James 1:18

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James had grown up with his half brother Jesus. He saw him grow up, start a religion, perform miracles all around the place, expound the scripture like no other, die for it and then God Himself raised his half brother Jesus, back from the dead.

James knew they - these new believers – were at the forefront of Christianity. It was no longer JUST all about his half brother Jesus,- no it was about what Jesus now meant to them all as the Messiah, who Jesus is and how Jesus still functions in the earth today. James knew they (meaning “the brand new born again church”) were the pioneers, the forerunners of this new belief system. A new belief system so grounded in, and based on the fact that GOD and Jesus WANTED to do this – this is how unspeakably valuable, unbelievably priceless that every person is, that they went through with it all – what became the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, James’ very own half brother.

James knew in his heart and mind that this was the greatest gift of all that could ever come from the Father of lights – but he didn’t dwell there, no, James went on the say (James 1:18b) - that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. This new body of Christians, this new body of believers, those who we call the very “early church” were the start of a global change, that would never stop, even if you died – eternity had arrived – the greatest gift of all that came down from the Father of Lights.

James knew that as a “firstfruit”, as a pioneer, as a forerunner of a new global distribution network of God’s own truth that the work had only just begun. It’s more than a movement, it’s more than a new religion, - it’s the coming together of heaven and earth, the reconciling of humans back to God, the forever life-changing, eternal opportunity for the forgiveness of your own sin – literally a new creature in Christ Jesus – does this remind you of:

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Whilst the book of James doesn’t really speak much about salvation itself – he does touch on aspects of that most certainly in James 1:18.

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James knew that the real work – those good works that us believers are now called to, required to participate in, that help create trust towards Christians, that help to raise doubts in the minds of UN-believers when you do good to them and for them with no thought of gain for yourself – just the fact that you care about them…that’s why you help them… that we lay down our life for others as James saw his own half-brother Jesus do… please understand that just doesn’t mean to die for someone else – no, Jesus did that for us all already – our version of laying down our life is to invest TIME in someone else – that is time of your life that you can never get back – you could have spent it on you, but you spent it helping or caring for someone else – that’s a piece of your life that has been laid down for someone else – SELFLESSNESS – read Philippians 2