Nov. 21, 2024

James 1:19-27 A New Interpretation Pt 2

James 1:19-27 A New Interpretation Pt 2

An attempt to build a new interpretation of James 1:19-27

An attempt to build a new interpretation of James 1:19-27

WEBVTT

1
00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:05.919
Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

2
00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:12.839
the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone.

3
00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:16.679
It is Thursday, November the twenty first, twenty twenty four.

4
00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:21.280
It is currently eleven forty four am Central Time, and

5
00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:24.199
I am coming to you live from the Theology Central

6
00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:29.160
studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Maybe I should

7
00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:33.600
call this the Theology Central laboratory, right, This is where

8
00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:37.159
I do experiments to try to come up with a

9
00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:41.719
brand new interpretation and then finally I say it's a

10
00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:45.240
live Okay, maybe that's a little bit. Okay, Yeah, I'm

11
00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:47.719
kind of borrowing from Frankenstein. Okay, never mind, never mind,

12
00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:51.240
never mind. But yes, I do, in a sense kind

13
00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:54.359
of see sometimes this studio as a laboratory where I'm

14
00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:57.840
working and trying to look at this interpretation and this

15
00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:01.320
interpretation and then try to consider this and question this

16
00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:04.200
and challenge this, and we try to formulate this. And

17
00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:06.760
so that's what we're currently doing. We're trying to come

18
00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:11.959
up with a new interpretation of James Chapter one, verses

19
00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:15.280
nineteen through twenty seven. And the reason we're trying to

20
00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:19.760
come up with a new interpretation is because I have

21
00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:24.120
a problem with every interpretation I've stumbled upon up to

22
00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:26.959
this very moment, and that's going all the way back

23
00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.640
to the early Church. We looked at how the early

24
00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:36.319
Church understood this section problematic. We reviewed a sermon problematic.

25
00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:40.480
So far, everything I've stumbled upon has been problematic. So

26
00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:42.439
I think we have to continue to do work. So

27
00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:44.480
I told you to get a brand new notebook, right,

28
00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:51.079
and not just a pencil. You need an entire box

29
00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:54.599
of pencils. In fact, you need two boxes of pencils.

30
00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:58.760
In fact, you need you need three boxes a pencil.

31
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.040
I have three. I have three, ladies and gentlemen, boxes

32
00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:05.879
of pencils right here. Three. I don't know if you

33
00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:09.240
can hear that. Yes, that's how many boxes of pencils

34
00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:11.759
you need. At a minimum three. You probably should have five.

35
00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:14.280
You should have five boxes of pencils at any time, right,

36
00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:16.479
And you probably need two or three notebooks because we

37
00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:19.039
have a lot of work to do, and I've invited

38
00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:22.000
you to be a part of this. Right, So I've

39
00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:25.879
told you to start reading James one nineteen through twenty seven,

40
00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:27.400
over and over and over and over and over and

41
00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:29.560
over and over and over and over again. That's always

42
00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:32.639
the key, right, if you really want to start, if

43
00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:35.800
you really want to start an in depth Bible study,

44
00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:38.159
you've got to start doing the work. I mean, so

45
00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:40.680
many people I think like the idea of Bible study

46
00:02:41.080 --> 00:02:43.000
that don't like the work that is involved. But you've

47
00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:44.400
got to read it and read it and read it.

48
00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:49.000
You can start listening to sermons on it. That's something

49
00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:52.159
you can do. And so I hope and hopefully I've

50
00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:54.280
already kind of told you some things to work on.

51
00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:57.000
You could work on an observational outline on James one

52
00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:00.599
nineteen through twenty seven. You could do a book background

53
00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:03.199
study on the entire book of James, so you have

54
00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:07.319
the historical context. There's a lot of things you could do, right, So,

55
00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:10.280
but I hope you're ready what we have done so far.

56
00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:12.759
Let me kind of take you for what we have

57
00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:15.599
done so far and where we're going In this episode,

58
00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:19.360
I'm trying to break this attempt to build this new

59
00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:24.680
interpretation into smaller segments. That was that's what I said

60
00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:26.759
I was going to do, break it into smaller segments.

61
00:03:26.759 --> 00:03:30.319
But then if you look at yesterday, the first episode

62
00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:34.479
went an over an hour long. So yeah, but I

63
00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:37.280
mean it's work ladies and gentlemen. It's a lot of work.

64
00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:40.159
So here's what we did, if you think about it.

65
00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.960
The first episode we did is I was just reviewing

66
00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:48.919
random sermons, and I reviewed a random sermon entitled Law

67
00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:54.439
of Liberty by Brandon Neely right, and you can listen

68
00:03:54.439 --> 00:03:57.080
to that episode. We didn't review that much of it,

69
00:03:57.319 --> 00:04:00.400
but he started explaining what he thought. In fact, the

70
00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:04.879
key things in that sermon was how he handled James

71
00:04:04.919 --> 00:04:08.199
Chapter one, verse twenty one, where we read these words,

72
00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:12.360
wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and

73
00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:17.240
receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to

74
00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:20.720
save your souls. So we noted how he understood and

75
00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:25.000
grafted word, and then over in verse twenty five. But

76
00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:29.199
whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty? So what

77
00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:32.600
we focused on is how he was interpreting the ungrafted

78
00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:36.160
word and law of liberty, and to kind of just

79
00:04:36.279 --> 00:04:40.160
summarize it, he saw that the ingrafted word was the

80
00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:43.600
Old Testament law, the Old Testament law, and that the

81
00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:47.480
law of liberty was basically was so whenever you take

82
00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:49.879
the Old Testament law and the law of liberty, Just

83
00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:51.879
to kind of simplify it. He kind of saw them

84
00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:54.480
as the same thing. That the law of liberty somehow

85
00:04:54.519 --> 00:04:57.000
was the ingrafted word, which is the Old Testament law,

86
00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:00.000
and that law brings us liberty if we will say

87
00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:04.079
obey it, we bring liberty, and we just obey the

88
00:05:04.120 --> 00:05:06.079
world that we just obey the law of God. And

89
00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:09.839
so the entire kind of primise was the law of

90
00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:12.079
God will free you. The law of God will set

91
00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:16.360
you free. You should obey it, and you can obey

92
00:05:16.519 --> 00:05:19.439
the law of God, which of course we have talked

93
00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:23.000
about countless times. So I immediately have a problem with

94
00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:27.040
that entire interpretation because I don't believe we can obey

95
00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:29.759
the law of God. So then we went through Church history.

96
00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:35.040
Church history gave us the ungrafted word was. Some said

97
00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:37.560
it was the Old Testament law, some said it was

98
00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:41.199
the Gospel, some said it's just the scriptures. In general,

99
00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:43.920
the law of liberty had something to do with Christ,

100
00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:47.240
maybe fulfilling the law. The law of liberty was maybe

101
00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:51.040
the law of Christ. But even throughout Church history, the

102
00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:57.439
same thing, basically, the same basic premise basically came from

103
00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:01.319
their interpretations, which is obey the law. You can do

104
00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:04.959
the law you've been changed, you'll be transformed. You can

105
00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:08.680
do it. And so none of the none of their

106
00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:13.759
interpretations really accounted for some just basic facts. Right, nobody

107
00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:16.720
can keep the law. The law says be holy as

108
00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:19.240
He is holy. Nobody can do that. So that means

109
00:06:19.240 --> 00:06:22.079
I'm not set free. That doesn't mean I have is

110
00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:24.519
because if I'm set free from sin, well then I

111
00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:26.279
should be able to be holy as God is holy.

112
00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:29.120
If I can't, then I'm obviously not free. And if

113
00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:31.439
you say I have the power of God to help

114
00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:35.399
me obey the law of God, well then why can't

115
00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:38.040
the power of God get me to perfect obedience? See,

116
00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:41.519
there's this weird contradiction. And we talked about that a

117
00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:43.680
lot in the last episode. You can go listen to that.

118
00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:48.319
So we went through all of that. We reviewed that,

119
00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:51.639
and we reviewed how church history has looked at it.

120
00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:54.519
I know, that's like a simple, simple, simple, simple, simple,

121
00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:58.800
over simplification and reviewing everything we've covered so far. But

122
00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:00.959
I'm not going to go back all of this. So

123
00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:03.920
we looked at church history and so this is what

124
00:07:03.959 --> 00:07:06.720
we come to today. All right, here's what we're going

125
00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:09.279
to start with today. And there was a lot of

126
00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:12.759
other things there. I left out, but hopefully, hopefully you

127
00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:15.639
have kind of an idea. What we're primarily trying to

128
00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:18.040
do is we're really right now here's kind of the

129
00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:22.040
way we're on my approaches. I am focusing primarily on

130
00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:25.600
understanding the ungrafted word and the law of liberty. So

131
00:07:25.639 --> 00:07:30.360
we're really zooming in on those two concepts, the ungrafted

132
00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:34.519
word and law of liberty. Then as we kind of

133
00:07:34.519 --> 00:07:37.319
struggle through all of that, put forth are kind of

134
00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:40.480
our own interpretation and my kind of a new interpretation

135
00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:44.439
of what that may be. Then we'll zoom out and

136
00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:48.120
then look at the bigger picture and then see if

137
00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:51.920
we can come up with a complete interpretation of verses

138
00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.680
nineteen to twenty seven. But I think everything hinges on

139
00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:58.439
what the ungrafted word is and what the law of

140
00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:01.720
liberty is. Again, some say they're the same thing, some

141
00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:05.240
say they're different things, and there's there's there's just so

142
00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:10.160
many different perspectives on this. But are you ready? So

143
00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:15.240
we're gonna look at AI's kind of first attempt to

144
00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:19.319
try to handle this right. So basically I was looking

145
00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:22.160
to Ai asking it some questions. I said, Okay, well,

146
00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:25.959
how would how would how should this be section be handled?

147
00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.279
What what are some what are some things here? So

148
00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.680
AI gave just kind of this is not really a

149
00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:33.200
very in depth I could have. I could have asked

150
00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:35.519
Ai for more, but I just wanted to kind of

151
00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:38.320
see which direction AI would go. So this is what

152
00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:44.200
AI gave me. First, It gave me contextual considerations for

153
00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.799
interpreting the law of liberty. No, at this point it

154
00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:50.679
didn't go with the ungrafted word. Just see just look

155
00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:55.159
at where it goes. It says the immediate context, AI said, James,

156
00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:59.679
contrast merely hearing the word with actively doing it. The

157
00:08:59.799 --> 00:09:04.840
law law of liberty is described as perfect, suggesting completeness

158
00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:09.840
and fulfillment, likely alluding to Christ's fulfillment of the law.

