The Crown Of Life
Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 23rd November service and hymns are below.
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Our principal verses are:
Jas 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
The Crown Of Life
Here is a striking contrast made by James under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He speaks of the blessedness that leads to life and the waywardness that leads to death. He speaks of a single man, ‘blessed is the man that endureth temptation’ and ‘let no man say when he is tempted’. However, we may think of this man as every believer for we all are tried by affliction and tested by hardship. How shall we react? We all are tempted to sin by the lust of the flesh, which sin, but for God’s grace, ‘when it is finished, bringeth forth death’.
The old man and the new
We have already established the important fact that James is speaking to believers in this epistle. He addresses his readers as brethren and speaks of ‘your faith’. Yet there is much in this epistle calculated to rebuke and correct us as well as to embolden the Lord’s people to withstand sin. Every believer has two natures. There is the old man of the flesh and the new man of the spirit. Every believer houses a fleshy nature and a spiritual nature which are, like a company of two armies, constantly at war.
Two responses
When trials and temptations are encountered our new man and our old man react differently to the same stimuli. The new man employs the trial to honour the Lord, the old man exploits the temptation to indulge the lust of the flesh. The new man learns patience, dependence and meekness from the testing of his faith. The old man uncovers deep-rooted passions and stirs up lust to incite sin by which to attack the new man and disrupt the work of Christ in our lives.
A beatitude
Verse twelve opens with a beatitude. When James says, ‘blessed is the man’ he is speaking of the blessed state of those who overcome in the strength of Christ so as to endure with profit the trials and afflictions the Lord sends to sieve the dross from our lives and test our faith. Being blessed of God enables believers eventually to withstand the evil day, even when individual battles are lost and we feel as though our soul has been taken captive by Satan. In the fiery furnace of adversity all who are blessed of the Lord first suffer, then surmount, the refiner’s flame. To such belongs the crown of life and victory, the prize of the overcomer.
A contrary response
But James goes on to warn against the workings of the old man who seeks, at Satan’s instigation, to overwhelm the child of God. The old man meets the same adversities of the flesh as does the new man but with a completely different attitude and aim. What the Lord employs to deepen the faith of the new man the old man deploys to entice lust and provoke sin. Thus, the self-same trial produces conflicting effects in the soul of the Lord’s people. It is both an occasion for good and an opportunity for evil.
Finding fault
The apostle has a second warning. Knowing the duplicity of the old man he anticipates and condemns the argument that if trials and ‘divers temptations’ emanate from God for the strengthening of our faith then God must also be held accountable if those trials produce evil. This James roundly denies. God can neither be tempted nor does He tempt any man to sin. Our Lord tests our faith to strengthen it. If the old man hijacks the trial to provoke to lust it is that man who must be blamed. It is ‘his own lust’ that entices, conceives and brings forth sin.
A powerful enemy
How perverse is the old man and how effective his machinations would be if the Lord Jesus did not strengthen us in the new man, defend us against Satan and teach us by His apostles to understand His gospel. How helpless we would be if the Lord left us alone for a moment. How hopeless if Jesus did not take our sin and answer in the court of heaven for every fall into temptation. There is in every believer that part of our nature that is unrenewed which will and must go on sinning and contending against the new creation. God’s grace alone protects and delivers us from the wiles of the devil and the hostility of the old man by causing our faith to grow and by increasing our wisdom in spiritual things.
A crown of promise
Every trial that besets a believer has the potential to deepen our faith or provoke us to sin according to the battle that persists. Our old nature cannot be reformed, it has to be destroyed. It will be destroyed when this body of flesh is laid down in death. This is the believer’s great expectation. The blessed new man will be victorious in the end. He will overcome by the power of Christ. He will be nurtured by the word, nourished by preaching, strengthened by fellowship, encouraged by prayer and worship. In the end he will receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Amen
Hymn 556
The Name of the Lord. Exod. 33. 19; 34. 6
W. Gadsby S.M.
1
The Lord proclaims his name;
And sinners hear his voice;
His mercy ever stands the same,
And we’ll in him rejoice.
2
His name is gracious still,
And freely he bestows
The bounty of his sovereign will,
On all who feel their woes.
3
His patience long endures,
And savèd sinners know,
A God, long-suffering, still restores
Their joy and peace below.
4
The thousands whom he loves
He pardons and forgives,
Their persons he in Christ approves,
And will while Jesus lives.
5
Lord, help us to believe,
And make thy name our choice;
Thy mercy freely to us give,
And we’ll in thee rejoice.
Hymn 974
“Seek peace.” Ps. 34. 14; Rom. 12. 18
T. Kelly L.M.
1
While contests rend the Christian church,
O may I live the friend of peace;
The sacred mine of Scripture search,
And learn from man, vain man, to cease.
2
O teach me, Lord, thy truth to know,
And separate from all beside;
This I would guard from every foe,
Nor fear the issue to abide.
3
But keep me, Lord, from party zeal,
That seeks its own and not thy praise;
This temper I would never feel,
Or when I do, would own it base.
4
Be mine to recommend thy grace,
That sinners may believe and live;
That they who live may run the race,
And then a crown of life receive.
5
Lord, search my heart; O search me through!
Detect, destroy what’s not thy own;
Whene’er I speak, whate’er I do,
O may I seek thy praise alone.
The old man and the new man in the nature of every believer battle for supremacy and cause us to trust the Lord more and more. The trials and temptations of life are our occasion to trust Christ more but they also supply the devil with an opportunity to stir up the old man to sin.