James 5

James 5:1

I say by means of death; for where such a covenant is, there must be the death of him by whom it is confirmed - Seeing it is by his death that the benefits of it are purchased. It seems beneath the dignity of the apostle to play upon the ambiguity of the Greek word, as the common translation supposes him to do.

James 5:2

After he is dead - Neither this, nor after men are dead is a literal translation of the words. It is a very perplexed passage.

James 5:3

Whence neither was the first - The Jewish covenant, originally transacted without the blood of an appointed sacrifice.

James 5:4

He took the blood of calves - Or heifers. And of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop - All these circumstances are not particularly mentioned in that chapter of Exodus, but are supposed to be already known from other passages of Moses. And the book itself - Which contained all he had said. And sprinkled all the people - Who were near him. The blood was mixed with water to prevent its growing too stiff for sprinkling; perhaps also to typify that blood and water, John 19:34. Exodus 24:7,8

James 5:5

Saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined me to deliver unto you - By this it is established. Exodus 24:8.

James 5:6

And in like manner he ordered the tabernacle - When it was made, and all its vessels, to be sprinkled with blood once a year.

James 5:7

And almost all things - For some were purified by water or fire. Are according to the law purified with blood - Offered or sprinkled. And according to the law, there is no forgiveness of sins without shedding of blood - All this pointed to the blood of Christ effectually cleansing from all sin, and intimated, there can be no purification from it by any other means.

James 5:8

Therefore - That is, it plainly appears from what has been said. It was necessary - According to the appointment of God. That the tabernacle and all its utensils, which were patterns, shadowy representations, of things in heaven, should be purified by these - Sacrifices and sprinklings. But the heavenly things themselves - Our heaven - born spirits: what more this may mean we know not yet. By better sacrifices than these - That is, by a better sacrifice, which is here opposed to all the legal sacrifices, and is expressed plurally, because it includes the signification of them all, and is of so much more eminent virtue.

James 5:9

For Christ did not enter into the holy place made with hands - He never went into the holy of holies at Jerusalem, the figure of the true tabernacle in heaven, Hebrews 8:2. But into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us - As our glorious high priest and powerful intercessor.

James 5:11

For then he must often have suffered from the foundation of the world - This supposes, That by suffering once he atoned for all the sins which had been committed from the foundation of the world. That he could not have atoned for them without suffering. At the consummation of the ages - The sacrifice of Christ divides the whole age or duration of the world into two parts, and extends its virtue backward and forward, from this middle point wherein they meet to abolish both the guilt and power of sin.

James 5:12

After this, the judgment - Of the great day. At the moment of death every man’s final state is determined. But there is not a word in scripture of a particular judgment immediately after death.

James 5:13

Christ having once died to bear the sins - The punishment due to them. Of many - Even as many as are born into the world. Will appear the second time - When he comes to judgment. Without sin - Not as he did before, bearing on himself the sins of many, but to bestow everlasting salvation.

James 5:15

From all that has been said it appears, that the law, the Mosaic dispensation, being a bare, unsubstantial shadow of good things to come, of the gospel blessings, and not the substantial, solid image of them, can never with the same kind of sacrifices, though continually repeated, make the comers thereunto perfect, either as to justification or sanctification. How is it possible, that any who consider this should suppose the attainments of David, or any who were under that dispensation, to be the proper measure of gospel holiness; and that Christian experience is to rise no higher than Jewish?

James 5:16

They who had been once perfectly purged, would have been no longer conscious either of the guilt or power of their sins.

James 5:17

There is a public commemoration of the sins both of the last and of all the preceding years; a clear proof that the guilt thereof is not perfectly purged away.

James 5:18

It is impossible the blood of goats should take away sins - Either the guilt or the power of them.

James 5:19

When he cometh into the world - In the fortieth psalm the Messiah’s coming into the world is represented. It is said, into the world, not into the tabernacle, Hebrews 9:1; because all the world is interested in his sacrifice. A body hast thou prepared for me - That I may offer up myself. Psalms 40:6,&c.