When people talk about "good works" in the
context of religion, we generally tend to
assume that man does these works by his
own ability and power. But that is an
incorrect understanding of what the Bible
means by "good" works. In the Christian
life, every "good" work is done by the grace
of God. Therefore, the credit goes to God.
He produces many good things through His
children.
The first good work of a believer is to do
just that, namely believe. That is what Christ
taught anyway. Jesus was asked one time,
"What must we do to do the works God
requires?" He answered, "The work of God is
this: to believe in the One He has
sent." (John 6:28,29)
A person would have to be pretty arrogant
to try to take the credit for his belief in
Christ. I mean really. How difficult is it to
reach out and receive a free gift being given
to you? Even the belief itself is God's work
in us. This is why Jesus referred to belief as
"the work of God." We cannot legitimately
take the credit even for that initial step into
the kingdom of Christ, let alone all the good
that will follow it.
Belief in Christ "gets the ball rolling" so to
speak. The "good" works start flowing from
that point forward. You first believe in Christ
as your Savior, and then He does good in
you and through you. Anything "bad" that
remains in you or gets expressed through
you is "on you." Anything "good" that is in
you or gets expressed through you is
because of Him. He gets the credit for the
good, and you get the blame for the bad.
Welcome to Christianity.
Remember this however. The "bad" is under
His forgiveness. You are forgiven. And it is
that forgiveness and the grace of God in
your life that motivates you to want to do
good, and avoid the bad. That is the fruit of
a disciple. You genuinely want to do the
right thing. Those good motives are the
result of Christ in you.
The world has its definition of "good" and
"bad," and God has His definition. In God's
world, there is no "good" if Christ is outside
of the equation. God's Word declares,
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands; there is no
one who seeks God. All have turned away,
they have together become worthless; there
is no one who does good, not even
one." (Romans 3:10-12)
Christianity is the only religion that offers
forgiveness of sins as a free gift through
faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, salvation
cannot be earned by man. Jesus already
earned it. A person can accept what Jesus
did to earn it, or he can reject Christ. But it
is impossible for man to earn his way to
heaven because a trip to paradise is not for
sale.
Repent and believe the good news. That is
the message of the New Testament. And it
was even our Lord's first sermon. (see Mark
1:15) Turn to God in sincerity and truth as
you turn away from sin. Bring your sin to
Christ, and believe that He died to pay for
your sins. That is how the grace of God
begins to flow in a person's life. "Without
faith, it is impossible to please
God." (Hebrews 11:6) This is why a person
cannot do any works that are "good" in
God's eyes until you first believe in Christ.
Without that belief, a person is not yet in
God's family.
Imagine being sick and needing to miss work
for a day, and someone else works that day
in your place. But then imagine getting paid
for the work of the other person. Did you
earn that pay? Of course not. It was given to
you based on the work of another. And that
is similar to what happens in Christianity.
Christ did the work at the cross. We get the
benefits when we believe.
What about the person who believes, but
has no good works to show for it? Well, that
is impossible. It is a straw man. If someone
truly believes, then that is a good work
right there. And if he truly believes, then
Christ will begin living in Him and through
Him. It happens that way with every single
believer. Now a "professing believer" on the
other hand is a different story. If the
professing believer does not actually have
faith in Christ, then there will be no good
works in his life. He is missing the first
good work of faith, and therefore all the
others as well.
Technically, faith is only a "good work" in
the sense that God brings us to faith. It is
His work in us. It is not a "good work" in
terms of man getting any credit for it. For
that matter, neither are any of the good
works in a believer's life. Jesus always gets
the credit, and we get the blame if things go
off track a bit. But even that blame is not
enough to make God stop loving us and
forgiving us. And God's unconditional love
motivates us all the more to try to always
do good things and resist the bad things. As
we do, the Lord accomplishes His purposes
in us.
Pretty simply right? Maybe. That all depends
on whether or not we mess it up with bad
theology. You know, theology for example
that attempts to make our "good works" the
basis of our salvation, rather than merely
the fruit of it. There is a huge difference
between the two.
If I am trusting, even in part, in my own
works for salvation, then I don't have it.
Salvation only comes to the one who
relinquishes any trust whatsoever in his own
goodness, righteousness, and effort. When
we cast ourselves completely upon Christ
and His cross, we find peace, freedom, and
forgiveness. But only when we trust in Christ
alone. That is the order in which it must
happen if someone is going to get connected
to God. To reverse the order is to attempt to
change the Gospel into Law, and that just
doesn't work.
The Gospel is good news about forgiveness
freely given. That doesn't mean it wasn't
earned. It just means you and I didn't earn
it, and could never earn it. As I wrote some
25 years ago in a Gospel rap entitled, "It's
Free," "you can't earn it, can't buy it, you
can only receive it; it's a gift, eternal life is
free, do you believe it?"
Well, do you? Or are you still trying to earn
your way into God's family? One way to be
terribly disappointed in the end is to
attempt to work your way into God's good
graces. Everyone who tries to get in that way
ends up outside the family. God wants you
in His family forever. That is why Christ died
for you.
So why not give up that hopeless pursuit of
working to earn your salvation? Just as there
is no salvation without good works, there is
also no salvation without trusting Christ
alone to save you. Do you see how those two
things work in harmony with each other?
That is just the way God designed it, and
what a symphony of sweetness it is to those
who trust in Christ alone for salvation.
