Faith Forged in Fire: God uses various kinds of trials to conform you into the image of Jesus until you see Jesus. James 1:2-4

Anyone who has been Christian for a period of time recognizes that God moves in mysterious ways. His infinite wisdom and knowledge are far beyond our finite understanding. He sees things and does things that do not make sense to use, but achieve only what the divine can achieve, say the salvation of sinners. Who would have thought that God himself would have to come down as a human being and die on a cross to atone for man’s sin? That is mysterious. Who can know the mind of he Lord? Who can counsel him? Who can give to him as f he needs anything? His ways are not our ways.

The mystery of God is often what we are left with, at least at first, when we enter a season of hardship in our lives. Trials and tribulations often show up unplanned and undesired. No body wants to suffer pain in this life, and yet, all of us will suffer pain in this life. And when we do, James says you must count it all joy. More mystery. Why would we count it all joy when we are hurting, suffering, under the burden of a trial? In our world, joy and pain are more like Cain and Able than they are Jonathan and David.

Last week we sang William Cowpers Hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” I think his hymn captures the ethos of why James commands us to count it all joy when we face trials. Cowper writes,

God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform He plants His footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm

Deep in unsearchable mines Of never-failing skill He treasures up His bright designs And works His sovereign will

William Cowper is in many ways poetically capturing the nature of the truth James conveys to you and I this morning:

You can rejoice when you experience various trials knowing God is conforming you into the image of Jesus.

God’s ultimate desire in your life is to transform you into the image of His Son, Jesus. Paul says as much in

Romans 8:29 ESV

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And this transformation will come to completion when stand in his presence with glorified bodies fit for heaven. Once again, Paul says,

Romans 8:30 ESV

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

In the mean time, we are in a process of sanctification, meaning, God is progressively sanctifying us. He is in the process of revealing sin and unbelief and purifying our faith to make us holy. It is a form of character development-being conformed into the character and likeness of Jesus. In short, being conformed into the image of the Son is what it means to mature in the Christian faith.

James reveals to us that God uses various trials or hardships in your life for the purpose of purifying your faith so that you mature into a faithful believer who is able to endure until the end. A believer who is maturing in their faith will choose to see this process of sanctification as a means for joy, even though it may hurt. This morning I want to explore God’s use of various trials to conform you into the image of his son, that is to mature your faith in James 1:2-4. Before I get there, I think it is wise to help us see the special grace of knowing in verse 2.

The grace of “knowing.”

There is a special grace of knowing in James 1:3. To know is to understand the reality of what is happening in the present and what your future will bring. The act of “of knowing” is going to be like a lens by which view trials in our life. I think James offers us a set of bifocals to understand trials in our life, and this understanding becomes the basis for out joy. There are two lens of knowing to view trials in your life.

The Lens of God’s present work

James wants you to know that God uses various kinds of trials as instruments of grace in his hands to to mold and perfect your faith. He says as much when he says, “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” God us testing your faith to produce a kind of faith that perseveres until the end. Knowing this gives you the basis for joy.

Think for a moment who to people would respond to God when various trials invade their life? Scott Hubbard, editor for Desiring God, paints a picture of this tension well. He notes,

“Some sufferers bow their heads and bless the Lord, while others curse him. Some say, through tears, “I trust you,” while others refuse to pray. Some collapse into God’s presence, and learn to love him with a broken heart, while others turn their backs and walk away.” Scot Hubbard

What is the difference between these two suffers? One knows that suffering is an instrument of grace in God’s hands, while the other rejects it. Remember who James is writing too. His readers are believers who are experiencing poverty, exploitation by the rich, unrighteous anger, and even murder. They did not know the specifics of why God was allowing this or how long it would last. But they do know the promise of God to work every ounce of pain to produce endurance and maturity, to conform them into the image of Jesus. The grace of knowing became a ground for their hope. You can put your confidence, you cant trust, that God is working our his great purposes in your pain. Because you know, you can have hope.

The lens of your future hope

The joy he is referring to has an eschatological tone to it. Its the kind of joy that looks forward to the day Jesus will rid the world of trials that test your faith. In this lens, joy is a form of hope.

Peter describes this hope/joy relationship in the first few verses of his letter.

Consider 1 Peter 1:3-6. Peter uses the same language as James regarding various trials and hope. He says in verse 3

1 Peter 1:3 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Then he explains the Living Hope we have in the resurrection of Jesus that is being guarded by the Father. He then says in verse 6,

1 Peter 1:6 ESV

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

The “in this” is the Living Hope we rejoice. We have a Living Hope, the resurrected Jesus, who conquered death and sin, and who will one day restore heaven and earth. Looking forward to that future is our hope and that gives us reason to rejoice.

