The Biggest Story Holy Bible
The Biggest Story Holy Bible
Despite Having Few References to Jesus, the Book of James Is Remarkably Christological
Explicit References to Jesus
Unlike Paul’s letters, the letter of James has few explicit references to the person of Jesus. As we explore the Christological nature of the letter, it seems advisable to start with the two passages where James unambiguously mentions Jesus by name.
In James 1:1, the author of the epistle identifies himself as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Several things are noteworthy about James’s reference. Jesus is identified with the title “Lord” (kyrios). Although “Lord” can be used as a title of polite address (similar to “sir” in modern English; see, e.g., John 4:11), the context of James 1:1 indicates that the author is using “Lord” as an exalted title. Jesus is a Lord whose followers are his slaves or servants, implying his authority and majesty in the spiritual realm. Furthermore, James calls himself one of these slaves/servants (i.e., a doulos) of this Lord, putting himself in both a place of submission and delegated representation. Because James was also a son of Mary, for him to identify himself as a slave/servant of his half brother was to recognize that Jesus was much more than a gifted rabbi (cf. 2 Cor. 5:16).
In James 1:1, Jesus is also called the Christ (Christos). Christos is a translation of the Hebrew word for “Messiah” and means “a person anointed” (by God). Scholars debate whether “Christ” always retains its titular sense in the New Testament or whether for some authors it almost functions like a second proper name of Jesus.1 Regardless of one’s conclusions about this question in other texts, it is unthinkable that the Jewish audience to which James wrote would not have understood a titular nuance to “Christ.”
Living Faith
Robert L. Plummer
Living Faith expounds on the predominant themes of the book of James to provide readers with a deeper understanding of this beloved letter and its important relevance for Christian life.
In the Old Testament, different classes of persons were anointed to set them apart for God-ordained tasks, most notably priests (Ex. 29:7), kings (1 Sam. 10:1), and prophets (1 Kings 19:16). Despite these anointings, Old Testament authors expected a preeminent anointed one would eventually arrive (Isa. 42:1–4; Dan. 9:25)—an anointed one who would perfectly fulfill the priestly, kingly, and prophetic duties that forerunners had only anticipated and approximated. Jesus is that promised anointed one (Messiah/Christ); and in James’s application of that title to Jesus, the apostle affirms the multifaceted biblical expectations for that role. To call Jesus both “Lord” and “Christ” in the opening lines of his letter is a clear affirmation of Jesus’s authority, dominion, and messianic status.
James further instructs his readers in these opening lines by putting Jesus on a parallel plane with God, implying their equality and shared majesty. Both an equality of majesty and distinction of persons is communicated. James describes himself as a servant/slave of both the Lord Jesus Christ and of God. James does not employ the nuanced language of later creeds, but the way he speaks of God lays the groundwork for later Trinitarian reflection. God (the Father) is given equal glory alongside God the Son (Jesus), who is honored with the title kyrios (Lord), a term frequently used to translate the tetragrammaton (four-letter Hebrew name for God) in the Septuagint (e.g., Isa. 40:3). The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is not mentioned here, but he is possibly appealed to later in the letter (James 4:5).2
James 2:1 includes the letter’s only other explicit reference to Jesus by name. James writes, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” Again, we see that Jesus is honored with the titles “Lord” and “Christ.” Significantly, Jesus is further identified with the title “the Lord of glory.” If there was any doubt about whether “Lord” had an exalted spiritual sense in application to Jesus, this appositional designation removes all such objections. Glory (i.e., the splendor of the divine presence) is something uniquely associated with God in the Scriptures and is only derivatively and partially experienced by God’s people. We see, for example, in Revelation 7 the heavenly hosts ascribe glory (and other divine attributes) ultimately only to God:
And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Rev. 7:11–12)
Yes, humans hope in the glory they will experience in God’s presence (Rom. 5:2) and are glorified by God (i.e., changed to reflect his glory, Rom. 8:30), but God alone is inherently glorious.
By calling Jesus “the Lord of glory,” James ascribes to Jesus dominion over the realm of glory (i.e., the realm of God’s splendor, perfection, goodness, and presence). Jesus himself is glorious and reigns as Lord over the realm of glory. Nevertheless, God the Son (Jesus) reigns in such a way that his lordship is never at odds with—and in fact only magnifies—the glory of the other members of the Trinity.