159
00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:13.639
All right, So the idea is the law of liberty

160
00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:19.080
somehow refers to Christ fulfilling the law. All right? That okay,

161
00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:21.639
that a lot of people have said that. They didn't

162
00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:26.399
really necessarily articulate exactly what that means, but okay, because

163
00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:29.279
most of them said, the law of liberty somehow refers

164
00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:32.919
to Christ fulfilling the law. But almost inevitably, then it

165
00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:35.879
was like, well, Christ fulfilled the law, and then this

166
00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:38.360
somehow gives you the power to keep the law, which

167
00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:42.679
was really kind of confusing. So Christ kept the law,

168
00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:45.320
and that gives me power, so that now I can

169
00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:48.519
keep the law. Isn't the whole point of him keeping

170
00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:52.159
the law is because I can't. I couldn't, I can't,

171
00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:56.480
I will never be able to. Therefore, by faith, his

172
00:09:56.639 --> 00:09:59.039
keeping of the law is imputed to my account? Is

173
00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:02.159
it that the Christian message? But everyone was kind of

174
00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:04.879
like the law of liberty, it's him keeping the law.

175
00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:07.799
Now you've been set free, so you can keep it.

176
00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:11.399
And it was so like, this is confusing, So but

177
00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:15.120
AI went with the same kind of idea. Doesn't really

178
00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:20.279
explain here the law they Ai said, is linked with freedom,

179
00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:25.039
not bondage. See this is where it gets confusing, implying

180
00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:28.000
that this is not about mosaic law in a strict sense,

181
00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:32.720
but a principle that liberates. So then here AI kind

182
00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:35.120
of says, well, this is probably not the Mosaic law,

183
00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:37.600
but this is Christ fulfilling the law. But what law

184
00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:40.519
did he fulfill? Isn't it the Mosaic law? So this

185
00:10:40.519 --> 00:10:43.120
gets a little confusing again. But whatever the law of

186
00:10:43.159 --> 00:10:48.279
liberty is, it's a law that liberates. So here is

187
00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:51.360
law that sets you free. Now This is what leads

188
00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:54.159
pastors to go, hey, you want to be free, keep

189
00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:58.039
the law. You want to be free, just obey. You

190
00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:01.080
hear this in youth conferences a lot of time. Hey, kids,

191
00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:03.559
I know you see the Bible. You see all these

192
00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:06.480
dues and don't and you feel like that's restrictive and

193
00:11:06.519 --> 00:11:11.000
that that's bondage and that's slavery and that's not right.

194
00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:14.360
And the pastor will say, no, if you will keep

195
00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:17.320
the law, you will be set free. It will set

196
00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:20.600
you free, it will set you free. And I'm always like,

197
00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:25.080
I'm so just philologically dumbfounded by this. And the parents

198
00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:28.240
are like, hey, man, listen to that, little Johnny, just

199
00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.480
obey the law and you will be free. And I'm like,

200
00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:33.559
nobody in this church is obeying the law. The law says,

201
00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:36.879
be holy as he is holy. Nobody does. So why

202
00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:38.840
are you telling the kid that obeying the law is

203
00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:41.159
gonna set them free? Because as soon as they start

204
00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:43.200
their attempt to obey the law, you know what, they're

205
00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:47.600
going to find themselves not free. They're gonna find themselves condemned.

206
00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:51.440
They're gonna find themselves filled with guilt, shame, and humiliation,

207
00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:54.480
feeling like a failure and decide either they have to

208
00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:57.080
start pretending they're doing better than they are, or they're

209
00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:01.559
gonna have to start admitting this isn't working. But somehow

210
00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:04.600
churches love to go with this idea, the law of liberty. See,

211
00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:07.360
if you'll just obey the law, you're free. Well, if

212
00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:11.080
I could obey the law, I wouldn't need Christ. Well

213
00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:13.799
Christ sets you free so that you can obey the law. No,

214
00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:16.879
I thought Christ fulfilled the law because I can't keep

215
00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:22.639
the law. See, this is a completely rewriting of Christianity

216
00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:26.720
that I believe. Just well, it's more Catholic than it

217
00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:31.759
is anything consistent with the Protestant Reformation. This is the

218
00:12:31.799 --> 00:12:35.639
idea of almost an infused righteousness, and AI kind of

219
00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:38.879
follows this same concept now, it says the broader context,

220
00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:43.399
James frequently emphasizes this active, lived out faith, where he

221
00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:46.799
refers to the royal law of loving one's neighbor. The

222
00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:49.559
law of liberty appears to focus on obedience to God's

223
00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:53.919
moral and ethical will as revealed in Christ, empowering believers

224
00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:57.000
to live righteously. See it, AI did the same thing.

225
00:12:57.480 --> 00:13:01.519
So somehow the ungrafted word, somehow, the law liberty basically

226
00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:05.000
equates to it. And I know I'm oversimplifying it, but

227
00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:07.879
in sermon after sermon and everything that you can look at,

228
00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:11.399
it basically is this sets you free, This empowers you,

229
00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:15.320
so you can do it. And this denies the reality

230
00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:20.000
of Christianity. You cannot do it, and to think that

231
00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:25.399
you can means you're in total denial. I cannot state

232
00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:28.240
it again. Look at the Law of God. It demands

233
00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:34.759
absolute perfection internally, externally you have never kept it. You're

234
00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:40.519
in a perpetual state of disobedience to it. Don't when

235
00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:44.159
you're listening to sermons that take these kinds of concepts,

236
00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:47.519
And basically, no matter what they say about the angrafted

237
00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:49.279
word of the law of liberty, no matter, no matter

238
00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:51.440
if they connect it to the Mosaic Law, no matter

239
00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:53.559
if they connect it to the Gospel, no matter if

240
00:13:53.559 --> 00:13:56.399
they can just connect it, connect it to Scripture. If

241
00:13:56.399 --> 00:14:01.919
the basic conclusion is this frees you, this empowers you,

242
00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:06.879
you can keep the law, then it's denying the very

243
00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:12.360
reality that any Christian who's even slightly honest with themselves,

244
00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:15.639
any Christian who will slightly look at their life and

245
00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:19.720
light of God's actual law, will be like this. No

246
00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:22.679
this is not true. So all that's why I've got

247
00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:25.120
to be I'm not trying to go through every one

248
00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:27.360
of their interpretations and try to take this apart. In

249
00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:29.919
this apart, I'm just looking at what their conclusion is.

250
00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:33.200
And if the conclusion basically is you're set free, you

251
00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:36.200
have power, you can do it, I reject it because

252
00:14:36.279 --> 00:14:41.320
reality proves that that interpretation is incorrect. So that that's

253
00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:44.879
my approach here so far. And AI just falls into

254
00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:48.559
the right the same concept. Why is AI following following

255
00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:51.080
this same thing? Because AI is pulling from the majority

256
00:14:51.080 --> 00:14:56.000
of Christianity. Right Christianity, I mean it pulls from sources,

257
00:14:56.440 --> 00:15:02.200
and so most of Christianity gives you this perspective. AI

258
00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:05.600
goes on to say, Paul's writings also discuss freedom in

259
00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:10.679
christ but often contrast it with bondage of sin or legalism. James, however,

260
00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:16.120
emphasizes freedom to obey rather than freedom from obligation. So

261
00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:18.919
the idea here AI is going with what most preachers

262
00:15:18.919 --> 00:15:22.080
will say, We're now free to obey. You'll hear pastors

263
00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:24.039
say this all time when you all the time, when

264
00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:26.840
you become a Christian, you're now freed from the bondage

265
00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:29.120
of sin. You can now say notice in and yes

266
00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:35.039
to God. All right, So Ai says this. The law

267
00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:37.919
of liberty in James one twenty five is best understood

268
00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:41.919
as the moral and ethical teaching of Christ. Fulfilled through

269
00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:46.519
the Gospel and empowered by the Holy Spirit. This law

270
00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:52.279
liberates believers from the dominion of sin, enabling joyful obedience

271
00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:56.039
through grace. Unlike the Mosaic law, which was birdsome and

272
00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.879
impossible to fulfill, to fully keep, this perfect law re

273
00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:03.159
flex God's transformative work and believer's heart and the liqu

274
00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:07.759
What Ai did it references Jeremiah thirty one thirty three,

275
00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:12.679
which is again a promise to Israel, not to us.

276
00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:16.759
So Ai just takes what every other pastor does. Hey,

277
00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:19.600
this is about you being set free. This is about

278
00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:22.639
liberating you. This is about power. This is about now

279
00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:26.120
you can joyfully obey. You can do it because basically

280
00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:29.200
you have a new heart. You've been transformed. Basically this

281
00:16:29.240 --> 00:16:30.960
is I mean, if I want to summarize this, You're

282
00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:33.000
a new creation. All things have passed away, all things

283
00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:35.159
that have become new. You can obey God. You can

284
00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:39.440
do it. You have power. Go do it now. You

285
00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:41.960
listen to sermons like that. Inevitably, though at some point

286
00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:44.639
they'll say, well, I mean you can't come, you can't

287
00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:47.120
be perfect. I mean you're still going to sin. And

288
00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:51.080
then they start backtracking. Well, if I can't get to perfection,

289
00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:55.799
then I'm not free. If I cannot get to perfection,

290
00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:00.320
there's something more powerful than me getting to perfection, something

291
00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:02.399
more powerful than me keeping the law. And if I

292
00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:04.480
can't get to perfection, then I'm not keeping the law.

293
00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:11.079
So all of these interpretations, basically and at the same

294
00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:15.880
in the same place, AI says, here's the basic implications

295
00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:19.880
of their interpretation. The law liberty calls for practical action,

296
00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:24.240
demonstrating faith through deeds. Obedience is not about legalism, but

297
00:17:24.279 --> 00:17:26.720
about living in the freedom that grace provides. See Grace

298
00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:28.920
provides you the freedom to obey, so now you should

299
00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:34.680
be able to obey perfectly. But law, the essence of

300
00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:38.000
the law is love for God and neighbor. And so

301
00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:40.200
basically the idea is you can do it. Go do

302
00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:42.319
it go, do it go, do it go, do it go,

303
00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:44.759
do it go, do it go, do it right. So,

304
00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:48.799
the law of liberty basically is the ethical or moral

305
00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:52.039
teachings of Christ which will set you free. So they

306
00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:54.680
kind of move. So the AI doesn't really necessarily go

307
00:17:54.759 --> 00:17:58.240
with the mosaic law concept. It goes with basically, this

308
00:17:58.279 --> 00:18:01.319
is the ethical and moral teaching of Christ. He fulfilled it,

309
00:18:01.720 --> 00:18:03.279
and somehow that frees you to do it. So that

310
00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:06.359
means you can you can fulfill I guess, I guess

311
00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:10.200
you can keep you can do it all, and it

312
00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:13.240
just so denies reality. Now when it comes to the

313
00:18:13.319 --> 00:18:17.839
ungrafted word, AI tries to interpret this. This is what

314
00:18:17.880 --> 00:18:23.640
AI says. So that was kind of how AI initially

315
00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:26.519
tried to handle the law of liberty. So then I

316
00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:28.480
was like, okay, well Ai, let's put the two together,

317
00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:31.400
the law liberty and the ungrafted words. So let's try

318
00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:35.000
to handle this right. So this is what AI did. First.

