Our Darkness, His Light

A view of Earth from the dark side of the moon!

James 1:13-18

It is amazing how creative human beings can be. There is a guy out there on the internet who takes Lego sets that are supposed to form a car, or building, or even Disney character and recombines the pieces of that individual set to make a replica of a spaceship from Star Wars, the Millennium Falcon. My favorite one was recombining a set that was supposed to make Simba the Lion into the Millennium Falcon. It's wild to see how these pieces that you would think can only form one thing remade to form something else entirely well beyond the vision of Lego.

Now this is a fun thing to do with a toy, but it can be a very dangerous thing to do when it comes to the Bible. We can tend to take pieces of Biblical concepts and arrange them in such a way as to make them say what we want or make them say what we think they should say.

A perfect example of this is taking a "logical" approach to what we saw last time. God is the one who brings trials into our lives to produce steadfastness leading to maturity. Well and good, but what happens when we take that concept and apply it to one of our greatest trials, our own temptations to sin? Does God bring temptation to me? And if God is the one tempting me, how on earth am I able to resist that? Therefore, in this logic, God is responsible for my sin, and (most critically) I am not. That seems perfectly logical! You can even make that argument that the word for trial and temptation is the same Greek word! HA! Logic and linguistics finally giving us the freedom to give into temptation, right? The problem is that isn't Biblical. That isn't how the pieces fit together. That is trying to build the Lego set by tearing out one page of the instruction book and claiming that is the whole book. And contrary to the Lego movie, you need the instruction book, the whole instruction book.

Fortunately, James goes on in verses 13-18 to lay out for us some critical theology to see how these pieces were designed to fit together. We can't make a Millennium Falcon out of this. We have to build in the reality of what God has made.

So today we are going to see how three pieces fit together: God, Sin (the Biblical word for breaking God's commandments), and Us. We will see three things: God is not the maker of sin. We are the makers of sin. And finally, God is the maker of Good and life.

God is not the maker of sin

Verse 13 tells us very plainly what we are not supposed to do. Here comes another command, "Don't blame God for your sin." Why? James could have just said, "Because God said so." That actually would have been enough and in other places (Romans 9) that is exactly what the answer is. But James goes on to gives us the "why": It is not in God's nature to tempt because He cannot be tempted with evil. He is untemptable.

Let's put it this way. Let's say that you told me, Mark, you are not allowed to flap your arms to fly. I would not be tempted to do that. Why? Because it is not in my human nature to fly unassisted. I don't have wings to generate lift, and even if I did, by bones are too thick to do it. It isn't in my nature.

In a similar way, God cannot sin, and therefore cannot tempt others to sin. For to tempt others to sin would, in fact be, a sin. Matthew 18:6, from the mouth of Jesus, "but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Causing people to sin is a sin, therefore, God cannot do it.

We are the makers of sin.

So where does temptation to sin come from then? James has the simple yet convicting answer: It comes from our own evil desires. James uses language from fishing to describe how this process works, we are lured and enticed, dragged away and baited by our own desires. We want to sin, and when we see the opportunity to, we take it. There is no one else to blame.

It is like a student blaming a good teacher for his own failure of a test. The test is designed to show the student what they know. The material has been clearly presented, the reality of testing communicated beforehand. There is no excuse. God in a similar way has told us that testing is coming. We have been told how to approach it: by praying to God for wisdom, and as we will see later in the letter, acting on what has been revealed in His law. The tests of life are opportunities to see not just what we know, but who we are.

This week I was in a late meeting, came home, and forgot to take up the trash, thus missing the truck. That is a pretty simple test. The reaction should have been a recommitment to remembering better, instead the reaction was anger at the meeting and everyone else in my household for not taking up the trash. My desires to be better than anyone else and the desire to express the anger that is in my led me to sin. The trash pickup was not inherently risky to sin. That test showed what was in my heart, pride and anger.

What's worse, is the text goes on to show that not only does my desire to sin lead to sin (and desire to sin is sin itself as we see in the Sermon on the Mount. One commentator points out that James isn't trying to give us a comprehensive treatise on sin, just showing us where it is coming from), it ultimately brings forth death.

God is the maker of life

So thankfully the story does not stop there. Verse 16 tells us not to be deceived. Sin comes from me not God, because God not only doesn't tempt, but He is the ultimate source of all God things. He is the Father of Lights which commentators seem to agree that this title means He is the creator of the sun, moon, and stars. Yet, unlike these heavenly bodies which are always moving around and more or less visible, God doesn't change. He doesn't wake up one day and decide that He is going to be evil. He is Good and will always be Good.

Further, He has decided to do something with us. Unlike sin which brings forth death, God brings forth (same word) our salvation, our spiritual life! The Word of truth is a phrase often associated with the gospel to change our hearts. This is done to make us the "first fruits" or the first signs of harvest. When you would grow something, the first round of produce hinted at more to come. And that is what we are. We are human beings slowly changing from people who give into evil temptation all the time to people who become more and more steadfast under trial and testing. Sin is losing, and if sin is the parent of death, that means death is also losing. And if death is losing, then there is a hope for the rest of the world of eventual restoration, away from curse, away from death.

Application

So, every time a test comes before you, there is an opportunity for you to make that test a display of sin or a display of steadfastness. That steadfastness is going to come through dependance on the One Who cannot sin and did not sin when He was in the world. And every time you successfully resist the impulse to sin it isn't just a yay you. It is a celebration for the rest of the world that sin and death are losing. Every time we don't fight for our selfish way, every time we care for our neighbors, love our spouse and siblings, it plants the flag of God's kingdom further into enemy territory, declares war over death itself, and glorifies the God of good and life Who rose again!