The Prayer of a Righteous Man

What a wonderful book James is! And how often I have misunderstood it. The only real comfort for me in that is that I am not alone. I am reminded of Martin Luther – "father" of the Reformation – who was tempted to think it ought to be expunged from the canon.

In Luther’s case it's understandable, even if not excusable. A man who was given light to grasp the long-suppressed truth that we are saved by grace alone is apt to get a bit of indigestion over something that promotes the need for doing good deeds. God bless him. In the clearer light of another day he would surely have come to the conclusion that the book of James is all about fruit, and not about works of themselves.

Good works are the fruit of the work of grace in people’s hearts. And the work of grace is entirely the bailiwick of God. Good works come not from doing, but from abiding in Him Who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. Luther knew it, but he was never quite able to see it in James.

It strikes me that a similar misapprehension surrounds prayer. We tend to think of prayer as something we do of ourselves. At first glance why wouldn’t we? Jesus Himself said, "When you pray…". (Luke 11:2) There is no shortage of examples and parables from both testaments in which all sorts of people prayed. They prayed earnestly, urgently, faithfully, hopefully, fearfully – according to their need and circumstance. Many of us can just accept that knowledge and rest in it. But the grace of Jesus Christ has opened up the door to a deeper participation in the Divine Mind.

It was James himself who said, under Divine inspiration, "The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects." But first I would want to find me a righteous man. Where is there one to be found, since all have sinned and come short of the glory of God? If we have all gone astray and turned every one to our own way then where is there any righteous?

I think most of us who know the Lord can come to the understanding that we stand not in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by the grace of God in Him. But if so, then by what right do we seek to own it? It is not ours to own, but Another’s. It is indeed given to us freely, but only so that we may continually – in fact eternally – be acknowledging that it is His. It is the most blessed, uplifting, praiseworthy thing to be found adoring God for His attributes, especially when He chooses to display them in us.

We look outward. We don’t look inward. And, even if our eyes do momentarily stray to ourselves we are not gazing upon our righteousness. Wherever we see righteousness, especially if we see it in us, then we must know that it is Christ we see and not us at all. We are inseparable from His righteouness. But it is always His in our eyes.

A man once knelt before Jesus and addresses Him as "Good teacher." Jesus replied ""Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." (Mark 10:18) Let that sink in for a while. Has it changed since then? When Jesus died and when we believed did we become good? Or is there still only One Who is good – that being God alone? And, if so, then what does it mean for we who are in Him?

I think it means that goodness is not imparted to us and left there like a lump for us to pick up and play with whenever we want. Goodness is the Person of Christ, to Whom we were betrothed through His cross, if we believe. We are now vessels of His goodness, being sanctified and emptied of all that evil "goodness" of our own that we had concocted in His absence. Things we invented in order to justify ourselves, or to rationalize our existence. When God looks upon us He sees the righteousness of Christ, not us. "For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing." (2Corinthians 2:15)

So when God promises to hear the prayer of a righteous man, when He promises that it will have great effect, then I am reminded of the Father who always hears the prayer of the Son. (John 11:42) For the only righteous man Who ever lived we crucified. And it is because God resurrected Him that He now lives in us, through the Spirit, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

The prayer of that Righteous Man – the only righteous man – is the one that God hears in us. Prayers originating in ourselves – in the flesh, in the old man – such prayers are of no avail. Prayers originating in Christ – in the Spirit, in the new man (which is Christ in us) – such prayers are the ones that have "great power in their effects." Such prayer is God Himself at work in us, aligning us to His will so that we are praying as Christ is praying in us by the Spirit.

Oh that I could finally and fully surrender to that sublime realization that He fills all in all – that it is He Who does all - and that mine is merely to watch and wonder while I bow down and adore Him at work in and through my surrendered being.