God gives grace to the humble

James 4:5 closes with, "Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, 'The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?'" In our last look at James, we examined the war that takes place all around us and in each one of us. We discussed how the flesh and the spirit are at odds with one another, and can never reach peace until God has the eventual victory. Both sides of this war know the eventual conclusion and each know who will be the victor. James 4:5 is a reference to when this spiritual war had reached a climax. Referring back to Genesis 6:5, think back to a time when all of mankind's thoughts "were only evil continually." There is no other time that could be of a greater example of this spiritual warfare becoming a physical warfare than the account in Genesis 6.

James does not speak of our mind of the spirit here in James 4:5, but is referring to the inner man and his thoughts. As has been pointed out, in Genesis 6, mankind's thoughts were only evil. The flesh desired to have victory over God and the light of His truth by seeking its own carnal pleasures. Mankind as a majority turned from God and every man followed his own heart. As discussed in our last study of James, the flesh could not provide man with the satisfaction that the spirit, with God's help, could do. This is why James records the words of Genesis 6:5 about mankind's "thoughts only being evil continually" as "the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealousy" (Genesis 6:5; James 4:5). It sought to do what God could do, but knew that it could not. It desired what it could not have, and thus began war after war.

God "gives more grace." God is the creator and owner of everything on earth. The psalmist writes the words of God as He says, "Every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness" (Psalm 50:9-12). Isaiah also writes, "Thus says the Lord: 'Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,' says the Lord." "But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word" (Isaiah 66:1-2). God owns everything because He has created it. He is the one that gives to us all of our blessings (James 1:17). What can man give God that He does not already have? By the same logic, what can this world give us that God cannot? What can the world do for us? Nothing.

Therefore James writes, "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6). Here he quotes Proverbs 3:4. From the beginning, God has rejected the man or woman that would not acknowledge Him as the Almighty. For all of those who are willing to obey Him and subject themselves into His service, He gives grace and blessings. For all those who choose to rebel against His authority, He resists and punishes. Man cannot resist the authority of God and be pleasing unto Him. By resisting God's word, man makes himself an enemy.

Recalling Genesis 6 back into the discussion, when mankind only thought evil continually, what conclusion did it reach? Total destruction of all of those who did not enter into the ark. When God's wrath was poured out on mankind in the form of the flood, only those who were willing to be obedient and do His will were saved. How can we save ourselves from the same destruction as those who were killed in the flood? Peter tells us that just as water saved Noah by separating him from the fate of those evil men, we can be saved in water also. Peter writes, "… when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us -- baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:20-21). Through faith and obedience to God's Word, we can receive His grace of salvation. By conforming ourselves to the image of His Son through baptism we too can be saved like Noah (Romans 6:1-17).

Jeremy Ferguson