James the brother of Jesus said: " faith without work is worthless "
but Paul said: no need to work as long as you have faith..
the question is whom should we adhere? James, the brother of Jesus whom we love? or Paul who came 300 years after Jesus and used to hunt christians?
Help me please..
Your gonna need some patience on this one lovethelord. No doubt there will be the naysayers to put you off from considering the following, but if you look in the Book without bias or traditional approaches, you will find the conflict is easily resolved.
Jesus declared that His commission from the Father did not include us.
Mt 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
He never while on earth declared otherwise. His promises to His people Israel had to be confirmed because He spoke it to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Ro 15:8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises [made] unto the fathers:
Our place as gentiles and strangers to the covenants of God would never have changed had ALL Israel repented and gotten baptized. They refused God's mercy and offer of the King and the Kingdom, so God, using the persecutor Saul of Tarsus, began the dispensation of grace.
Ac 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish
my course with joy and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of
the grace of God.
Ac 21:19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the
Gentiles by his ministry.
Ro 11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
The saints of Israel, under the leadership of the Twelve Apostles did not come to pass as it was suppose to. God purposely locked them all up in stubbornness that He could show mercy to everyone, not just the Jew.
Ro 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye (gentiles)should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: As concerning the gospel, [they are] enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, [they are] beloved for the fathers'sakes For as ye (gentiles) in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
When the Lord returns as the Son of Mankind, instead of as the Savior the first time, it will be to judge the nations.
Mt 19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when
the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel.
Mt 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth [his] sheep from the goats:
Israel to will receive her judgment, at the time of Jacob's trouble and the great persecution that comes upon them, just before His return. Following the tribulation period, and Satan being bound for the thousand years, the resurrected saints of Israel, along with the 144,000 will take their place in service to Him on the earth, inheriting the promised land.
They will be governing all the earth according to the commandments of the sermon on the Mount. They WILL have works, and that is what He wanted the first time. But they could not do it. When He returns, He will write His laws on their hearts and minds, supernaturally writing His law in their consciences, and bypassing faith.
For when He appears, and rules with a rod of iron, faith will give way to sight, and the presence of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the earth. There will be no need of faith at that time, but works will be in high demand, and transgressors dealt with swiftly.
Till He returns, the Jew will always need to provide the evidence of faith and works in order to meet God's approval. They promised Him at Sinai that they would, and He will not let them out of the agreement.
Paul's commission came from the glorified Christ, Who returned to earth and appeared visibly to him.
The twelve received their commission from the resurrected, but not yet exalted, Son of God.
Paul received the last of the prophetic utterances of God to men, not Peter or James or John, or any other.
James, the writer you are referring to was not even an apostle of the Lord. He was the Lord's brother in the flesh. Towards the end of the Kingdom offer, he had even more influence over the Jewish believers in Jerusalem than Peter did, who was one of the twelve, indicating how messed up things had become.
We are new creations in Christ, not born-again, earthbound vessels of the resurrection to come. We, the Body of Christ, are way beyond regeneration. We are a new humanity, totally new, not connected to the earth other than biding our time til death or the shout to ascend. We will be transformed, as He was, the corruption putting on heavenly clothing and deathlessness.
Not so the ones who He came to the first time around. They are still under the Law. They still need to repent and be baptised in order to enter into the blood covenant of our Lord and Saviour. He has them locked up, and until the Gentile period of grace and mercy and election is completed, it will stay that way. The dead in the tombs shall hear His voice just as Lazuras did, and will be born-again to another physical existence, apart from death.
Two different gospels, one to the circumcision, Jewish, with the Law of the Mount and the Lords commands.
The gospel of grace, to the uncircumsicion, the gentile and believing Jew, ministered by Paul and those who followed him.
AV 2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
I know that there will be contention in the minds of some, but Galations is definitive and thorough enough to the honest student of the Scriptures to conclude the different evangels. Paul's and the Twelve. Grace and Law. Regeneration and new creation. One has a future in the earth, the other in the heavens.
They do not mix.
fivesense