say, "Make disciples of all nations." and instead of adding more and more disciples, the old disciples are going back into the world. Let me give you just one example: of the 25 boys and girls who made their confirmation vows six months ago, three are no longer with us, perhaps not even three who are truly in the Spirit! And we who are here, who profess to have known the truth of God in Christ, are we not also, all of us, not being Christianised by our environment, but being secularised by our environment!
It is so beautiful to say, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" - but the reality is that we are so devoid of this particular light, so devoid of living examples, of evidence of the reality of salvation, that not only do people not glorify our Father in heaven, but they simply do not believe that we have a Father in heaven! If the world looks at our lives, the lives of Christians, they may rightly think that God does not exist, or if He once did, He is long dead! Yet it is not God who is dead, but His Church, we are dead, or at least terminally ill. And here we should not be deceived by appearances, by the fact that a relatively large number of people go to church, that Bible studies are held, that there is giving, because if this is what life consists in, that it grows, that the erring are converted to the truth, that more and more souls are saved from death - then the opposite is a sign of mortal danger! The true Christian life should be like a contagious disease that spreads to all with whom it comes in contact. If I have the flu, it will spread to the person sitting next to me, or if the person doesn't get it, then obviously I don't have the flu either. Is true Christianity that which does not spread to others? Think of those closest to you, your children, your spouse, or the co-worker with whom you spend most of your life in the same room, office, workshop. Has your heart never ached because you could not give credit to, endear, accept, pass on to them what is most precious to you, the truth you have come to know in Christ? And perhaps you even complain about their hard-heartedness, that they do not want the gospel, even though you have tried everything, even though you have talked to them so much, and in vain, it will not work!
Well, brethren, even a contagious disease cannot be spread by persuasion. If I don't have the flu, I can talk to someone about it in the most eloquent and convincing way, but they won't get it. And it is the same with our Christianity: if I do not have the living Christ in me, I cannot spread it - that is to say, pass it on - in vain, because I have nothing! It is said that the Japanese have invented a way of preventing the oak sapling from growing: they prepare the roots, cut the taproot so that the small oak tree does not wither, but does not grow larger, and it can be put in a pot and placed on a flower stand as a sculpture. In a way, our Christianity is just such a prepared oak tree, or mustard tree, to use a biblical analogy! The roots of the arms are cut off, it is a statuette, it is suitable for a pot. It doesn't dry out completely, but it doesn't grow into a big tree either, it doesn't provide shade for weary wanderers, a nesting place for the birds of the sky. It bears no fruit, no new life. It remains alone and to itself.
It may be a very dark picture, but it is good not to embellish reality, not to delude ourselves. In the light of this Word: "Brethren, if any of you shall err from the truth, and shall be converted, let him know that he who converts a sinner from his wayward way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover many sins", we are indeed presenting a frighteningly distorted picture as a Church and as members of the Church. Let us not misunderstand: there is no doubt in my mind about the future of Christ's church, for it is true what Jesus says about her, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against her." (Mt 16,18b) But this does not mean that some churches and congregations cannot disappear, as in many places known from the New Testament where there was once a living church, Islam now prevails. Many times in the course of two thousand years of history what Jesus said to the church at Ephesus has been fulfilled: "Repent, ... and if you do not, I will come against you quickly, and will remove your lampstand from its place if you do not repent." (Revelation 2:5) In order for us to proclaim the truth to the world, to those who have strayed from the truth: we must first re-credential that truth by actually living from that truth!
The essence of the Reformation 400 years ago was to return the church to the source, to Christ! To the place where even all the truly repented sins and omissions of the church are covered by the holy blood, and where the only escape for the church is from death! That new reformation, too - the crying need of which is so much shown in this Word - begins there, at the source, at last, in true repentance, in humiliation: with Christ.
May the Holy Spirit of God grant that we may be able to be so supplicating not only with our mouths but with our hearts:
Hear, Jesus Christ,
Thou thou afflicted
And very bitter
Your poor sheep,
Listen with mercy
Your holy church,
which is afflicted.
Let it not, sweet Jesus,
Thy afflicted people,
Redeemed by your holy blood
Thy little army;
Let it not perish
Your heritage:
Christianity.
(Canto 388, verses 1-2)
Amen
Date: 1 November 1953.
Lesson
ApCsel 2,42-47