Jesus himself is glorious and reigns as Lord over the realm of glory.
Parallels Between the Letter of James and the Teachings of Jesus
Nearly every verse in the letter of James could be laid alongside a teaching of Jesus from the Gospels to demonstrate that the epistle is a faithful, though selective, recapitulation of the Lord Jesus’s instruction. Much of the letter parallels Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, but prior to investigating that frequently observed pattern, let us consider teachings of Jesus and James on the new birth.
It is common in evangelical circles to emphasize the necessity of the new birth (conversion) as an essential element of true evangelical theology.3 Indeed, one does not become a Christian by being born to Christian parents. As Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
One might query, Isn’t this teaching of Jesus a far cry from the epistle of James? Surely the letter of James is filled with moral injunctions and contains nothing about being born again, right? Absolutely not! In fact, the very same teaching about spiritual regeneration can be found clearly in James: “Of [God’s] own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). Ultimately, why are some people Christians and other people not? James tells us that the decisive reason for this spiritual divide is the will of God: “Of his own will he brought us forth.” The underlying Greek verb translated as “he brought us forth” (apekyēsen) usually refers to the physical act of giving birth, and many English translations choose to reflect this sense. For example, the NIV of James 1:18 reads, “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”
What is the instrument that brings about this spiritual birth? It is “the word of truth.” God’s “word of truth” is his declared or written word that tells us the truth about who he is, who we are, and what he has done in Jesus to save us from our sins. As this saving word is heard, the Holy Spirit brings new life to elect sinners, formerly dead in their transgressions. They are born again!
The apostle Paul similarly emphasizes the proclamation of the gospel as the means God uses to save sinners: “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom. 10:13–14, quoting Joel 2:32). The people to whom James writes had heard the gospel (i.e., “the word of truth”) and had experienced spiritual birth by the will of God. Furthermore, this new life, which they had received as a gift, was an anticipatory sign of the renewal of the entire cosmos that will happen when Jesus returns. In other words, Christians are “firstfruits”—the early part of the harvest dedicated to God that anticipates the final and complete harvest. We see, then, that a careful reading of James’s letter coheres with both Jesus’s teaching on the new birth and the apostle Paul’s teaching about salvation.
Conclusion
When Jesus walked along the Emmaus road with two unnamed disciples, Luke tells us that Jesus rebuked them:
And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25–27)
If the Old Testament is all about Jesus (and it is), then how much more is the New Testament focused on Christ! The letter of James is no exception. Admittedly, the letter has only two explicit references to Jesus by name (James 1:1; 2:1), but the whole letter pulsates with the teaching of Jesus—sometimes in nearly word-for-word quotations (e.g., Matt. 5:34–37; James 5:12). More commonly, the teaching of Jesus is selectively reported and slightly repackaged for a new generation of disciples seeking to be faithful to their Lord.
Notes:
- L. W. Hurtado writes, “Close examination of christos in Paul’s letters . . . shows that he uses the term almost as a name, or as part of the name for Jesus, and not characteristically as a title.” L. W. Hurtado, “Christ,” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, and I. Howard Marshall (InterVarsity Press, 1992), 108.
- Douglas Moo offers this balanced analysis of James 4:5: “It is not clear whether James thinks of ‘the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’ as the Holy Spirit given to believers, or as God’s creative spirit by which he has invigorated humankind (Gen. 2:7). Perhaps the latter is slightly more likely, however, since James never elsewhere refers to the Holy Spirit.” Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James, PNTC (Eerdmans, 2000), 190. Favoring a different interpretation, The NET Bible note on James 4:5 reads, “Interpreters debate the referent of the word ‘spirit’ in this verse: (1) The [NET] translation takes ‘spirit’ to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1–4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18–25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand, the word ‘spirit’ may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, ‘God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.’ But the word for ‘envious’ or ‘jealous’ is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation.
- David W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History form the 1730s to the 1980s (Routledge, 1989), 1–19.
This article is adapted from Living Faith: A Theology of James by Robert L. Plummer.
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