The Heart of a Christian: Living for Christ

…Note how James refers to God the Son. In referring to Jesus as “the Lord Jesus Christ,” he is reminding the reader that our Savior was both man and God. A point of interest is what the name means. The name Christ comes from the Latin Christus and the Greek Christos. When literally translated, Christ means anointed, but as Christians, it means so much more to us. It reminds us that He is the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament and on whom the Holy Spirit descended at His baptism. Matthew 1:21 says, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this makes evident to us that James speaks of one who is the divine and sovereign ruler, the promised and anointed Messiah, and who, being God, has supreme authority. He is the fulfillment of God’s promises to His people in the Old Testament. He is God incarnate, as shown in John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, and James will teach us what it means to be called a Christian. James begins his letter in a significant way. He tells his readers that he is a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is quite important. Right away, it tells us something about Christian living. As a servant to God, James is saying that he is bound to God, bound to obey, and bound to serve Him. By saying this, he is implying that although he used to be a slave to sin, he has been bought by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and now is a slave of God. If we turn to the book of Romans, Paul talks about what this means in chapter 6:6. He tells us, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” He goes on to say in Romans 6:16, 18, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? . . . You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” As slaves to righteousness and God, we are to serve Him and not ourselves. Our focus ought to be on what God has commanded us. We were bought at a price and now belong to God. We are to be obedient, exclusively and completely subject and devoted to God’s will, and totally dependent on God for all things. By starting with this emphasis in his greeting, James is telling the reader that he can only do what God has sent him to do, which is to proclaim the true gospel. The reader can be assured by this greeting, but also reminded that they, too, ought to be slaves to God. It is with this knowledge that James will go on to explain how we ought to live this life.…