319
00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:41.359
It provided a historical context, authorship, and audience. James likely

320
00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:44.079
was written by the brother of Jesus is considered one

321
00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:48.119
of the earliest New Testament books around forty four to

322
00:18:48.119 --> 00:18:51.200
forty nine AD. Please keep that in mind. That is

323
00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:57.960
so important, all right. Written primarily to Jewish Christians familiar

324
00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:04.960
with the Old Testament, James heavily reflects Jewish thought and scripture.

325
00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:08.039
Now this is where AI started giving me a little

326
00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:10.079
bit Okay, no, wait a minute. A lot of people

327
00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:13.119
come here the ungrafted word the law of liberty. It's

328
00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:17.480
about Christ, it's about the scriptures, it's about the Gospel.

329
00:19:17.799 --> 00:19:21.359
Let's just remember the Book of James has written so early.

330
00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:24.640
You don't have a New Testament. You're very early on,

331
00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:29.519
and he's writing to Jewish Christians. They're thinking. Even the

332
00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:34.200
tone here is very old Testament in so many ways.

333
00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:38.960
I don't think we can forget the historical context here. Now.

334
00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:43.400
It's relation, it's relational context to the Old Testament. In

335
00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:47.359
the early Christian period, the word lagos and law were

336
00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:51.319
understood primarily in terms of the Old Testament revelation. So

337
00:19:51.319 --> 00:19:54.240
when you hear the word the word law, and you

338
00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:57.680
hear the word word right lagos as this us here,

339
00:19:57.799 --> 00:20:01.000
they're gonna be thinking old Testament terms, thinking Old Testament.

340
00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:03.680
They're gonna be thinking Old Testament law. They're gonna be

341
00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:06.519
thinking Old Testament scripture. They're not gonna be thinking Gospel.

342
00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:09.400
They're not gonna be thinking the ethical teachings of Christ.

343
00:20:09.559 --> 00:20:13.799
They're gonna be thinking the Old Testament law. That's what

344
00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:16.920
they're gonna be thinking. I mean that the historical context

345
00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:20.079
demands us even Ai amidst this, when it gave me

346
00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:23.599
its first attempt to interpret this, it went with the

347
00:20:23.640 --> 00:20:26.480
majority of Christianity. But when you start breaking down the

348
00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:29.519
facts about the book, you're like, well, wait a minute, here,

349
00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:33.519
this this seems to be would lead to a different conclusion.

350
00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:39.279
The New Testament canon did not even yet exist, so

351
00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:42.680
references to scripture or God's word would resonate with audience

352
00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:47.160
as pointing to the Hebrew scriptures. The original audience of James,

353
00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:51.160
everything would in their mind be framed in an Old

354
00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:55.880
Testament context. If you forget that we come to James

355
00:20:55.880 --> 00:20:58.599
and immediately read it in like a very much a

356
00:20:58.759 --> 00:21:04.680
Christian context, a very modern Christian context that is obliterating

357
00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:08.319
the historical context. This would have had very much an

358
00:21:08.359 --> 00:21:11.680
Old Testament idea. I'm not saying there aren't New Testament

359
00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:14.480
ideas here, but at least you've got to at least

360
00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:19.359
consider things maybe referencing the Old Testament more than you

361
00:21:19.559 --> 00:21:24.799
would immediately think. All right, now, what is the purpose? Well,

362
00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:30.400
James emphasizes practical faith, a faith that produces action and obedience.

363
00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:37.480
His writing balances faith philological aspects with moral and ethical demands. Now,

364
00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:41.000
I would argue James is very much Again, if we

365
00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:44.920
go with a proper distinction between law and gospel, James

366
00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:50.119
is very law. Law, law, law, law, And what does

367
00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:58.799
law do. It condemns, it exposes, It does not free,

368
00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:04.720
it can, It exposes, It shows you you're inability. It

369
00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:08.559
doesn't say, hey, you can do it. It screams you

370
00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:12.079
never can, you never will. You need someone else to

371
00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:17.680
Just keep that in mind. All right, Now, how about

372
00:22:17.720 --> 00:22:22.799
its textual context and grafted word? Received with meekness, or

373
00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:25.279
receive with meekness the ungrafted word which is able to

374
00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:29.759
save your soul James one one. Now, the term engrafted

375
00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:36.200
implies something implanted or rooted within. It conveys the idea

376
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:39.759
of a seed planted in the soil of a believer's heart.

377
00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:42.440
Now they say a believer's heart. But just note the

378
00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:46.960
ungrafted word is something that's put inside of you, something

379
00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:52.039
planted inside of you. Just keep that in mind. That's

380
00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:59.960
James one twenty one. Right, Receive with meekness the ungrafted word.

381
00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:03.440
The word is already there, it's inside whatever this word is,

382
00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:06.920
it's inside of you. It's been planted inside of you.

383
00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:09.880
Now with meekness, you've got to kind of since receive

384
00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:16.279
except what it's saying, and this will lead to the

385
00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:21.240
salvation of your soul. So I don't think that they

386
00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:23.599
say that this is what happened, that this is the believer,

387
00:23:24.279 --> 00:23:27.440
this is the believer's heart. But that seems a little confusing. Right,

388
00:23:28.359 --> 00:23:30.920
If you're already a believer, then you're already saved. So

389
00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:34.000
why do you need to receive the ingrafted word to

390
00:23:34.119 --> 00:23:38.079
save your soul? No, this would be you need to

391
00:23:38.119 --> 00:23:41.480
receive the word which will save your soul. This is

392
00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:43.759
not receive the word that saved your soul. I mean, look,

393
00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:46.400
how is it written? Received with meekness, the ingrafted word

394
00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:49.359
which is able to save your soul. It's not hey,

395
00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:53.240
receive that ingrafted word that saved you. No, receive the

396
00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:58.920
word which is able to save you. I think we

397
00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:01.839
have to at least consider that. Right, Whatever this ingrafted

398
00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:05.160
word is, it connects it somehow. It has a part

399
00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:09.000
in salvation. But we have to receive it with meekness.

400
00:24:09.640 --> 00:24:16.359
What could that word be? Now? According to AI, the

401
00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:20.279
word here most likely refers to God's revealed truth, including

402
00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:23.799
the moral law of the Old Testament, which convicts and

403
00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:28.440
points to God's holiness. Now, okay, at least it at

404
00:24:28.519 --> 00:24:33.279
least AI here says, okay, Old Testament. That's good. That's

405
00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:37.559
the context. Right, So AI here at least acknowledges this

406
00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:42.359
is probably the ungrafted word refers to the moral law. Okay,

407
00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:47.680
now here's the thing. Is the moral law implanted in you?

408
00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:54.079
Now see if it's if it's if it's about something

409
00:24:54.119 --> 00:25:01.079
that's implanted in what is implanted in us? Just keep

410
00:25:01.079 --> 00:25:06.039
that in mind. Just keep that in mind. So the

411
00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:09.359
word most likely is a reference to God's revealed truth,

412
00:25:09.720 --> 00:25:13.880
including the moral law of the Old Testament. Now, the

413
00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:16.920
Gospel Message as it aligns with the implanted nature of

414
00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:19.519
God's truth and the Hearts of believers mentions a future

415
00:25:19.559 --> 00:25:22.039
promise of God's law being written on the heart, though

416
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:25.680
specifically for Israel. So then it said, well, it could

417
00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:28.319
be the Gospel message, or it could be it could

418
00:25:28.359 --> 00:25:31.640
be something more positive than the moral law. But look

419
00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:35.119
look what it quoted Jeremiah thirty one thirty three, which

420
00:25:35.240 --> 00:25:39.079
once again is new kevinet promises made to Israel. But

421
00:25:39.319 --> 00:25:43.960
Ai acknowledged here well though specifically for Israel, So it

422
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:46.680
kind of references Jeremiah thirty one thirty three. But then

423
00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:48.960
AI kind of backs up and says, well that versus

424
00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:51.640
specifically for Israel. Okay, well, then let's just leave that out,

425
00:25:52.680 --> 00:25:55.960
all right. That to try to say the ingrafted word

426
00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:02.519
is the gospel message, So the the Gospel message is

427
00:26:02.680 --> 00:26:05.799
ingrafted inside of us that we have to read. Oh see,

428
00:26:05.839 --> 00:26:10.519
that seems that that seems to lead to some possible problems.

429
00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:16.799
The ungrafted word. This is the function, according to Ai,

430
00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:21.200
the ungrafted word convicts of sin. Oh no, what would

431
00:26:21.240 --> 00:26:25.720
that be? If the ungrafted word is the thing that's convicting,

432
00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:31.000
what would be? What would that be? It calls for repentance?

433
00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:35.319
What would that be? It ultimately points to salvation, What

434
00:26:35.640 --> 00:26:39.200
ultimately points to salvation, What ultimately convicts us of sin?

435
00:26:39.400 --> 00:26:46.359
What ultimately demands repentance. It requires a humble, meek reception

436
00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:51.279
because it reveals human sinfulness and dependence on God's grace.

437
00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:54.359
Whatever this ingrafted word is, Ai says, whatever this is,

438
00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:56.799
This is the thing that's gonna convict you. This is

439
00:26:56.799 --> 00:26:58.720
the thing that's going to condemn you. This is the

440
00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:01.240
thing that's going to show you that you can't do it,

441
00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:04.599
that you need grace, you need something else. Okay, all

442
00:27:04.680 --> 00:27:08.039
right now, now this is getting me somewhere right. Now, now,

443
00:27:08.039 --> 00:27:16.920
what could this be? So they say the basically AI's

444
00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:22.079
conclusion is that the and grafted word is the moral

445
00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:26.400
law of the Old Testament, and it condemns us. Now

446
00:27:26.440 --> 00:27:28.720
it's implanted in us somehow. It doesn't really go into

447
00:27:28.759 --> 00:27:31.000
a lot of how it gets there, but it condemns us.

