Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

the Law of God, in terms of both its sum (Love) and its substance (Ten
Commandments).
Of course, the unspoken implication, further verbalized in James 4:11-
12, is rather self-evident. If no case law can be formulated, God permits believers
to conduct their affairs in the full freedom of their dominion taking as
the image of God and at the same time forbids them to encroach on the freedom
of others to do the same. Such freedom is never curtailed by their heavenly
Father, nor may it be curtailed by their fellow believers by means of a
suggested, but non-existent guilt trip. That this is dominion taking under God
and not a free-for-all, is something that James addresses later in terms of an
additional universal principle (Jam. 4:13-16).
But all this is only half of James 2, and therefore only half of the story.
Once the scope and content of practical godliness is principially in clear view
as obedience to God’s law in terms of its sum and substance, the question
arises, what would it take to set the Church in motion and to turn such practical
godliness into a living, pulsating, awe-inspiring reality?
Enter faith in the second half of the Chapter as the complement of the
first! Truthfully, in the second half of James 2 the author is not simply putting
up a neat abstract theological edifice, that insists on “the unity between faith
and action,” by defining “the precise relationship between faith and practice”
(Keddie, 109), however true this may be. Neither is James merely after a
mental nod of agreement, an assent that genuine faith is authenticated by subsequent
godly activity, and similarly that genuine justification is authenticated
by subsequent obedient action. Neither does he only draw some negative parameters,
to which everyone should adhere. “Folks, let us clear the decks of
‘any and all notions that there is such an animal’ as ‘faith in a vacuum,’ ‘dead
faith.’ It does not exist! And once you have enthusiastically settled this in
your mind, you can revert to your daily routine!”
While there is (much) more than a kernel of truth in all this, in the context
of James’ grand architecture this is too pedestrian, if not too “tame.” No,
James’ deepest aim is to make it crystal clear that faith is powerfully emotive.
It is an engine with lots of horsepower! It is a rocket with the necessary and
sufficient thrust to put the payload of practical godliness into an awesome orbit.
In fact, it is so powerful that without any hesitation and reservation the
believer cheerfully puts his son’s life on the line in obedience to God (Abraham),
and joyfully puts even her own life at risk for the sake of the Kingdom
of God (Rahab). It may be said with more than some justification that no one
may, or should, claim to be a son/daughter of “the father of all believers”
(Rom. 4:11), or akin to “the mother of Jesus” (Mt. 1:14) for that matter, who
either refuses or fails to follow in their footsteps in total and radical identifi-
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