The Prayer of a Righteous Man

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” – James 5:16 (KJV)

First of all, you must understand that “man”, in this verse, and throughout most of the Bible, is not gender specific but refers to both male and female. Remember, when God created man, He created man male and female. 

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” – Genesis 1:27 (KJV)

Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s continue. Many of us love to quote this verse, James 5:16, with the expectation that our own prayers will “availeth much” but we often omit one very important truth…the prayer must not only be “effectual” and “fervent” but uttered by “a righteous man”.

Who is a righteous man; do you know? This is what Saint Paul wrote to the church in Rome, 

"Not even one person is righteous.” – Romans 3:10 (ISV)

Do you sense a problem here, or is it just me? Not one person is righteous, not even one? So how will our effectual and fervent prayers have any power to produce results if none of us is righteous, then what’s the point and what’s the problem and how do we become this righteous person? I don’t know about you but I want my prayers to “availeth much”.

The problem with this, and with everything else for that matter, is sin-contamination. It is so chronic that we’re told in Isaiah 64:6 that all our right efforts are like filthy rags. Whoa! Yes, sin is a chronic condition of man, we are all afflicted by it and because of it, we all fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Each of us have a choice to make, we can choose to continue to live in sin, conforming to the world’s standards of living, or we can choose to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). And this kind of mind-renewing transformation can only occur when we choose to do life God’s way, the right way.

Jesus Christ died so that you and I could do life right. When Adam and Eve allowed sin to separate them from God, the right standing they had with God was lost, but God had already planned a comeback. By His gracious and loving design, God, anticipating the fallout, predetermined that He would give man the opportunity to get back into right standing with Him, to make man righteous again. God would have to born a Man to restore His right relationship with man. So, Jesus, God incarnate, blameless and unblemished by sin, chose to give His right life to atone for the sin of every sin-stained human being, and God credited Jesus’ righteousness to the sin-debt of every person who’d believe.

Yes, God has imputed Jesus’ righteousness to all who will confess with their mouths, and believe in their hearts that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died and God raised Him up from death (see Romans 10:9-10). The Holy Spirit then takes up residence in you to develop the nature of Christ within you, so that every time God looks at you He sees the righteousness of Christ in you. Peter lets us know that it is Christ Jesus who is righteous (see 1 Peter 3:18), and this is the righteousness you receive through faith in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:24-25).

In other words, for your prayers to avail much you first have to be born again, and then you must be living right because it’s not enough to confess and believe but you must also genuinely receive Jesus Christ and make it your practice to live in Him and allow Him to truly live in you – that’s the bottom line. You can’t be considered a righteous man without being a new creation. Righteousness cannot come by your “good” works, it is a gift from God through Jesus Christ (see Romans 5:17). The moment we understand this and refrain from sin, not out of craven fear of God but out of reverential fear and great love for God, He makes us right in Christ.

But, even though you’re born-again, please be weary of and “Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion.” Instead, “exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.” – 1 Timothy 4:7-8 (MSG)

The truth is, you cannot remain intimate with the world and expect to be a righteous man (James 4:4), it just doesn’t work that way. To become that righteous man you must participate in the divine nature and then and only then will your prayers “availeth much”. 

Amen†

The Prayer of a Righteous Man

Shelley Johnson May 8, 2017