448
00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:33.880
It reveals our sin, and it points us that we

449
00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:36.960
need something else that we can't do it ourselves. All right,

450
00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:41.559
that already gives me an idea. Now, AI, remember it

451
00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:43.759
kind of went to the law liberty. Now it returns

452
00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:46.079
back to the law liberty. Because I kept I kept

453
00:27:46.079 --> 00:27:49.720
basically going, all right, well, I kept asking it questions, right,

454
00:27:50.039 --> 00:27:54.039
trying to see all the different ways it would interpret it.

455
00:27:55.039 --> 00:27:59.359
So then AI did this. The law of liberty refers

456
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:03.039
to the moral ethical teachings of God's Law, now fulfilled

457
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:07.279
and transformed by Christ. It emphasizes freedom through obedience to

458
00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:10.480
God's will. So it says, okay, the ingrafted word is

459
00:28:10.519 --> 00:28:14.000
the moral law. The law of liberty is the ethical

460
00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:17.519
and moral teaching of Christ that he fulfilled. But then

461
00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:21.319
immediately look what it does somehow, then that implies now

462
00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:24.519
that I have freedom to do so it brings freedom

463
00:28:24.599 --> 00:28:31.839
to me. Now this gets a little confusing again. Perfect

464
00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:35.079
the law of liberty is described as perfect. It emphasizes

465
00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:38.480
completeness and wholeness, likely referring to the fulfillment of the

466
00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:43.200
law in Christ. Liberty suggests that the law, rather than enslaving,

467
00:28:43.559 --> 00:28:48.640
brings freedom from sins, dominion, and human traditions. The law

468
00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:53.480
of liberty motivates actions, highlighting James emphasis on practical faith

469
00:28:53.480 --> 00:29:00.519
that transforms behavior. All right, so immediately, though, I mean,

470
00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:03.359
it doesn't try to help us a lot. There. Law

471
00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:06.279
liberty somehow is connected to Christ fulfilling the law. But

472
00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:09.079
now it sets you free so that you can do it.

473
00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:12.319
And that the ungrafted word is the law that condemns you.

474
00:29:12.359 --> 00:29:15.160
So the ungrafted word is the moral law. The law

475
00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:19.599
of liberty is the law fulfilled in Christ. But now

476
00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:21.720
it frees you so that you can keep the law.

477
00:29:23.400 --> 00:29:26.279
I don't know, so then, so I ask Ai to

478
00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:29.759
give me some key interpretive points. So AI then gave

479
00:29:29.799 --> 00:29:33.400
me this The ungrafted word historically rooted in the Old

480
00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:37.000
Testament moral law and extended to the message of the Gospel,

481
00:29:37.160 --> 00:29:40.759
which reveals sin and offers salvation. Now see, it still

482
00:29:40.839 --> 00:29:44.720
tries to add the Gospel into the ungrafted word, say

483
00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:47.440
AI very much is committed to like, well, it's the

484
00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:49.880
moral law, but the Gospel is there as well. So

485
00:29:49.960 --> 00:29:53.400
somehow the moral law and the Gospel is ingrafted into us.

486
00:29:55.720 --> 00:30:04.400
I struggle with this. It signifies God's truth implanted in

487
00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:09.079
the heart, leading to transformation and sanctification. Please note see

488
00:30:09.079 --> 00:30:14.240
the idea is that the ingrafted word is law and gospel.

489
00:30:14.440 --> 00:30:16.839
But look what they say, it's gonna transform you. It's

490
00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:22.559
gonna change you. It still goes to transformation, behavioral modification.

491
00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:27.160
All of the interpretations do the exact same thing, and

492
00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:30.519
that the law liberty frees you. Well, ladies and gentlemen,

493
00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:34.240
how many times do I have to say it? Christianity

494
00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:38.480
constantly teaches that we're free, that we have power, that

495
00:30:38.599 --> 00:30:41.160
we can and then at the same time it will

496
00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:44.160
be like, but we can't be perfect, and we're gonna

497
00:30:44.200 --> 00:30:47.720
continue to send well, then I'm not free. Then there's

498
00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:51.480
a limit to the power. So we speak out of

499
00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:54.680
both sides of our mouth and it's ridiculous. Okay, we

500
00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:57.279
can't do that. We have to be like, well, wait

501
00:30:57.319 --> 00:31:01.119
a minute, if we're claiming all of this, then it

502
00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:04.799
should look like this and because it doesn't look like this,

503
00:31:05.559 --> 00:31:14.799
then maybe our claims are completely unfounded and fraudulent. All right, Now,

504
00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:17.240
the law of liberty, AI tells me this. It reflects

505
00:31:17.319 --> 00:31:21.000
the moral law fulfilled in Christ. It transcends the mosaic law,

506
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:25.839
which was seen as burdensome, becoming a guide for joyful obedience.

507
00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:30.680
So basically, the law of liberty is a law fulfilled

508
00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:34.079
in Christ. But now you can do it. You can

509
00:31:34.119 --> 00:31:38.200
do it. So I was like, and so, I mean,

510
00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:40.359
there's a lot more there that AI had to say.

511
00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:42.200
We went back and forth and back and forth, and

512
00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:45.039
finally I was just honest with Ai. I'm like, look,

513
00:31:45.039 --> 00:31:48.400
I've got a problem here. I don't think this works.

514
00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:51.400
And I laid out my reasoning and as I've already

515
00:31:51.480 --> 00:31:56.759
articulated to you, because of the reality of sin, things

516
00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:03.519
don't work. So AI then said this to me, Your

517
00:32:03.759 --> 00:32:10.440
struggle is rooted in a tension between the philological claims

518
00:32:10.519 --> 00:32:16.640
of freedom and transformation found in PA passages like James

519
00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:20.920
one twenty one through twenty five, and the undeniable reality

520
00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:24.799
of ongoing sin in the life of believers. So please

521
00:32:24.799 --> 00:32:31.640
know what AI did. AI maintained its belief, its idea

522
00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:36.240
that James One nineteen through twenty five speaks of transformation

523
00:32:36.759 --> 00:32:43.119
of power. But Ai was willing to acknowledge the undeniable

524
00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:46.960
reality of ongoing sin in the life of a believer,

525
00:32:47.640 --> 00:32:49.519
right because if you if you say the Law is

526
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:51.480
be holy as God is holy, well then you're in

527
00:32:51.480 --> 00:32:54.720
a perpetual state of sin. So it's undeniable. Every Christian

528
00:32:54.759 --> 00:32:57.680
is in a perpetual state of sin, all right, So

529
00:32:57.720 --> 00:33:00.240
how do you reconcile that with this claim of transformation

530
00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:09.599
of power? So AI said this, this tension is real

531
00:33:10.319 --> 00:33:17.680
and recognized throughout church history. Okay, good, I'm not crazy.

532
00:33:18.319 --> 00:33:20.640
Even AI's like, hey, look, the tension is real, and

533
00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:24.000
everyone in church history has well has acknowledged it to

534
00:33:24.039 --> 00:33:26.720
some level. Now, I think in many cases it's more

535
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:35.240
acknowledged by theologians, by those in a seminary classroom. I

536
00:33:35.279 --> 00:33:38.359
don't think it's always acknowledged by those behind the pulpit

537
00:33:38.440 --> 00:33:40.799
and those sitting in the pew. I think those behind

538
00:33:40.839 --> 00:33:44.880
the pulpit love to sell a Christianity that no one

539
00:33:44.920 --> 00:33:47.960
in the pew is really experiencing, but everyone in the

540
00:33:47.960 --> 00:33:53.559
pew plays along. I think in some ways Christianity is

541
00:33:53.599 --> 00:33:57.559
nothing more than everyone playing pretend. I know that offends people,

542
00:33:57.559 --> 00:33:58.960
but I think there's a lot of truth to it.

543
00:33:59.160 --> 00:34:02.440
I think it's those who step outside of that context

544
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:06.440
the church game, and I'm like, okay, I don't have a

545
00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:08.840
theological team. I don't have a dog in this fight.

546
00:34:09.039 --> 00:34:12.039
I'm not wearing your colors. And they step back. I

547
00:34:12.039 --> 00:34:14.880
think they then have more freedom to go Wait a minute, guys,

548
00:34:14.920 --> 00:34:18.079
there's a problem. We keep claiming this, but here's the reality.

549
00:34:18.199 --> 00:34:20.360
We're in church. You can't do that. If a pastor

550
00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:28.159
does that, mostuckily, he's gonna lose his job. But it's

551
00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:32.119
admitted throughout church history. So I asked Ai, Okay, well,

552
00:34:32.119 --> 00:34:36.039
then great, you acknowledge there's a problem. There's got to

553
00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:39.679
be then another way to interpret James, the ungrafted word

554
00:34:39.719 --> 00:34:42.039
and the law of liberty that doesn't lead to these

555
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:44.719
wild claims that you've been set free and you can

556
00:34:44.760 --> 00:34:50.519
do it. There's got to be some alternative interpretations. So

557
00:34:50.679 --> 00:34:55.440
AI said, well, to address it without dismissing if I

558
00:34:55.440 --> 00:34:59.039
can read correctly, To address it without dismissing either the

559
00:34:59.119 --> 00:35:05.480
textual linguistic context, we can attempt to explore an interpretation

560
00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:16.800
that emphasizes position process rather than suggesting complete practical freedom

561
00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:19.559
from sin, and I was like, oh, now you're talking

562
00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:22.639
my language. So AI's like, okay. If we try to

563
00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:26.559
take in this text and the idea of the ungrafted

564
00:35:26.599 --> 00:35:28.639
word in the law of liberty, if we try to

565
00:35:28.679 --> 00:35:33.440
take this in and try to understand it based off

566
00:35:33.679 --> 00:35:41.119
the text, based off linguistic concerns and linguistic context, and

567
00:35:41.199 --> 00:35:44.679
we acknowledge the reality of ongoing sin, then what we

568
00:35:44.760 --> 00:35:46.599
have to do is we have to try to approach

569
00:35:46.719 --> 00:35:53.280
this emphasizing position. What does that mean? Our position before God?

