Law / Gospel Distinction: Sermon 4 (Getting James 2:14-26 Right!)

In this video, Presbyterian author Monty Collier preaches on James 2:14-26, which is a passage that teaches how one person demonstrates to another that he or she has a credible profession of faith. There are many important lessons in this passage concerning Law/Gospel Distinction.

While this passage in James is an important teaching concerning the subject of the Christian life (i.e., sanctification in its wide sense), it has been continuously misread and misinterpreted by Roman Catholics, Lordship Salvation proponents, advocates of Federal Vision, and other heretics to teach a false gospel of justification by faith and works.

When the preachers of salvation by grace and works do this, then they are guilty of confounding justification with sanctification. When the wolves, for example, misinterpret James 2:14-26 and mix the Law and the Gospel, they logically contradict Romans 3:28 and Galatians 2:16. Whenever one's interpretation contradicts some other part of the Bible, then that person's interpretation is necessarily wrong.

Mr. Collier points out that Roman Catholics and their friends equivocate on two key words in this passage in an attempt to make it say that we are justified by faith and works. Equivocation occurs when a word that has various meanings is understood differently than what its context dictates. Context rules in the interpretation of Scripture, and those who think James 2:14-26 teaches salvation by grace and works are guilty of taking those two key words out of their proper context. The two main words Papists mess up on are 'justified' and 'faith.'

James 2:14-16 teaches justification before men (Coram Mundo), that is, how one person justifies (warrants) to another that his profession of faith is credible. The passage does not teach justification before God (Coram Deo), that is, how God justifies (acquits) a sinner from his sins, pronouncing that sinner legally righteous, based solely on the life and death of Jesus Christ for that sinner.

Mr. Collier also explains how James 2:19 is misinterpreted by Papists and Lordship Salvation heretics in an attempt to claim that believing the Gospel is not sufficient to justify. The Papist claim is that devils believe the Gospel and tremble, but the verse says no such thing. The verse merely says that devils believe there is one God (monotheism). The verse never says—in fact, no verse in the Bible ever says—that devils believe the Gospel. The devils tremble because they believe the promise of the Law, which tells us that all who sin against God merit eternal condemnation. It is the Law that causes sinners to tremble, not the Gospel. Those who believe the Gospel, who believe Christ died for their sins, have peace with God and joy everlasting. The Gospel causes believers to be of good cheer, for their sins are forgiven. It is clear, then, that devils tremble before the Law, for they know Christ did NOT die for their sins. The Papist claim that belief in the Gospel is not enough is based on a lie.

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