John Piper makes the connection of hope and joy in 1 Peter, when he says,

“Our joy is based on the happiness of our future with God and the certainty that we will make it there. Christian joy is almost synonymous with Christian hope... In this you have living, vital, life-changing hope; and in this you rejoice. Our hope is our joy.” John Piper

The special grace of knowing is, on the one hand, the joy of knowing God’s uses your suffering to mold you into the image of his Son, and on the other hand, the hope you have in the resurrected Christ . You can count it all joy, knowing God is at work now and Jesus as ensured a day where your faith will no longer be tested.

What is it that you “know” that gives you hope?

You know that trials are an effective providence of God (James 1:2).

James 1:2 (ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

When trials enter your life, they often appear unplanned and undesired. The certainty of trials in life leave people who do know God believing that there is some kind of acting force that works to bring trouble into your life. Those people will call it fate, but we know that the acting force behind the trial is a sovereign God. In some ways James alludes to this with the word “when” or “whenever.”

The temporal use of the word “when” indicates that trials may appear random, but they are a natural part of life. James does not use a conditional, such as “if you endure trials.” The use of the temporal, in my opinion, is a signal that trials are part of the human experience. It is not a matter of “if” you will experience a trial. The reality is, you will experience various trials in the course of your life. Furthermore, the trials are not random, but are and effective providence of God.

Trials are on the one hand, the result of living in a Genesis three broken world. When God cursed the earth because of Adam’s sin, he said Genesis 3:17

Genesis 3:17 ESV

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

Genesis 3:18–19 ESV

thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The curse of sin brings trials to your life. On the other hand, though, the bible teaches that God is sovereign.

Psalm 115:3 ESV

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Romans 11:33–36 ESV

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Moreover, God uses trials, to accomplish his purpose. Pauls says in Romans

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

The phrase “all things” includes fallen creation and the evil action of others. For example, consider Joseph and the wickedness of his brothers. Joseph was grievously sinned against by their hatred and jealousy of him, and yet he says at the end of it all,

Genesis 50:20 ESV

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Joseph’s brothers meant evil against Joseph. Their sinful actions thrust Joseph into a trial. But that trial, the “it” in the second phrase (God meant it for good) was part of God’s providence in Josephs’s life. God’s sovereignty allows him to use anything and everything he needs to accomplish his will, even the sin of others.

James makes it clear a few verses later that God is not the one who tempts you to sin. God is not tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone with evil. Just because God is sovereign over evil and can use it to accomplish his will, which is good and pleasing and perfect, does not make him evil. Jesus understood this about the work of the cross. Jesus says

Luke 22:22 ESV

For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”

In the context of this verse, Jesus is hours before his crucifixion. The Son of Man must go to the cross as it has been determined, predestined, God ordained. And yet, he also puts the blame square on Judas and those who would betray him by carrying it out. God’s sovereignty allows him to use all of life, even the broken parts of it, even the evil that plagues us, to conform us into the image of his Jesus in the same way he used it to accomplish our salvation through his Son.

You know that trials are a peculiar grace for your faith (James 1:2).

James 1:2 (ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

The trials James is speaking can refer to both external afflictions and inner temptations. It is likely, however, James is speaking of outside afflictions, considering the context of who he is writing to. He describes them as “various kinds.” There is a diversity of hardships, such things as sickness (James 5:14), poverty (James 1:9), and persecution (James 2:6), that afflict people at different levels. Th point is, as Douglas Moo points out, “by stressing that the trials were “of many kinds,” James deliberately casts his net widely, including the many kinds of suffering that Christians undergo in this fallen world: sickness, loneliness, bereavement, disappointment.”

God uses various trials to test your faith, as James clearly says in verse 3. He uses various trials that are peculiar to your faith. there are a multitude of examples in the Bible where God uses various trials to test the genuineness of a persons faith, or to display his great power in their life. Consider for a moment Abraham. God gave Abraham a son in his old age, Isaac. When the boy was approximately 12-14 years old, God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son (Genesis 22:1-18). Abraham took his son and did as the Lord commanded, but just as he raised his knife to sacrifice the boy, God said Genesis 22:12

Genesis 22:12 ESV

He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Consider Job’s peculiar trial. Job was the most righteous man of his time. God delighted in Job’s love for Him. God knew that Job could be tested with a trial and he would hold fast to his love for God. So, he gave Satan some leash to afflict him with the death of his children, the loss of all his wealth, and poor health. The trial was severe by all standards. Notice the difference between Abraham’s testing and Job’s testing. God did not spare Job the way he spared Abraham. There is the peculiarity of various trials. What Abraham needed verses what Job needed was different, but both accomplished the same thing. Job refused to curse God and said despite the Lord’s taking away all that I have, I will bless his name (Job 1:21).

Think about Naaman, the Syrian military leader who suffered leprosy (2 Kings 5). His wife had a Jewish servant girl who told him of the prophet Elisha. To prove their is a prophet of God in Israel, and that Yahweh is the Supreme God, Elisha told him to wash himself seven times in the Jordan. Naaman had assumed he could buy his healing, but God wanted more than money. God wanted Naaman to see that there is no God like the God of Israel,

2 Kings 5:15 ESV

Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.”