570
00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:58.039
See my position before God? I am perfect, holy, righteous, obedient, free,

571
00:35:58.159 --> 00:36:00.320
I'm a new creature. Old things have passed away, all

572
00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:03.000
things have become new. That is one thousand percent true

573
00:36:03.039 --> 00:36:09.199
positionally because by faith Christ, imputed righteousness is mine. So

574
00:36:09.239 --> 00:36:11.280
we're going to have so AI says, well, we would

575
00:36:11.280 --> 00:36:15.559
have to emphasize position. We would have to emphasize a process,

576
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:18.920
that we're in the process of struggling against sin. We're

577
00:36:18.920 --> 00:36:21.599
not set free from it, because we're going to be

578
00:36:21.599 --> 00:36:24.159
struggling with it all the way to glorification. It says,

579
00:36:24.159 --> 00:36:28.679
we're going to focus on position and process, not on

580
00:36:28.840 --> 00:36:33.599
a completed practical freedom from sin, which doesn't exist. Now

581
00:36:33.639 --> 00:36:36.039
I'm throwing that in. Ai didn't say it doesn't exist,

582
00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:41.440
but AI acknowledged before that The reality is is we're

583
00:36:41.480 --> 00:36:47.199
well ongoing sin. Christians continue to sin, and Ai even

584
00:36:47.199 --> 00:36:51.119
acknowledge that throughout church history people admitted this. They may

585
00:36:51.159 --> 00:36:53.679
not admit it in a sermon, but they will admit

586
00:36:53.719 --> 00:36:55.800
it somewhere in their writing and even in their sermons

587
00:36:55.840 --> 00:36:57.840
where they tell you, have you ever noticed pastors do

588
00:36:57.920 --> 00:37:01.559
that if anyone's crisis a new creature, old things are

589
00:37:01.599 --> 00:37:04.719
passed away, all things have become new, and then five

590
00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:07.559
minutes later you have to fight against sin, and we

591
00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:10.079
have to struggle against sin, and we have the flesh,

592
00:37:10.239 --> 00:37:12.360
and we've got whoa, whoa, whoa, whoah, whoah. You just said.

593
00:37:12.360 --> 00:37:14.480
I've been a new creature, the oldest gone. Everything is new.

594
00:37:14.519 --> 00:37:16.679
I don't need to fight against anything. I don't need

595
00:37:16.719 --> 00:37:20.800
to struggle against anything. There's nothing sinful left in me.

596
00:37:21.159 --> 00:37:25.880
I've been completely changed. I've been completely transformed. I'm basically imperfect.

597
00:37:26.719 --> 00:37:28.599
Well no, no, no, that's not what we meant. Well

598
00:37:28.679 --> 00:37:31.920
that's what you said. Okay, so can you make it

599
00:37:32.039 --> 00:37:35.440
make sense? Ai was like, well, if we try to

600
00:37:35.480 --> 00:37:38.320
make this make sense We're gonna have to focus on

601
00:37:38.400 --> 00:37:43.280
position and process, not some idea of a completed practical

602
00:37:43.360 --> 00:37:48.880
freedom from sin, because it's just not real. So then

603
00:37:49.119 --> 00:37:51.400
I said, okay, Ai, that's great, that sounds good, Thank

604
00:37:51.440 --> 00:38:00.840
you very much. Now give me some alternative interpretations. Let's

605
00:38:00.880 --> 00:38:03.239
go to the alternative and see what we can find.

606
00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:09.360
So you're ready for AI's alternative interpretations, Let's go back

607
00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:14.000
to James one twenty one, wherefore lay apart all filthiness

608
00:38:14.079 --> 00:38:18.440
and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingrafted word. Now,

609
00:38:18.920 --> 00:38:20.519
I know we're at thirty eight minutes, but let me

610
00:38:20.599 --> 00:38:23.920
do this here. Everybody listen. Some of you are already

611
00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:27.639
running to other verses and James one and you're going

612
00:38:28.039 --> 00:38:30.920
just stop. We have to our focus here is the

613
00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:34.280
ungrafted word in law of liberty. We need to try

614
00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:38.679
to figure out how we can interpret these that stays

615
00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:43.000
true to the text, stays true to the context, and

616
00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:46.199
at the same time acknowledges that we live in a

617
00:38:46.239 --> 00:38:49.360
perpetual status sin. That's what we're going to try to

618
00:38:49.719 --> 00:38:52.320
Then once we have that belt, I'm not going to

619
00:38:52.400 --> 00:38:55.039
ignore all the rest of the language that you're already

620
00:38:55.079 --> 00:38:57.840
going well, what about this verse? What about this verse? One?

621
00:38:58.199 --> 00:39:02.039
Slow down, we gotta start. You gotta a lot of

622
00:39:02.079 --> 00:39:04.400
people love death by cross reference. You just make a

623
00:39:04.480 --> 00:39:06.400
point and they get throw out five cross references and

624
00:39:06.559 --> 00:39:11.480
like I one, that's not hermeneutics. That's just ridiculousness. Okay,

625
00:39:11.760 --> 00:39:14.679
that's not the way it works. So we've got to

626
00:39:14.719 --> 00:39:19.159
start here. So AI gives me ingrafted word and then

627
00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:29.920
it throws out alternative interpretations. Instead of viewing the ingrafted

628
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:38.320
word as a power that guarantees freedom from sin and practice,

629
00:39:39.719 --> 00:39:42.239
it could be understood. See a lot of people see

630
00:39:42.239 --> 00:39:47.800
the ingrafted word. It's power. It it's what transforms, it's what. However,

631
00:39:47.880 --> 00:39:50.880
they identify the ingrafted word if they graft, they if

632
00:39:50.920 --> 00:39:55.360
they identify it as moral law, Gospel Bible, that it

633
00:39:55.519 --> 00:39:58.480
transforms us. Well, AI is like, well, instead of seeing

634
00:39:58.559 --> 00:40:05.079
it as being powerful or power, maybe we could understand

635
00:40:05.119 --> 00:40:08.559
it this way. And that offers some suggestions that the

636
00:40:08.639 --> 00:40:12.840
ungrafted word is the message of the gospel. This word

637
00:40:12.960 --> 00:40:18.000
logos is not primarily about empowering sinless living, but about

638
00:40:18.079 --> 00:40:21.920
continually confronting us with God's grace and our dependence on

639
00:40:22.119 --> 00:40:26.400
Christ finished work. So okay, AI says, all right, let's

640
00:40:26.440 --> 00:40:29.239
take the ungrafted word and let's interpret that as the

641
00:40:29.320 --> 00:40:32.079
gospel message. Now I'm not a fan of this approach. Okay,

642
00:40:32.559 --> 00:40:34.639
I'm not a fan of this approach, but I do

643
00:40:34.760 --> 00:40:38.199
appreciate what it tries to do. Here. AI is like, Okay,

644
00:40:38.519 --> 00:40:43.840
it's the gospel message. But this is not about empowering

645
00:40:45.039 --> 00:40:47.559
This is not about giving you power to live out

646
00:40:47.639 --> 00:40:53.360
the Christian life. This is about the Gospel confronting us

647
00:40:53.840 --> 00:40:58.400
with God's grace and our need and dependence for that

648
00:40:58.679 --> 00:41:02.320
grace and his finish. That the idea that this is

649
00:41:02.360 --> 00:41:06.400
the gospel message saying, hey, you need Christ, you need

650
00:41:06.559 --> 00:41:09.760
his finished work. It's not about empowering you. It's about

651
00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:13.480
pointing you to the one who took care of everything

652
00:41:13.760 --> 00:41:19.719
in his death, beryl resurrection. So it could be the

653
00:41:19.760 --> 00:41:25.039
message of the gospel. The second solution or the second

654
00:41:25.079 --> 00:41:27.840
option offers it could be the message of the gospel.

655
00:41:27.880 --> 00:41:32.079
But that's not about empowering you. That's about confronting you

656
00:41:32.159 --> 00:41:34.719
with God's grace and your dependence on Christ's finished work.

657
00:41:35.440 --> 00:41:37.639
I'm still not a fan of that one, okay, but

658
00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:40.880
we'll see the second option. I remember, this is all

659
00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:47.440
giving me alternative interpretations. A positional reality the Word and

660
00:41:47.599 --> 00:41:50.719
planted and believers is the truth that we are declared

661
00:41:50.800 --> 00:41:55.519
righteous by God's justification through faith in Christ. It is

662
00:41:55.599 --> 00:41:58.199
able to save your souls not by making you sinless,

663
00:41:58.440 --> 00:42:01.039
but by keeping us grounded in a promise of salvation

664
00:42:01.480 --> 00:42:05.840
despite our ongoing sin. That the implanted word is the

665
00:42:06.039 --> 00:42:09.719
truth that we are saved by an imputed righteousness, not

666
00:42:09.880 --> 00:42:13.119
an infused righteousness. And so it's able to save our

667
00:42:13.199 --> 00:42:16.960
soul by constantly reminding us that we have been saved

668
00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:19.119
by the finished work of Jesus Christ and we are

669
00:42:19.199 --> 00:42:24.480
declared righteous by an imputed righteous I still struggle. I

670
00:42:24.519 --> 00:42:26.760
struggle with that one. Now I completely agree in the

671
00:42:26.840 --> 00:42:32.039
positional reality. I completely agree that the Gospel message is

672
00:42:32.159 --> 00:42:35.519
not about empowering. It's about reminding us of our inability

673
00:42:35.719 --> 00:42:38.159
and telling us of the power of God in salvation

674
00:42:38.719 --> 00:42:43.360
of saving sinners by imputing righteousness to us. Right, So

675
00:42:43.480 --> 00:42:46.920
I agree with the Gospel message and the positional reality.

676
00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:50.159
I just don't know what that's what James one twenty one,

677
00:42:50.239 --> 00:42:53.239
this ingrafted word is talking about. I just I'm having

678
00:42:53.320 --> 00:42:57.840
problems with this. So then I said, okay, so what's

679
00:42:57.880 --> 00:43:01.159
the key implication of this, and Ai said, the ungrafted

680
00:43:01.199 --> 00:43:04.960
word doesn't promise practical freedom from sin, but serves as

681
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:07.719
the ongoing reminder of our identity in Christ and our

682
00:43:07.800 --> 00:43:11.880
position of grace before God. It keeps us tethered to Christ,

683
00:43:12.519 --> 00:43:21.559
especially in our failures. I I don't know about that.

684
00:43:22.760 --> 00:43:25.840
It sounds good. Now. This is very important whenever you're

685
00:43:25.840 --> 00:43:29.760
doing hermeneutics and you're considering all the interpretations out there,

686
00:43:31.320 --> 00:43:33.519
Like if you listen to all my teaching about law

687
00:43:34.079 --> 00:43:39.079
and gospel and about imputed righteousness versus infused righteousness, and

688
00:43:39.199 --> 00:43:43.360
positional reality versus practical reality, you would think, well, you

689
00:43:43.400 --> 00:43:46.360
would take that one that seems to support everything you say.

