Akin Daniel L. - Exalting Jesus In James

Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary: Exalting Jesus in James

Copyright 2014 by David Platt

B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-8054-9657-4

Dewey Decimal Classification: 220.7

Subject Heading: BIBLE. N.T. JAMESCOMMENTARIES \
JESUS CHRIST

Unless otherwise stated all Scripture citations are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible , copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009
by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles,
a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.
All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

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VP

Acknowledgments

T his commentary is the fruit of Gods grace in the lives of many brothers and sisters. I am especially grateful to God for Cory Varden, who consistently and graciously serves alongside me, and David Burnette, who has taken my sermon manuscripts and edited them for the chapters of this commentary. I am ever grateful to God for Heather as well as Caleb, Joshua, Mara Ruth, and Isaiah; I am blessed beyond measure with the family He has entrusted to me. And I am deeply grateful to God for The Church at Brook Hills, a faith family who eagerly opened their Bibles every week not only to hear but also to obey the voice of God in James for the glory of God among the nations.

David Platt

Series Introduction

A ugustine said, Where Scripture speaks, God speaks. The editors of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series believe that where God speaks, the pastor must speak. God speaks through His written Word. We must speak from that Word. We believe the Bible is God breathed, authoritative, inerrant, sufficient, understandable, necessary, and timeless. We also affirm that the Bible is a Christ-centered book; that is, it contains a unified story of redemptive history of which Jesus is the hero. Because of this Christ-centered trajectory that runs from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22, we believe the Bible has a corresponding global-missions thrust. From beginning to end, we see Gods mission as one of making worshipers of Christ from every tribe and tongue worked out through this redemptive drama in Scripture. To that end we must preach the Word.

In addition to these distinct convictions, the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series has some distinguishing characteristics. First, this series seeks to display exegetical accuracy. What the Bible says is what we want to say. While not every volume in the series will be a verse-by-verse commentary, we nevertheless desire to handle the text carefully and explain it rightly. Those who teach and preach bear the heavy responsibility of saying what God has said in His Word and declaring what God has done in Christ. We desire to handle Gods Word faithfully, knowing that we must give an account for how we have fulfilled this holy calling (Jas 3:1).

Second, the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series has pastors in view. While we hope others will read this series, such as parents, teachers, small-group leaders, and student ministers, we desire to provide a commentary busy pastors will use for weekly preparation of biblically faithful and gospel-saturated sermons. This series is not academic in nature. Our aim is to present a readable and pastoral style of commentaries. We believe this aim will serve the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Third, we want the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series to be known for the inclusion of helpful illustrations and theologically driven applications. Many commentaries offer no help in illustrations, and few offer any kind of help in application. Often those that do offer illustrative material and application unfortunately give little serious attention to the text. While giving ourselves primarily to explanation, we also hope to serve readers by providing inspiring and illuminating illustrations coupled with timely and timeless application.

Finally, as the name suggests, the editors seek to exalt Jesus from every book of the Bible. In saying this, we are not commending wild allegory or fanciful typology. We certainly believe we must be constrained to the meaning intended by the divine Author Himself, the Holy Spirit of God. However, we also believe the Bible has a messianic focus, and our hope is that the individual authors will exalt Christ from particular texts. Luke 24:25-27,44-47 and John 5:39,46 inform both our hermeneutics and our homiletics. Not every author will do this the same way or have the same degree of Christ-centered emphasis. That is fine with us. We believe faithful exposition that is Christ centered is not monolithic. We do believe, however, that we must read the whole Bible as Christian Scripture. Therefore, our aim is both to honor the historical particularity of each biblical passage and to highlight its intrinsic connection to the Redeemer.

The editors are indebted to the contributors of each volume. The reader will detect a unique style from each writer, and we celebrate these unique gifts and traits. While distinctive in their approaches, the authors share a common characteristic in that they are pastoral theologians. They love the church, and they regularly preach and teach Gods Word to Gods people. Further, many of these contributors are younger voices. We think these new, fresh voices can serve the church well, especially among a rising generation that has the task of proclaiming the Word of Christ and the Christ of the Word to the lost world.

We hope and pray this series will serve the body of Christ well in these ways until our Savior returns in glory. If it does, we will have succeeded in our assignment.

David Platt

Daniel L. Akin

Tony Merida

Series Editors

February 2013

Faith Perseveres

James 1:1-18

Main Idea: Trials and temptations are both inevitable, and God intends both to deepen our faith.

I.Why James?

A.To examine the relationship between faith and works

B.To explore the impact of our faith on

1.life in this city

2.life in this world

II.Why Trials and Temptations?

A.God is sovereign over our trials (1:2-12).

1.We learn to grow in His likeness.

2.We learn to trust in His wisdom.

3.We learn to rely on His resources.

4.We learn to live for His reward.

B.We are responsible in our temptations (1:13-15).

1.The origin of sin

a.God is perfectly sinless.

b.We are utterly sinful.

2.The anatomy of sin

a.Step one: deception

b.Step two: desire

c.Step three: disobedience

d.Step four: death

C.God is faithful for our salvation (1:16-18).

1.His goodness is unchanging.

2.His goodness is undeserved.

3.His goodness is unending.

a.He has saved us from our sin.

b.He will see us through our sorrow.

I ts probably much easier to draw a crowd by preaching on the next and coolest topic that appeals to us, but what happens in the process is we start taking the parts of the Bible we like, tailoring it to what we want to hear, and creating a Christianity that appeals to us. We inevitably ignore the tough parts of the Bible, the parts of the Bible that confront us, the parts that cause us to change. Or we twist them out of context to fit our lifestyles.

The book of James is one of those tough and sometimes uncomfortable books. So why study James? Some background and context will be helpful in answering that question.

Why James?

The author of this book is most likely the James who was the half brother of Jesus. Acts 15 and 21 both indicate that James was the leader of the church in Jerusalem. James writes this book predominantly to Jewish Christians who were once associated with the church in Jerusalem. In Gods providence, according to Acts 8, these Christians had been scattered when Stephen was martyred. This is why James opens the book, James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then immediately begins to address the theme of trials and suffering.