Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment - a podcast by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

Sermon preached on James 2:8-13 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/07/2021 in Novato, CA.















Sermon Manuscript







Our text for today further develops last week’s passage which spoke against sinful partiality.  It also serves as a transition to the next passage which will call us to be showing mercy to the poor.  Indeed such a call to mercy is raised in this passage as we see so wonderfully summarized at the end with the glorious affirmation, “Mercy triumphs over judgment!”







Our first point then for today will be to talk about this “royal law” mentioned in verse 8.  He describes this royal law in this context of condemning sinful partiality.  He summarizes what this royal law is with the call to, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  We should immediately recall that Jesus taught in the gospels that this was the second greatest commandment, with the first being to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.  Jesus said that on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40).  And in a similar way, he at another time spoke of the golden rule as a summary itself of the all law and the prophets – the golden rule being, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12).  So then, we can see why James might highlight Jesus’ teaching on love for neighbor when summarizing the law.







But what are we to understand from the adjective “royal”?  Why does James call this the royal law?  This is the only place in Scripture that the God’s law is called the royal law.  Some interpreters take the word royal here in the sense of “supreme” or “chief”.  In other words, they think James is simply recognizing that the overarching call for the love of neighbor as of the status of one of the greatest of the commandments.  While that is true in itself, I would want to not miss the immediate nuance of this word “royal”.  In the Greek, this word royal is the same Greek root as the words for king and kingdom.  Like in English, this word “royal” makes you think of king and kingdom.  And so, I wouldn’t want to miss that imagery here.  In fact, the context would encourage us to recognize that.  Just go back 3 verses.  It spoke there of the Christian’s hope that we are heirs of the kingdom.  Jesus himself repeatedly spoke of his gospel message about how to be a part of his kingdom.  So then, James can summarize Jesus’ teaching on righteousness in terms of a royal law.  This is kingdom ethics.  It’s the law of the kingdom to come in King Jesus.







To clarify, I’m not saying that this kingdom law is substantively different than the moral law given under the Old Testament.  It’s not.  But by putting it in such terms it really drives home its relevance for the Christian whose hope is in the coming of the kingdom.  The ethics of the kingdom to come call us to the righteousness of God which can be summarized even in our horizontal obligation to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Indeed, Jesus spoke much on this call to love our neighbor, and even challenged God’s people on whom all we should consider as our neighbor.  As those who are heirs of Christ’s kingdom, this law is our law.  The royal law is kingdom law.  It’s the king’s law.  And thus it’s especially to be the law we embrace as those made citizens of that kingdom in King Jesus.  Let me also say it in these terms.  James has been getting us to think of the ramifications of our faith.  Well, our Christian faith has a law to guide our living.  Our Christian faith embraces this law of Christ given to us for our obedience.

Further episodes of Reformed Sermons and Sunday Schools at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Petaluma, CA

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