690
00:43:46.440 --> 00:43:50.280
But just because something seems to support my theology doesn't

691
00:43:50.320 --> 00:43:52.960
mean I believe. That doesn't mean I just immediately interpret

692
00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:57.880
a passage because it supports my theology. This is very important.

693
00:43:58.559 --> 00:44:02.960
You do not interpret passages simply because they agree with

694
00:44:03.079 --> 00:44:08.360
your theology. Your theology is not the rule. Your theology

695
00:44:08.519 --> 00:44:13.159
is not the measure. Your theology should never influence how

696
00:44:13.239 --> 00:44:17.800
you interpret scripture. You interpret scripture based off context, based

697
00:44:17.840 --> 00:44:23.400
off words, not on theology. The interpretation of scripture should

698
00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:28.199
lead to your theology. Your theology should not guide your interpretation.

699
00:44:28.480 --> 00:44:31.440
I think that that's completely wrong, because then you a

700
00:44:31.519 --> 00:44:34.119
Calvinist will interpret every passage in a Calvinistic way, a

701
00:44:34.199 --> 00:44:37.599
non calvinistic A non Calvinists will interpret every passage as

702
00:44:37.719 --> 00:44:41.119
non calvinistic an, anmillennialist will interpret every passage in a

703
00:44:41.119 --> 00:44:45.119
non millennial way. And someone who's dispensing that you cannot

704
00:44:45.280 --> 00:44:50.119
do that, but that's how Christians approach hermeneutics. That's flawed,

705
00:44:50.239 --> 00:44:56.280
that's wrong. You go to the text, You forget your

706
00:44:56.360 --> 00:45:01.159
stink in theology, you forget your little pet doctrine. You

707
00:45:01.320 --> 00:45:04.480
go to the text. The text doesn't care about your theology.

708
00:45:04.639 --> 00:45:07.559
The text doesn't care about your doctrine. The text doesn't

709
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:13.079
care what church you go to. So, just because this

710
00:45:13.239 --> 00:45:15.159
sounds like something that I would be like, well, this

711
00:45:16.079 --> 00:45:19.280
sounds like how I teach, I don't care. I don't

712
00:45:19.320 --> 00:45:22.960
think that that works in James one, I just I

713
00:45:23.119 --> 00:45:26.440
have problems with this, all right, how about the law

714
00:45:26.480 --> 00:45:32.199
of liberty alternative interpretations. The law liberty does not mean

715
00:45:32.280 --> 00:45:36.280
believers are now capable of perfectly obeying God's command. Instead,

716
00:45:36.360 --> 00:45:39.960
it could be understod so AI admits. Just because you

717
00:45:40.039 --> 00:45:43.199
see the words law of liberty. This doesn't necessarily mean

718
00:45:43.480 --> 00:45:47.119
that you're now capable to perfectly obey the law. Anyone

719
00:45:47.159 --> 00:45:52.440
who says that it is not being it's not being honest, well,

720
00:45:52.480 --> 00:45:55.559
because reality would would prove that you're not. So. How's

721
00:45:55.840 --> 00:46:00.840
what's some ways of interpreting this, Well, this is what

722
00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:04.199
AI said. Here's some alternative interpretations the law of liberty.

723
00:46:04.360 --> 00:46:07.559
And that's in verse I know I don't keep reading

724
00:46:07.599 --> 00:46:09.280
these verses because I told you to read them over

725
00:46:09.320 --> 00:46:11.199
and over and over. The law of liberty is in

726
00:46:11.320 --> 00:46:15.239
verse twenty five. But whoso looketh into the perfect law

727
00:46:15.320 --> 00:46:18.480
of liberty and continue if therein him, being not a

728
00:46:18.559 --> 00:46:21.199
forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man

729
00:46:21.239 --> 00:46:27.960
should be blessed in his deed. All right. Hei offers

730
00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:30.920
this as an alternative that the law of liberty could

731
00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:35.280
be the Gospel standard fulfilled in Christ. The law of

732
00:46:35.360 --> 00:46:38.119
liberty is not about what believers do, but about what

733
00:46:38.280 --> 00:46:42.400
Christ has done on their behalf. It is liberty or

734
00:46:42.440 --> 00:46:46.480
it's liberating because it frees believers from the condemnation of

735
00:46:46.559 --> 00:46:52.039
the law while still holding up God's holy standard. All right.

736
00:46:52.199 --> 00:46:55.920
The law of liberty is about what Christ has fulfilled.

737
00:46:56.480 --> 00:46:59.800
It doesn't free you from the power, but it frees

738
00:46:59.800 --> 00:47:03.440
you from the condemnation of Well. See if the law

739
00:47:03.480 --> 00:47:09.599
of liberty is freeing me from the condemnation see, then

740
00:47:09.639 --> 00:47:13.320
that would mean then the ungrafted word. If the ingrafted

741
00:47:13.360 --> 00:47:15.880
word is the Gospel message, and the law of liberty

742
00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:18.519
is basically the gospel message of Christ fulfilling the law,

743
00:47:18.679 --> 00:47:20.679
that would seem to mean the ingrafted word and the

744
00:47:20.760 --> 00:47:23.719
law of liberty is the same thing. I say, I'm

745
00:47:23.760 --> 00:47:32.480
not convinced that they're the same thing. I think there

746
00:47:32.519 --> 00:47:34.599
needs to be a progression of thought here. But okay,

747
00:47:38.280 --> 00:47:41.239
when James speaks of looking into the perfect law of liberty,

748
00:47:41.800 --> 00:47:44.679
it may be less about empowering obedience and more about

749
00:47:44.719 --> 00:47:48.519
confronting believers with the perfection they cannot achieve, driving them

750
00:47:48.599 --> 00:47:52.079
back to grace. This aligns with Paul's teaching in Galatians

751
00:47:52.119 --> 00:47:54.800
three twenty four, where the law serves as a tutor

752
00:47:55.079 --> 00:47:58.079
leading to Christ. So we look into the law of liberty,

753
00:47:58.320 --> 00:48:01.760
we see perfection. We see Christ keeping it. We know

754
00:48:01.920 --> 00:48:04.639
we can never keep it, which drives us more back

755
00:48:04.719 --> 00:48:08.679
to Christ. So I asked Ai for the implication. It says,

756
00:48:08.800 --> 00:48:12.320
the law of liberty shows us God's holy standard, reminding

757
00:48:12.440 --> 00:48:15.440
us of our dependence on Christ's righteousness rather than our

758
00:48:15.480 --> 00:48:20.679
own ability to keep the law perfectly. And It says

759
00:48:20.880 --> 00:48:25.559
James does not resolve the tension between the high standard

760
00:48:25.639 --> 00:48:28.400
of the law of liberty and the ongoing real reality

761
00:48:28.480 --> 00:48:32.159
of sin. Instead, his emphasis is on faith that works

762
00:48:32.559 --> 00:48:36.320
a life of striving, not perfection. The call to be

763
00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:39.400
doers of the Word is not about achieving perfection, but

764
00:48:39.519 --> 00:48:43.199
about responding to the ungrafted Word with ongoing repentance and

765
00:48:43.280 --> 00:48:47.239
a sincere desire to align with God's will, blessing and

766
00:48:47.360 --> 00:48:50.679
the striving. The blessing promised in James one twenty five

767
00:48:51.079 --> 00:48:54.239
is not a promise of sinless perfection, but an encouragement

768
00:48:54.320 --> 00:48:57.320
that striving to live according to God's will brings spiritual

769
00:48:57.440 --> 00:49:05.039
growth and alignment with our call even as we fall short. Okay,

770
00:49:05.400 --> 00:49:15.000
I'm still not I'm not completely convinced of this. So

771
00:49:15.159 --> 00:49:18.239
then AI says, Okay, how does this all fit with

772
00:49:18.360 --> 00:49:23.119
the textual and linguistic context? The ungrafted word is received

773
00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:27.760
James one one, not something believers create or achieve. This

774
00:49:27.920 --> 00:49:31.159
underscores it's external origin and reminds us that salvation and

775
00:49:31.239 --> 00:49:36.320
transformation comes from God, not ourselves. Well again, that doesn't

776
00:49:36.360 --> 00:49:39.480
really help. Again, if you're going to refer to the

777
00:49:39.679 --> 00:49:43.000
transformation comes from God, if transformation comes from God and

778
00:49:43.079 --> 00:49:46.760
not from us, well then if I'm not transformed, you

779
00:49:46.840 --> 00:49:51.239
can't blame me. It's God's fault. See that. Christianity loves

780
00:49:51.280 --> 00:49:53.679
to say this. It's not about what you do. God

781
00:49:53.840 --> 00:49:55.840
is the one who changes you. God is the one

782
00:49:55.880 --> 00:49:58.360
who transforms you. And then as soon as someone falls

783
00:49:58.400 --> 00:50:03.400
into sain ex community, disqualify, throw out of everything, throw

784
00:50:03.440 --> 00:50:06.039
out of ministry, throw them off the top of a building.

785
00:50:06.079 --> 00:50:07.719
Wait wait wait, wait, wait wait wait. If it's God

786
00:50:07.760 --> 00:50:11.760
who transforms, the lack of transformation means well, they weren't

787
00:50:11.800 --> 00:50:14.480
transformed in that area because God didn't transform them. So

788
00:50:14.599 --> 00:50:18.800
then go blame God. Excommunicate God. Yeah no, no, no, no,

789
00:50:19.039 --> 00:50:20.840
it's not God's fault. Well wait a minute, I thought

790
00:50:20.840 --> 00:50:23.239
you said God is the one who transforms. If it's

791
00:50:23.320 --> 00:50:26.760
God who transforms, any lack of transformation in someone's life

792
00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:30.400
is God's fault. So is it God who transforms or

793
00:50:30.480 --> 00:50:33.280
is it not? Well, God transforms, but you have to

794
00:50:33.360 --> 00:50:37.440
do your part. Oh, so then it is me. No,

795
00:50:37.599 --> 00:50:41.360
it's God, No, it's me. If I can stop God,

796
00:50:41.599 --> 00:50:44.599
and I'm the one who makes the final determination on

797
00:50:44.679 --> 00:50:47.719
how much transformation there is or isn't. Then it's me

798
00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:52.480
controlling the process. It's not God doing the process. And

799
00:50:52.599 --> 00:50:54.360
if it's simply all I have to do is say

800
00:50:54.400 --> 00:50:57.840
God transform me, well, then I'm okay, God perfectly transform me.

