Sermon Tone Analysis

James is full of short memorable sayings

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Before we get into the main portion of the scripture today, I just want to start off by saying that we are saved by the grace of God based on our faith, not on our works.

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Last week we went through Galatians and we spent time on this concept of not being justified before God by works, but instead by faith in Jesus Christ.

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Can you see that Paul is drawing a comparison between the two?

Remember what he was condemning when he wrote to the Galatians?

They were requiring christians to become circumcised and to follow the whole law in order to be justified before God.

And Paul rebuked them for it.

You see, you can stray away from the truth of being saved through faith in more than one direction.

Paul teaches here that justification before God can’t be obtained through following the law, otherwise Christ died for nothing.

You can’t earn right standing before God by following the law, you can only be right with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Faith is the only possible means by which a person can be justified.

And Jesus established a new covenant in his own blood that we live under now.

We no longer live under the old covenant therefore those who enter into the new covenant with Jesus should not be made to also enter into the old Mosaic covenant.

Paul talked about the freedom we have knowing that we are saved and not being under the weight and burden of trying to atone for our sins through sacrifices and rituals anymore.

Whereas Paul had to write letters to address that problem that was prevalent, James also had to address a different problem that arose.

Very likely a problem that arose from people who misunderstood Paul’s teachings about salvation concerning the relationship between faith and works.

Example of salvation by grace through faith being in the middle — Paul address those on one side of the pendulum, James address those on the other.

James talks about deceiving yourself into believing you have faith in Jesus when you don’t — Something we rarely hear anyone talk about in our country today, but James recognized as a life and death matter and still is today.

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He goes on to tell us pure religion is to look after orphans and widows and to keep oneself unstained from the world, to not show favoritism toward the rich, to love our neighbor as ourself, to flee from all sin and to show mercy to each other when someone falls.

Which leads us into one of his longest, if not the longest, section on one topic, faith and works.

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