Tag: Good Works

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Partial Fide

There are at least four different expectations when it comes to good works.

A man could expect that his good works will please the wrong god. Or, a man could expect that his good works, by themselves, will please the right God. Or, a man could expect that his good works mean nothing to God and that God only cares about faith. Or, a man could expect that His good works will be blessed by God because he has faith that God said so.

We know that idolatry is wrong; offering costly sacrifices in a ritual context don’t matter if those sacrifices are to a false god; prepaying for $80 worth of gas doesn’t matter if you pump the gas into the trash can. We also know that without faith it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and that the best a man can do on his own is nothing noteworthy to God (Isaiah 64:6). We are not saved by works (Titus 3:5).

But, how often do sola fide kind of people not actually have fide that God blesses obedience? We believe that God wants us to believe, but we don’t believe that God uses believing obedience as a means to His ends of giving us good.

Wisdom speaks in Proverbs 8 about the life and honor and value and enduring wealth and fruit that comes from finding wisdom.

And now, O sons, listen to me:
blessed are those who keep my ways.
Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
Blessed is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors. (Proverbs 8:32-34)

The place of blessed, happy good is obedience by faith. Do you believe God about that? And then to you commit to keep His ways? What do you expect?

Categories
Lord's Day Liturgy

Shape and Cadence

In perhaps the most well-known passage about salvation by grace through faith, one word is used three times. It isn’t grace, it isn’t faith, it isn’t saved, it isn’t Christ or God. The word is works.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8–10)

We are not saved by works. No man can be justified with God by obedience or good-doing. Perfect law-keeping of God’s standard was only attained by one man, Christ Jesus. We receive His work on our behalf so we cannot boast in what we have done.

In addition to regeneration, the sovereign grace of our Savior recreated us so that we are His “workmanship.” We are divine work-product, made alive with Christ to be like Him and to do for Him. Our new lives have a designed shape and cadence, like a statue or a poem, but much more than a stationary stone or printed sentence. We are alive “for good works.” We can’t be saved by works but we are saved for works.

This has been God’s goal all along. The branches for our fruit have a particular direction, a determined thickness, a certain color according to His desire. He prepared these works “beforehand,” like a map, “that we should walk in them.”

We still don’t get to boast. Our works are His working and willing in us (Philippians 2:13). But this means we also don’t get to coast. He knows the plans He has for us, plans to make us productive, to give us a heavy basket of fruitfulness. He made us alive to follow the course of His Word, following the Prince of Peace, through the Spirit that is now at work among the sons of obedience.

Is binge-watching Netflix the good works God planned for us? How about non-stop social media scrolling or cable news captivation? Video gaming? How many other ways of consuming rather than working are we excusing?