801
00:50:57.960 --> 00:51:02.920
I should wake up tomorrow perfect right. Well, God transforms

802
00:51:03.320 --> 00:51:07.320
in a process. So if God decides to do it

803
00:51:07.440 --> 00:51:11.559
in a progressive way as a process, well, then wherever

804
00:51:11.639 --> 00:51:14.719
I am in in the process, it's because God decided

805
00:51:14.760 --> 00:51:16.480
to do it in a process where he could just

806
00:51:16.519 --> 00:51:19.079
eliminate my sinful nature and I could be perfect that

807
00:51:19.159 --> 00:51:23.760
which would still mean any lack of perfection, any lack

808
00:51:23.840 --> 00:51:27.039
of holiness in my life, is because God has decided

809
00:51:27.320 --> 00:51:30.000
not to get me to holiness. You can't get God

810
00:51:30.079 --> 00:51:37.320
off the hook. And not only that, It says that

811
00:51:38.840 --> 00:51:43.000
the ungrafted word is received, not something believers create or achieve.

812
00:51:43.039 --> 00:51:48.000
This underscores its external origin, but it says it's ingrafted.

813
00:51:48.119 --> 00:51:50.639
Sayce thee I already have see me and AI are

814
00:51:50.719 --> 00:51:54.480
having some difficulties here. Now. AI goes on to say

815
00:51:54.519 --> 00:51:58.920
the law of liberty that it's perfect. It highlights its

816
00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:02.639
unattainable stand apart from Christ. Yet believers are called to

817
00:52:02.679 --> 00:52:05.599
preserve and looking into it not because they can perfectly

818
00:52:05.639 --> 00:52:08.440
fulfill it, but because it keeps them oriented towards God's

819
00:52:08.480 --> 00:52:15.000
holiness and their need for grace. So it says, this

820
00:52:15.159 --> 00:52:17.800
is what AI has to say about its interpretation, how

821
00:52:17.840 --> 00:52:21.119
would you live out AI's interpretation will This approach avoids

822
00:52:21.159 --> 00:52:25.480
the idea of claiming practical freedom from sin and instead

823
00:52:25.559 --> 00:52:27.960
emphasizes something different. So it says AI is saying, at

824
00:52:28.079 --> 00:52:31.599
least my interpretation that I've offering this alternative one will

825
00:52:31.679 --> 00:52:34.880
keep you from everyone running around claiming you can basically

826
00:52:35.039 --> 00:52:40.119
keep the law. But instead it refers to position over practice.

827
00:52:41.079 --> 00:52:43.920
Believers are justified by Christ and stand in grace even

828
00:52:43.960 --> 00:52:49.239
if we struggle with sin. Obedience is not about achieving perfection,

829
00:52:49.639 --> 00:52:52.480
but about responding to God's grace with repentance, humility, and

830
00:52:52.559 --> 00:52:55.920
the desire to reflect his character. The ungrafted word in

831
00:52:56.000 --> 00:52:58.159
law of liberty points us back to Christ when we fail,

832
00:52:58.519 --> 00:53:03.199
reminding us that our hope is in ourselves but in Him.

833
00:53:08.039 --> 00:53:14.360
So I was like, well, I don't that sounds like

834
00:53:14.400 --> 00:53:17.960
a lot of platitudes, a lot of theological concepts, But

835
00:53:18.079 --> 00:53:20.599
I don't know if it really stays with the text.

836
00:53:21.320 --> 00:53:23.000
I don't even know how I would work through the

837
00:53:23.079 --> 00:53:25.840
text the way they're putting it forth. It just seems

838
00:53:25.920 --> 00:53:29.000
like it's so it does feel like you're taking these

839
00:53:29.039 --> 00:53:34.360
theological ideas and you're crumming them into the text. And

840
00:53:34.480 --> 00:53:38.320
I'm not a fan of that. So I said, okay, Ai,

841
00:53:39.360 --> 00:53:42.480
we have looked at a sermon and how they've approached

842
00:53:42.639 --> 00:53:46.119
the ingrafted word and the law of liberty. We've taken

843
00:53:46.199 --> 00:53:49.159
a journey from the second century all the way to

844
00:53:49.280 --> 00:53:53.079
modern times, looking at how everyone has interpreted the ingrafted

845
00:53:53.079 --> 00:53:56.599
word and the law of liberty. I've let you Ai

846
00:53:56.800 --> 00:53:59.000
now speak for I don't even know how long it

847
00:53:59.079 --> 00:54:01.639
had gone. Probably we had gone for forty five minutes,

848
00:54:01.679 --> 00:54:04.119
going back and forth. I've let you basically go forty

849
00:54:04.159 --> 00:54:06.679
five minutes giving me all of these ideas, all of

850
00:54:06.760 --> 00:54:11.719
these theological platitudes. You've given me your interpretation, your alternative interpretation,

851
00:54:12.079 --> 00:54:15.360
and let me just say, Ai, I'm not happy with

852
00:54:15.519 --> 00:54:20.880
any of it. So then I I cracked my knuckles.

853
00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:23.320
I can't crack them right now, Okay, I cracked my knuckles,

854
00:54:23.360 --> 00:54:26.719
and I'm like, Okay, let's start typing, and I was like,

855
00:54:28.440 --> 00:54:31.000
I typed, and I typed, and I typed, and I typed,

856
00:54:31.079 --> 00:54:33.480
and I typed, and I typed, and I typed, and

857
00:54:33.599 --> 00:54:40.599
I typed out my interpretation, I hit enter and Ai

858
00:54:41.039 --> 00:54:44.840
it took a minute to analyze. After it analyzed everything,

859
00:54:44.920 --> 00:54:53.800
I said, AI said, your hypothesis hypotheses is an intriguing

860
00:54:54.960 --> 00:55:03.199
alternative interpretation, and it aligns certain biblical themes while staying

861
00:55:03.480 --> 00:55:09.199
true to the text, emphasizing on receiving the ingrafted word

862
00:55:09.360 --> 00:55:18.400
with meekness. That that sounds pretty good, doesn't it all? Right?

863
00:55:18.800 --> 00:55:21.000
So I spent all I don't even know how long

864
00:55:21.039 --> 00:55:22.440
it took me to type it all out, but I

865
00:55:22.519 --> 00:55:26.280
typed it all out. I said, okay, Ai, I don't

866
00:55:26.320 --> 00:55:28.360
agree with your interpretation. I don't even agree with your

867
00:55:28.400 --> 00:55:31.440
alternative interpretations. I don't agree with anybody in church history,

868
00:55:31.559 --> 00:55:34.119
and I don't agree with the original sermon. I just

869
00:55:34.280 --> 00:55:36.559
disagree with all of it. So here's my take. So

870
00:55:36.639 --> 00:55:39.960
I typed out an entire interpretation and again, let me

871
00:55:40.039 --> 00:55:48.599
read how AI responded. Your hypothesis is an intriguing alternative interpretation.

872
00:55:49.519 --> 00:55:53.599
It aligns with certain biblical themes while staying true to

873
00:55:53.719 --> 00:55:58.360
the text's emphasis on receiving the ingrafted word with meekness.

874
00:56:01.360 --> 00:56:06.960
So then it says, let's explore your hypotheses, and it

875
00:56:07.079 --> 00:56:12.800
begins to break it down with some of my basic interpretation,

876
00:56:16.639 --> 00:56:24.760
and we'll talk about it next time. Did that work?

877
00:56:24.920 --> 00:56:29.119
Is that a good hook? Come on? That's a good tease? Right?

878
00:56:29.960 --> 00:56:31.719
Is that gonna make you want to tune in next time?

879
00:56:32.119 --> 00:56:34.239
Are you gonna be like, oh, come on, do the

880
00:56:34.320 --> 00:56:37.480
next part today? Come on? Well, you know, for a

881
00:56:37.719 --> 00:56:41.960
small gift of seventy seven thousand dollars. Okay, I'm joking.

882
00:56:42.119 --> 00:56:44.800
I'm joking, but no, I am not. I'm not joking.

883
00:56:45.239 --> 00:56:47.960
You're gonna have to wait till next time. Right, we're

884
00:56:48.039 --> 00:56:50.159
fifty six minutes. Do you really want me to get

885
00:56:50.199 --> 00:56:53.079
into it now, do you? No? No, no, no, no, no,

886
00:56:53.199 --> 00:56:55.440
no no no no. We'll take a break. I will

887
00:56:55.480 --> 00:56:57.119
try to come back and do it today. I will

888
00:56:57.679 --> 00:56:59.719
because now we I know, going through all of that

889
00:57:00.360 --> 00:57:03.920
stuff was probably a little confusing and confound because it's

890
00:57:04.039 --> 00:57:06.599
because but you know what, when you read everything about

891
00:57:06.679 --> 00:57:09.159
what the ungrafted word is and what the law of

892
00:57:09.239 --> 00:57:13.239
liberty is, personally, I feel on all the sermons you

893
00:57:13.320 --> 00:57:17.000
look at and commentaries, you're kind of left. Okay, so exactly,

894
00:57:17.239 --> 00:57:19.360
it sounds like you're telling me what it is. But

895
00:57:19.480 --> 00:57:22.079
what does that even really do practically? How does that

896
00:57:22.199 --> 00:57:24.519
even work? Well, when you get down to it, you

897
00:57:24.559 --> 00:57:29.760
know what it does on every interpretation is you can

898
00:57:29.880 --> 00:57:32.760
do it. You can do it, you can do it.

899
00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:35.320
I mean you can't really do it. I mean you're free,

900
00:57:35.480 --> 00:57:38.679
but you're not completely free. You have power, but I

901
00:57:38.719 --> 00:57:40.159
mean you don't have the power to get to perfection.

902
00:57:40.480 --> 00:57:42.440
I mean, yeah, I mean you you're never gonna be

903
00:57:42.480 --> 00:57:43.920
holy as God as holy well, I mean you're never

904
00:57:43.960 --> 00:57:45.559
gonna love God with all your heart in my body soulf.

