A meditation for Holy Week: Grace vs. Works (or, "Am I refighting the Reformation?")

In our Christian life, we often walk a fine line that balances between faith and unbelief, credulity and skepticism, legalism and lawlessness, grace and works. Many - most! (including myself) - stumble toward one side or the other, forgetting that inspired tension that characterizes the true Christian walk.

How can I rely fully upon Jesus' work on the Cross, God's sovereign will, and the Holy Spirit's work in me, while still working out my salvation, running the race, and being a diligent disciple of Christ?

Monday evening, I read a post from Parchment and Pen and then yesterday, I listened to a podcast from Renewing Your Mind featuring Sinclair Ferguson (watch it here, but I don't know how long it will stay at that link). Each caught my attention, and it seems to me that they dovetail together beautifully.

Michael Patton at P&P crafts a solid metaphor for the "carnal Christian" as a resident of "Starting Line Village." These Christians begin their Christian life - they assert their belief in Jesus - but they never do anything with it. It puts me in mind of James' epistle where he says:

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

and also:

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

James is making the point, not that are saved by faith PLUS works, but that a proclaimed faith that has no works is a false faith. The natural response to an authentic faith is a growing display of the fruit of the Spirit and of the works OF faith. Our work and effort springs out of our gratitude for what God has done for us through His Son, Christ Jesus. However, it is a good thing to remind ourselves that, even though God created us for good works, even if we were to live perfect lives, we are at best "unprofitable servants," doing only what is expected of us and no more. No act we do, no work we perform, no sacrifice we make, can surpass (much less equal) the work of Christ on our behalf.

Patton says:

I have often said that it is easier to tell when someone is a true Christian than to tell if they are not. In other words, some people wear their conviction on their shoulder. The power of the Holy Spirit could not be clearer. Their passion, understanding, grace, humility, and faith are clearly evident in everything they do. I know and can state with a great degree of confidence that they trust in Christ and are saved. They are in the race and they are running. Others, however, it is hard to tell. They may say they are saved, but I am not convinced with the same degree of conviction. They may be convinced, but I am not. I am not saying they are not saved, I just don’t know. Some live in a perpetual state of doubt, failure, and terrible sin. They may be in the race, but they are not running. However, even when they are at their worst, I cannot say with the same degree of confidence that they are not saved than when I can say someone is saved.

To get right down to it, there IS such a thing as false faith, and if your faith has produced no fruit - of character or of works - then you need to sit down and soberly, truthfully examine yourself to see whether you ARE in the faith. If you have no changes in your life which are due to the awe and gratitude you have for all that God has done for you, then you need to worry and repent. If you have no holy dread of God's judgment and righteousness and no desire to be an active disciple of Christ, then you need to consider whether your faith is truly given to you by God, or if you're just playing the Christian game because it makes you feel good about yourself.

If you think Christianity is simply to make you feel good about yourself and make you a better person, then you have it completely wrong. Christianity is all about glorifying God and making Him look good! Yes, He takes us and changes us for the better, but only so that we may bring Him even more glory as we worship Him in Eternity. God takes broken, ugly, disgusting, unrepentant rebels, and out of grace turns them into little reflections of His perfect Son - just because He loves us, just because He can.

I highly recommend the podcast by Sinclair Ferguson (and, oh, don't I loooove that Scots accent!) that I linked above (here it is again), because he does a wonderful job of defining that line between faith+works and faith leading to works.

Again, it is that critical balance that Ephesians 2:8-10 states so well:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

How much more clearly can God say that HE has saved us by His sovereign grace, gifting us with the re newal of spirit that permits us to place our faith in the completed work of His Son, and that we have nothing to contribute to it? All we can do is display what God has done IN us by doing the good works He has prepared so that His goodness shines OUT of us.

And, dang, it's good to be writing again! ;-)

Comments

[Man of the West]

1.

Nicely done!

[Kat]

2.

Why, thank you sir! ;-)

Hope you have a blessed Easter - He is risen!