Episode Transcript
Justin: James' aim in encouraging people to confess their sins to one another - that's obviously a corporate dynamic where we, as the body of Christ, corporately are confessing our sins to one another and then praying for one another that you may be healed. Again, that healing language is clearly a spiritual principle.
We pray this for ourselves a lot, Jon. I know I pray this personally, and then I pray it often publicly in our congregation. I know you do too. We ask for mercy from the Lord, and we ask that he would take away the shame and the guilt, and the fear that we carry around with us all the time. Because our conscience accuses us, the enemy accuses us, there are a lot of darts flying at us, and we're mindful of our sin and we can be wrecked and affected by that. And so the healing we're talking about is the freedom and restoration that the Lord gives to us as we apprehend Christ for us and what that means in terms of our forgiveness and our liberation, and the fact that we don't need to worry anymore about the sins of yesterday or the sins of this morning. We are free in Christ to pursue righteousness now.
My goodness, brother, I want these things. I trust others feel the same. We need to keep saying these things and putting these words in our mouths so that we would believe them, we would trust them, and we would feel them.
Jon: Justin, you know when you and I either are weak or we have epically faceplanted in sin and we just feel disgusted and ashamed, when you're in that moment, do you want to go talk to somebody who is going to be a hardened judge? It's just going to make you feel worse. Or do you want to talk to somebody who maybe understands and is sympathetic towards your position?
Justin: The latter.
Jon: Yes! Justin, you and I do this when we fail and falter. We struggle even in our own marriages. There are times we call each other because we know Justin's going to be sympathetic to my position here because he struggles with this too. But Justin always points me back to the grace of God. Well, this is what's amazing about Hebrews four. It says we have a high priest, the one who we are supposed to talk to who is sympathetic. And what that means is that not only does he understand, but he wants to hear you talk about it.
So you can go in and say, “All right, Lord, this is how I've completely faceplanted. I completely just botched this,” or “I am weak and in need, and I know that you actually care and you are compassionate to hear what I have to say.” That is so powerful. I do believe that is what James is going after.
He says, “Listen, you who are sinning, you can trust in the power of the righteous position you are in.” This is why he says, “Hey, just so you guys know, Elijah had a nature, like ours, weak and sinful, and he prayed, and God heard him.”
Justin: So if he was fallen like you, and he was able to pray and it didn't rain for three and a half years, you certainly - fallen as you are - can pray for each other. You can confess your sins and you can pray and you will be healed and you will be restored and God will give mercy and grace in your time of need.
Everyday Grace 007