905
00:57:45.599 --> 00:57:47.280
I mean, you're still gonna fight with sin. There's no

906
00:57:47.679 --> 00:57:49.679
but you can do it. And you're like, what does

907
00:57:49.760 --> 00:57:54.639
this even mean? So it's just confusing. So what I

908
00:57:54.920 --> 00:57:57.719
think is we have to have an interpretation that takes

909
00:57:57.760 --> 00:58:00.199
the ingrafted word in the law of liberty and it

910
00:58:00.440 --> 00:58:06.159
makes like it's tangible, it makes sense so that anybody

911
00:58:06.280 --> 00:58:09.119
can understand and go, that's what it means, but it

912
00:58:09.239 --> 00:58:13.679
stays true to the text. So I tie, Look, I

913
00:58:13.760 --> 00:58:17.599
spent I don't know thirty minutes typing out everything I thought,

914
00:58:17.960 --> 00:58:20.000
and then I handed it to Ai, and again AI said,

915
00:58:20.039 --> 00:58:24.159
but that my hypothesis. Now I wanted AI to refer

916
00:58:24.280 --> 00:58:26.280
to mine as a hypothesis, so I said, here is

917
00:58:26.360 --> 00:58:28.760
my hypothesis, because I did not want it to say

918
00:58:29.079 --> 00:58:32.480
here's what I think. No, here's just my theory. And

919
00:58:32.599 --> 00:58:34.519
all I'm gonna do to you. All I'm gonna do

920
00:58:34.599 --> 00:58:38.920
for you is present to you my theory. All right,

921
00:58:39.320 --> 00:58:42.480
not now, but I will so again AI said, your

922
00:58:42.599 --> 00:58:46.800
hypothesis is an intriguing alternative interpretation. So it admits it's

923
00:58:46.800 --> 00:58:50.360
an alternative because it goes against pretty much everyone else.

924
00:58:51.639 --> 00:58:54.440
It aligns with certain biblical themes. That's good to know,

925
00:58:55.159 --> 00:58:59.559
and it stays true to the text emphasis. Look, look

926
00:58:59.599 --> 00:59:07.440
at this, receive with meekness the ungrafted word, which is

927
00:59:07.480 --> 00:59:09.559
able to save your soul. I think the key here

928
00:59:09.760 --> 00:59:12.039
is whatever the ungrafted word is, it's something I have

929
00:59:12.199 --> 00:59:15.400
to receive. I'm called to receive it. They were called

930
00:59:15.440 --> 00:59:18.800
to receive it. It's already there, it's ingrafted in you,

931
00:59:19.159 --> 00:59:21.559
but you now have to receive it. It's like there's

932
00:59:21.599 --> 00:59:26.280
something that's been put in you that teaches or says something,

933
00:59:26.599 --> 00:59:28.559
but now you've got to be willing to acknowledge it

934
00:59:28.800 --> 00:59:32.239
and receive it, and somehow the receiving of whatever this

935
00:59:32.480 --> 00:59:37.920
ingrafted word is plays a vital role in salvation. There's

936
00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:40.239
only one thing that makes any sense to me here,

937
00:59:41.519 --> 00:59:46.960
all right. And it says that I emphasize, in my view,

938
00:59:47.159 --> 00:59:51.639
the receiving the ungrafted word with meekness. And it says, so,

939
00:59:51.760 --> 00:59:54.800
let's explore the idea that the ungrafted word refers to

940
00:59:55.199 --> 00:59:58.599
the and stop right there, because well, then I offer

941
00:59:58.719 --> 01:00:03.599
my interpretation. Ai. AI at least thinks it's intriguing. It

942
01:00:03.679 --> 01:00:06.719
thinks it's an alternative, an interpretation, and it says that

943
01:00:06.800 --> 01:00:09.280
I align with biblical truth and I'm staying true to

944
01:00:09.519 --> 01:00:13.559
the text. It's about the text. Look, it would be

945
01:00:13.840 --> 01:00:15.960
it would make much more sense that I just go

946
01:00:16.079 --> 01:00:20.199
with what AI said earlier on about the positional versus

947
01:00:20.280 --> 01:00:24.679
the practical and that this doesn't necessarily say anything about power.

948
01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:27.480
And that sounded so good, but I just don't think

949
01:00:27.480 --> 01:00:32.280
it works in the text. And it almost connects the

950
01:00:32.639 --> 01:00:34.960
ingrafted word with the law of liberty almost being the

951
01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:37.840
same thing, and I think they're separate. I think the

952
01:00:38.039 --> 01:00:41.280
ingrafted word does one thing and the law of liberty

953
01:00:41.320 --> 01:00:45.360
points to a separate thing. Now they're connected, but I

954
01:00:45.440 --> 01:00:48.960
think they're separate. The ingrafted word. Think of this way.

955
01:00:49.000 --> 01:00:51.920
The ingrafted word is gonna say do do do this,

956
01:00:52.760 --> 01:00:55.360
and you're and you can't, and well, you're gonna have

957
01:00:55.480 --> 01:00:57.320
to go to You're gonna have to do something in

958
01:00:57.400 --> 01:01:00.159
a sense, you're gonna have to go somewhere. And then well,

959
01:01:00.199 --> 01:01:01.960
that's going to take you to the law of liberty,

960
01:01:02.159 --> 01:01:05.239
which is going to say done, all right, do done?

961
01:01:05.679 --> 01:01:10.159
How to write an entire paper on do and done? Right,

962
01:01:11.559 --> 01:01:15.639
do and done? Do? That's what the law says done,

963
01:01:15.760 --> 01:01:18.599
That's what Christ has done. That's I know, very law gospel.

964
01:01:19.199 --> 01:01:20.719
You know, I'm going to revert back to that to

965
01:01:20.840 --> 01:01:22.440
some level. I think that's the only way to truly

966
01:01:22.559 --> 01:01:25.599
understand much of this. This is why Christians get so

967
01:01:25.760 --> 01:01:30.800
confused and confounded. So that's what we're going to do.

968
01:01:31.440 --> 01:01:35.800
We've gone so what have we done so far? I

969
01:01:35.920 --> 01:01:37.639
know it's very hard to take notes and all of this,

970
01:01:37.840 --> 01:01:41.800
I know, because it's just really confounding and confusing. But

971
01:01:42.360 --> 01:01:45.840
we have listened to, we have analyzed an entire sermon

972
01:01:45.880 --> 01:01:49.639
called the Law of Liberty by Brandon Neely. Go listen

973
01:01:49.679 --> 01:01:53.679
to all of it, right, We did a review of

974
01:01:53.840 --> 01:01:56.639
part of it. Then I did an entire analysis of it.

975
01:01:57.320 --> 01:02:00.519
So we definitely covered that. We looked at how AI

976
01:02:00.679 --> 01:02:05.639
attempted to try to deal with it, and Ai, whatever

977
01:02:05.719 --> 01:02:08.280
you think about it, I challenged it. I asked AI

978
01:02:08.440 --> 01:02:13.639
for alternative interpretations, and it gave me alternative interpretations. Now,

979
01:02:13.800 --> 01:02:18.559
at least did acknowledge. AI did acknowledge. Well, yeah, Christians

980
01:02:18.760 --> 01:02:20.960
constantly say you have power, you can do it, you

981
01:02:21.000 --> 01:02:23.639
can do it. Even AI acknowledged that. Sermon the law

982
01:02:23.639 --> 01:02:26.679
of liberty basically claim that you can keep the law

983
01:02:27.000 --> 01:02:31.440
all That's the philological beginning point of almost all Christians,

984
01:02:31.519 --> 01:02:33.400
is that we can now obey the law. But they

985
01:02:33.440 --> 01:02:35.519
can't explain if we can obey it, why nobody can

986
01:02:35.599 --> 01:02:38.119
keep it perfectly. If I can't keep it perfectly, then

987
01:02:38.159 --> 01:02:40.760
I'm not obeying it because the law demands perfection. It's

988
01:02:40.840 --> 01:02:45.079
such a contradictory position that Christians hold. Even AI said,

989
01:02:45.119 --> 01:02:50.079
look this, you're right, Christians promised this, and the reality

990
01:02:50.199 --> 01:02:53.559
is nobody can do it. So all right, that how

991
01:02:53.599 --> 01:02:55.679
do we resolve this tension? So AI try to come

992
01:02:55.760 --> 01:02:59.119
up with some alternative interpretations. I think the alternative alternative

993
01:02:59.159 --> 01:03:06.599
interpretations from a theological standpoint sounds good, right, I don't

994
01:03:06.639 --> 01:03:15.719
think it sounds good textually. That's my problem. So can

995
01:03:15.800 --> 01:03:17.639
I come up with something that will work, that will

996
01:03:17.679 --> 01:03:25.039
get us from verse nineteen to verse twenty seven, right?

997
01:03:25.880 --> 01:03:32.440
Because that wherefore they're in nineteen and when we get

998
01:03:32.480 --> 01:03:34.199
down to it, some of this is going to be difficult.

999
01:03:34.199 --> 01:03:36.679
But whatever he tells them, Hey, beloved brethren, let every

1000
01:03:36.840 --> 01:03:39.360
man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow

1001
01:03:39.440 --> 01:03:48.039
to wrath. Heyhhhhhhhh, don't get mad, don't get ticked off,

1002
01:03:48.199 --> 01:03:52.480
because the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore,

1003
01:03:52.719 --> 01:03:56.199
all right, hey, you got to listen to me. Now,

1004
01:03:56.440 --> 01:04:01.079
what do we need to do? Then we get to

1005
01:04:01.199 --> 01:04:03.280
verse twenty one, and now we're going to be introduced

1006
01:04:03.320 --> 01:04:06.039
to the ungrafted word, and then a few verses later

1007
01:04:06.199 --> 01:04:08.159
we're going to be introduced to the law of liberty.

1008
01:04:15.079 --> 01:04:26.079
All right, Next time we do it, I offer my interpretation,

1009
01:04:26.320 --> 01:04:36.880
a new interpretation. We'll find out what happens. As they

1010
01:04:37.000 --> 01:04:40.039
used to say in the famous Batman series from the

1011
01:04:40.159 --> 01:04:45.679
nineteen sixties, tune in same Bat time, same bat channel.

1012
01:04:46.760 --> 01:04:49.679
Will Batman and Robin be saved or will they will

1013
01:04:49.719 --> 01:04:52.679
the Joker kill them. They're in this horrible trap. There's

1014
01:04:52.760 --> 01:04:56.400
no way they're going to escape. Tune in, Well, can

1015
01:04:56.480 --> 01:05:00.320
I come up with an alternative interpretation that actually wor works,

1016
01:05:02.519 --> 01:05:05.400
or will I be proven to be an idiot? Well,

1017
01:05:05.440 --> 01:05:06.880
I may be proven to be an idiot, but I'm

1018
01:05:06.880 --> 01:05:09.480
going to go down swinging, So tune in next time.

1019
01:05:09.679 --> 01:05:10.239
God bless