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In all this craziness about the hot Christmas item and the different things we stand in line to get; and all the kids saying, “Dad, can I get this? Mom, can I have that?” - all this wanting and wanting and wanting - if we are not careful, sometimes generosity – what Christmas is supposed to be about – can get lost in it all. We begin to get focused on having and getting and buying. All of those things can take the joy out of it. We’ve been going through the book of James in the New Testament, which is a letter written by Jesus’ half brother. He lays out for us what it means to be an authentic follower of Jesus Christ. We’ve called the series, Christianity Uncensored. James is you’re no bull, no spin, just lay it out there sort of guy.



We’re going to pick it up in James chapter two and look at this particular question that he asks us. In James 2:14 he says this: “My brothers and sisters, what good does it do if someone claims to have faith but doesn’t do any good things?” If someone is claiming to have God in their life but they don’t do anything with it, what good does it do? Can this kind of faith save them? That’s the question that James is looking at in this section. Just because we say we believe, just because we say we have faith, is it enough to say we believe? Can that faith save us? All through the Bible, particularly through the New Testament, we are taught that we are saved by grace. We’re saved. Salvation, forgiveness, the goodness and the love of God comes into our life, not because of how great we are, not because how many hoops we jump through, not because we do all the right religious things. We’re saved because of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Because of what Jesus did on the cross two thousand years ago, we can experience salvation, goodness, joy, and forgiveness in our lives.



Paul writes it this way in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith, this not from our selves, it is the gift of God not by works so that no one can boast.” You can’t walk around going, “I’m good. I gave my XBox 360 to my brother. I am good. I’m going to get into Heaven because of that.” Nope, you can’t do it based on your works. “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. There are three little prepositions here. First you have by grace, then through faith, then to do good works.” Does that make sense? By grace, through faith, to do good works and the order is important. We’re saved by grace, that’s first. Through faith, that’s second, to do good works.



In many of Paul’s letters in the New Testament emphasizes the first two; we are saved by grace through faith. James is going to come along and in chapter two he’s focusing more on the third area; the good works that we are supposed to do. Here is how the reformers used to say it, “We’re saved by faith alone.” But faith is never alone. Faith always produces something in our lives. It produces good works. James is going to unpack all this. The first thing he says is, “Show your faith by your actions.” He gives us a little example to help us do this. He says in James 2:15, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food.” This person is completely poor. They don’t have clothes and they don’t have daily