Field with Ploughman and Mill, Van Gogh
And thus it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate burning and shining from fire. Beware, therefore, of your own false notions and of the idle talkers, who would be wise enough to make decisions about faith and good works, and yet are the greatest fools.
- Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans
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I’d like to wrap up our week of talking about “good works” with some summarizing thoughts today, hoping I won’t show myself to be the fool that Luther talks about above.
FIRST, If you know anything about Internet Monk, you know that we love to talk about grace and to put our emphasis on what God does for us in Christ rather than on what we do “for” God. We stress this because so much Christian faith, especially the evangelicalism from which a number of us emerged, is characterized by a moralism and activism that is not rooted in a Christ-centered approach to spirituality.
The “soterian” gospel that is so common today is individualistic, narcissistic, and methodistic. Its focus is on “me” and “what I must do” to “connect with God” and be “wholly devoted” to God as I develop a “personal relationship with Jesus.” Grace gets credit for leading sinners through the door of salvation, but only after we make the choice to follow Jesus. And after that, it’s all about learning the instructions in the Bible and conforming our lives to them.
The pattern is Law/Grace/Law.
God’s laws show us God’s perfect standard and help us understand we fall short.
When we admit we fall short and respond to the message of grace — that Jesus died to pay the price for our sins and shortcomings — we become disciples and get started on the path of learning to obey God’ ways.
The job of the church and its pastors and teachers, then, is to teach us those laws and instructions and exhort the congregation to follow them.
We here at Internet Monk think there is a better description of what the gospel and living in the gospel is all about, a way that is all about grace from beginning to end.
The gospel is the good news that, in Christ, God’s Kingdom has dawned and God’s will is beginning to be done on earth as in heaven.
God created the world as his temple and made people to live in his blessing. People forfeited that blessing through disobedience and were sent into exile, separated from God, themselves, and each other.
God chose Abraham and his family (Israel) to be the means by which his blessing would be restored to all the earth. He entered into a covenant with them in the days of Moses and gave them his Law so that they might be his holy nation, a light for all nations. However, they in turn failed to keep God’s covenant, and Israel was exiled from the land God had given them.
After God graciously restored Israel from exile, Jesus was born and presented himself as God’s promised Messiah, the King who would bless Israel and the world with salvation. Jesus was faithful to God where Israel had failed. He died and suffered for the sins of Israel and the whole world. He rose again from the dead, defeating the powers of sin and death that had kept humankind enslaved and exiled. He ascended and was enthroned as King of all. He poured out his Spirit upon the church, the renewed people of God in Christ that they might spread this good news to the ends of the earth. He promised to return, raise the dead, and consummate a new creation in which heaven will be united with earth and God will dwell in the midst of his people forever.
Christian spirituality consists of taking our place in this Story.
Indeed, to be a Christian means to trust that Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of the Story and that everything revolves around him. Our life is in the gospel, in Jesus Christ. That means we must relate all doctrines, all teachings, and all Christian practices to this Story.
And so we come to the teaching of “good works.”
If we keep the Story in mind, we realize that we who are Christians today play the part of the redeemed, forgiven, cleansed, Spirit-filled, renewed people of God in Jesus Christ.
“We are his workmanship,” says the apostle in Ephesians 2:10, “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
His workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus. This eliminates any possible understanding that “good works” on our part have anything to do with our salvation, our justification, our acceptance by God. That work is his and his alone. Pure grace.
Good works which God prepared beforehand. Even the good things we do as Christians were planned ahead of time by God and are not due to our initiative or origination. Pure grace.
That we should walk in them. Christians get to actively participate in good works that God mysteriously uses in the development of the Story. It is our privilege every day to discover what “God has prepared beforehand” and join with him in his mission to bless and restore the world. We walk in God’s works — even our activity is described in terms of God’s gracious involvement in our lives. Grace, grace, grace.
One problem with the way many people talk about Christian activity is that they don’t immerse it in this sea of grace and Kingdom vision. They leave us on our own with our “Christian responsibility.” Since Jesus did so much for us, shouldn’t we do all for Jesus?
In contrast, read this excerpt from a liturgy for baptism in which I participated recently:
God, who is rich in mercy and love, gives us a new birth into a living hope through the sacrament of baptism. By water and the Word, God delivers us from sin and death and raises us to new life in Jesus Christ. We are united with all the baptized in the one body of Christ, anointed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and joined in God’s mission for the life of the world.
Yeah, that’s it. Even “good works” are all about grace.
Morning: Peasant Couple Going to Work, Van Gogh
SECOND, another problem with Christian discussions of topics like “good works” is that we tend to make them too spiritual, too separated from life in the real world. When listening to Christians talk, I sometimes get the idea that we have risen a step or two above other human beings.
There are gnostic tendencies toward insider-ism and elitism that imagines Christians are in a special category, set apart from their neighbors.
There are docetic tendencies among us. We think of “souls” and “spirituality” rather than the day-to-day lives of embodied persons who live in communities in relationship with others.
We harbor many modernist prejudices, rationalizing and categorizing and just generally thinking that what is most important is the world of ideas, theological systems, and moral philosophy. We imagine that success for Christianity means winning arguments and making sure all of our doctrinal “i’s” are dotted and “t’s” crossed.
But then we read about simple NT saints like this: “In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas). Her life overflowed with good works and compassionate acts on behalf of those in need” (Acts 9:36 CEB). The true way of Jesus is right here in the portrait of this woman: a gracious, loving, compassionate person who was sensitive to the needs around her, who responded out of her faith with generous love toward her neighbors.
Tabitha is a reality check, and she brings us back to the verse with which we began the week: “the only thing that counts is faith working through love.”
The “good works” Christians are called to do are not actions or projects that fall into some special category. They are, rather, the simple, ordinary acts of neighborliness, kindness, and helpfulness that all people understand and appreciate. Giving a cup of cold water. Visiting a lonely person in the nursing home. Preparing a meal for a bereaved family. Providing child care so that a friend and her husband can get a break. Participating in a charitable event for a good cause. Reading to a child. Listening to a friend’s problems. Volunteering at a local hospital. The list is endless, constrained only by a lack of creativity and vision. “Good works” is not just about doing things, it’s about living well, loving your neighbor as yourself.
Anyone can do this. One doesn’t even have to be a Christian. These are human acts and we do them because we are members of the human family and everyone recognizes their value. The world does not need Christians to stand apart and do extraordinary things. People around us just need Christians to be good neighbors, loving well in the ordinary ways that life requires.
To be sure, Christians have some different reasons for showing love like this. Our faith in Christ has united us with God, who is love. He cares for us and for our neighbors more than any of us could ever imagine. Filled with his love, how could we do anything other than live lives of love?
The other part of this perspective is that, even though the love of Christ dwells in Christians, believing people are sinner/saints. We remain limited, broken, wounded, self-centered people. We have different personalities, different settings, different experiences. All these things (and a thousand others) can limit our psychic freedom and capacity to love.
This, I believe, is one reason why Jesus doesn’t simply save individuals but is creating a people. We need each other as well as the Bible. We need relationships and communities of support in which we can heal, grow, learn, and be formed in Christ so that love may flow more freely.
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Thank you for an excellent week of discussion.
Go now. Trust in Jesus Christ, and you are free to love.