what is (genuine) Christian faith?

A very nice approach to the famous passage in James 2. (We heard Dave give the message, but the website has Kyle's version-- since he delivered it at the main campus.)

They opened with an absolutely key passage (Ephesians 2:8-10):

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

In a word, one cannot be saved by good works, but one is saved in order to do good works.

Many people reduce faith to a shell of itself. Instead, faith is not just...

what you say-- your words...

14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

how you feel-- your emotions...

¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

what you do-- your actions...

¹⁸But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

what I believe-- my beliefs...

¹⁹You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

^{Instead, we know that evidence of a genuine faith is Belief in Action:}

¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
²⁰You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?
²⁶As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

^{Then, a predictable and then a surprising example-- the Patriarch and the Prostitute:}

²¹Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

²⁵In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?