December 10, 2017 Faith Versus Works
In my life I’ve found that most Christians aren’t as concerned about doing good works as they should be. In their zeal for the doctrine of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone they shun anything that emphasizes the need to do good, but nearly every book of the Bible emphasizes God’s desire for us to do good things.
God wants us to obey him. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
Jesus connected good works to judgement. (Matthew 25:31-46)
Both Old and New Testament say we will be judged for what we do. (1 Samuel 2:3; Romans 2:6; 2 Cor 5:10; Rev 20:12)
Characters throughout the Bible are commended for doing good and condemned for failure to do good. This principle underlies every single story recorded in scripture.
We escape judgment by God’s grace, not works (Eph 2:8-9), but the faith required to receive that grace doesn’t exist without good works (James 2:14-26).
The only exception is maybe a dying confession like the thief on a cross with Jesus (Luke 23:40-43), but even he succeeded in one great good work by speaking out for Jesus as they were dying.
Christians are correct to say that we need to repent with faith in God, and that alone saves us from God’s judgement because our good works can never earn salvation, but we must be careful not to neglect the importance of good works. They are a vital part of our faith. And the concept of being judged for our sin is central in scripture. We shouldn’t shy away from it. Similarly, we don’t need to shy away from the concept of being rewarded for doing good. That’s biblical too (Matthew 6:1-21).