In the new Testament, Jesus walked by a man who was born blind. His disciples assumed the man was born blind because of sin in his life or his parents life (John 9:1-2). Jesus says, John 9:3

John 9:3 ESV

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

The man was born blind, and remained blind for maybe 30-40 years so that God could display his glory by giving him sight, both physical and spiritual. The man testifies of Jesus great work to the Synagogue and is cast out. jesus finds him and says John 9:36-38

John 9:36–38 ESV

He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

Do you see the peculiarity of the various trials each man suffered that brought about rich faith? Each man had their own trial. No trial was the same, but given buy God to each man to accomplish the same thing: strong, rich, God-glorifying faith. That is the point I am making here. James simply says that the trials are of various kinds; anything you can imagine living in a a broken world. Knowing that trials are an effective providence, you can see how God uses a variety of trials that are unique to each person to accomplish his faith building, faith strengthening, faith refining work. So you can sing with Cowper, when he writes,

And ye fearful saints, fresh courage take The clouds you so much dread Are big with mercy and shall break In blessings, on your head

You know that trials produce enduring faith (James 1:3).

James 1:3 (ESV)

for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

The testing on your faith is speaking to the process your faith is purified and strengthened for endurance. It is likened to the process gold and silver are refined. To remove all of the dross out of gold for example, you must heat the furnace up to 1947.52 degrees, which is the melting point for God. Once the gold is molten liquid, you place it in a mold. The dross will float to the top where it is scrapped out. You can continue the process until all the dross is gone. One the gold is in its mold, the final step is to put the gold into a retort with diluted nitric acid. After a while, you remove the acid and what is left is pure gold.

In a similar way, trials are a form of heat. God turns up the heat to whatever melting point is needed to remove the dross of sin and unbelief in your life. He repeats the process over and over until you are purified and your faith is strengthened and you come out as gold. Job is helpful here when he says,

Job 23:10 ESV

But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

God’s primary mission in your life is to conform you into the image of his Son. That is a progressively sanctifying work. Jesus uses pruning as a metaphor to describe God’s purifying and strengthening work in your life. God desires that you bear fruit that glorifying him and proves that you are his disciples (John 15:8). Trials are a form of pruning clippers. God is also a good father. And according to the Book of Hebrews,

Hebrews 12:6 ESV

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Discipline and chastisement come in the form of trials that re meant to purify and strengthen your faith. he goes on to say that earthly fathers,

Hebrews 12:10–11 (ESV)

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

In verse 7, he says

Hebrews 12:7 ESV

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Trails are training you like an athlete to endure the pain and struggle that you face in the race. The training helps you last until you cross the finish line. Only those who endure until the end cross the finish line.

Jesus warns his disciples,

Matthew 24:9–13 (ESV)

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.

And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The writer of Hebrews also warns

Hebrews 10:35–39 (ESV)

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;

but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

You have a need for endurance because endurance does not let your heart grow cold or your faith shrink back, but instead preserves your faith until the very end. James says that strengthening endurance is the one of the main goals of the testing of your faith; that it may produce endurance. The testing process is what gives your faith stamina to keep fighting and moving forward. The testing process of trials stoke the fire of your faith so that it does not grow cold and shrivel up, so that you keep you eyes on the prize, the goal of winning the race in this life to inherit the prize of Jesus in eternal life.

You know that trials aim to perfect your faith (James 1:4).

James 1:4 ESV

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

The greek word for perfect is telios. I means to be perfect. It also means to be whole. Conformity to Jesus is a maturing process to aims to make you complete in Christ. You need to grow-up so too speak as a Christian, that is mature in Christ-like character. Christ-like character is wielded out though perseverance. I like the way Douglas Moo sums it up, he says, the “complete” (teleion) work of perseverance leads to “complete” (teleioi) Christians.

We will not reach perfection in this life. That is what we look forward too in heaven. Perfection in our physical bodies and moral character will be what it means to be glorified (Romans 8:28-30). Only then will we lack nothing and be completely whole. But that does not mean we do not strive to grow into the wholeness Jesus provides. That is the sanctifying work of life with Jesus now.

Jesus warned us that we will have trouble in this world (John 16:33). Paul likewise said that we must enter the kingdom of God through trials and tribulations (Acts 14:22). But as William Cowper writes in his last verse,

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense But trust Him for His grace Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face

His purposes will ripen fast Unfolding every hour The bud may have a bitter taste But sweet will be the flower

Blind unbelief is sure to err And scan His work in vain For God is His own interpreter And He will make it plain

You cannot avoid trials. They are God’s effective providence for your life to conform you into His Son. Knowing that God designs peculiar trials that may be unfolding every hour that have a bitter taste, you can count it all joy, responding in confidence in God’s providence trusting that sweet will be the flower; a flower that will be enjoyed in heaven for all eternity. That friends, is no mystery, but a fixed reality for those who endure until the end.

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