Good Works (Where do they fit in?)

Most evangelical Christians, including Lutherans, know that good works save no one.  The often quoted verses are Ephesians 2:8-9, "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."  The reason that Paul disqualifies good works from salvation comes in the last part of the sentence, "so that no one may boast."  No matter how good good works are, if they are not done in the right attitude with the right motivation they actually disqualify a person from salvation.

Why?  Because they diminish the Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus is the God-Man who came to save us because there was no way we could save ourselves.  If we think that our good works give us an in with God we are denying Christ, who is the only way to the Father.  To the Jews who put their hope in their good deeds Isaiah writes, "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away" (Isaiah 64:6).  Notice that Isaiah includes himself, "We" and "our".  Paulreflects on all the good that he had done prior to his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and writes in Philippians 3:7-9, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith."

Growing up I thought that I had to be pious to be right with God.  After my conversion I struggled with the devil who made me feel that my piety was not good enough.  He does the same with every Christian throughout their entire lives.  He is always whispering in our ears, "You are not good enough."  His goal is not just to make us feel bad about ourselves; it is to diminish Jesus Christ.  He wants us to think that Jesus is not sufficient enough to save us.  Every attack of the evil one is not on us but on Jesus.  If we begin to think that we must do more good deeds to make up for our failures we are losing sight of Jesus.  Salvation must be through faith alone, not just because that is the right doctrine, but because anything else diminishes Jesus.

So does that mean that there is no place for good works?  Are we to dispense with loving our neighbor as ourselves?  Should we ignore all the parables of Jesus about being faithful stewards?  Does the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25) no longer apply to us?  That is not so but we need to know where good works fit in.  Ephesians 2:8-9 is not the end of the story.  We have to continue on to Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."  When we are converted people we become God's work, more specifically the work of Jesus Christ.  He created us for good works.  This does not diminish Jesus but actually magnifies Him because we are now His workmanship.  What that means is that the real good works are often the ones that we are not even aware of.  When God moves you to do something for the sake of another person you may not even be conscious of the fact that you are doing something good.  You may remember in the parable of the sheep and goats that when God says to the sheep, I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, their response is "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink" (Matthew 25:37)?

There is another important thing in this parable that is often overlooked.  Jesus goes on to say, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40, Italics mine).  Jesus will often lead a Christian to do something good for an unbeliever because He loves the whole world, but that is not what Jesus is speaking about in this parable.  He is talking specifically talking about doing good for a fellow believer.  Every such good deed will be rewarded no matter how small.  Jesus says in Matthew 10:42, "And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward" (Italics mine).

Yes, there are rewards in Heaven.  Whatever Jesus does through us will be rewarded.  It does not diminish Him but magnifies Him because we are His workmanship.

This also leads us to the fact that good works are gifts, namely the gifts of the Spirit.  They are not natural but supernatural.  It is easy to say that the gifts of healing or the gift of miracles is supernatural, but the same is true for all the gifts, whether they are wisdom, preaching, prophesying, generosity, evangelism or serving practical needs.  All good deeds are good gifts that God works in and through His children.  They are done in such a way that the believer, as well as those who may witness or benefit from these gifts, will say, "I don't know how this happened.  It must be God."  Indeed Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."  That doesn't mean that you always stay anonymous but it does mean that you are often unaware of how God worked through you.  Even after your good deed you are still aware that you are nothing but a sinner saved by grace and that all the glory goes to the one created you for good works.  It's still all about Jesus.