WORKS

Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” John 6:28-29

This week I received an email from a dear friend who is trying to understand the relationship between grace and works, specifically whether God will judge Christians to any extent by their works.  She is not alone.  This subject will always be a hot topic in Christendom, specifically because it is at the heart of the battle between our Action/Consequence natures and the Death/Resurrection paradigm found in Scripture. 

Briefly, I define Action/Consequence as, our natural, default way of thinking. Everything is about what I do and what I expect to achieve or receive as a result. When I live from the Action/Consequence perspective, I seek my own gratification, recognition, glory, honor and praise through my actions. My value comes from what I do.  As a result, my life will be about striving to achieve in order to earn approval.  I will always be comparing and competing, which leads to judging and often condemning both myself and others. This way of thinking applies to everything in life, including religion, and leads to a distorted view of God and salvation.

Death/Resurrection, on the other hand, is a completely unnatural, counterintuitive way of thinking. It is a point of view which is only understood when it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through Scripture; and without his help we quickly revert back to our natural Action/Consequence mode. Death/Resurrection is all about God and what he has done for us through his son, Jesus Christ. It recognizes that without Jesus we were all dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1); but, because of what he accomplished for us through his life, death, resurrection and ascension, we are now alive with him. (Ephesians 2:5). As a result, we recognize that we are all alike in our unworthiness and need and have no basis for comparing or competing, judging or condemning. From this perspective, all recognition, glory, honor and praise goes to God alone.

These two viewpoints are constantly at war within every Christian heart. It is critical that we understand and acknowledge the battle and learn to identify the messages coming from each side. In order to do that we must first understand the gospel.  

God’s standard is and always has been perfection (“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48). This does not mean that we must finally reach that standard at some stage of our lives; the requirement is perfection from the instant of our birth to the moment of our death. Obviously, none of us have achieved that or ever could. Because of that inability we were all under God’s wrath, and stood condemned. (Romans 2:5-6; Romans 5:18)There was no way we could dig ourselves out of that hole; any rescue had to come from outside of us. 

That rescue was planned before the beginning of time. (Titus 1:2, Revelation 13:8) Jesus, the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, came and lived a perfect life in the flesh, and credited it to us; and he took all of our sins and suffered the wrath of God in our place. This secured our complete forgiveness and our reconciliation with God. Because of all that he accomplished on our behalf, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That is the Good News, the gospel of grace—God, through Jesus, satisfied on our behalf everything which he required of us. We played no part except supplying the sin which necessitated the rescue.

The battle arises within us because our Action/Consequence natures cannot get past the idea that we are unable to, and therefore not expected to, earn or pay God back for our salvation. This concept is so foreign to everything we know about life in our world that it actually seems unjust. Action/Consequence indignantly insists that we must contribute our works in order for justice to triumph.

Yet, God says he is the one who fully satisfied justice by sending Jesus to justify us (Romans 3:26). This goes completely against our Action/Consequence grain but it is true! Our works count for nothing as far as our salvation is concerned; they earn us no points with God. God accepted Jesus’ works on our behalf; what could our puny, tainted works possibly add to Jesus’ perfect works?

The obvious question then is, does God want us to do good works? And the answer is just as obvious, of course God wants us to do good works, and we will do good works; but, let me repeat, they will have no effect whatsoever on our standing with God.

As the truth of the gospel permeates our hearts and minds—that ‘it is finished’; that God is already well-pleased with us and there is nothing more that we must do in order to earn or keep his good pleasure—this amazing news changes us; it frees us to serve him because we want to; specifically because we do not ‘have’ to. 

Have you ever planned to do something nice for someone, perhaps your parents, your spouse or your children; but before you could surprise them they ruined everything by asking you to do the very thing you were planning to do, or, worse yet, demanded that you do it? How did you feel?  You didn’t want to do it anymore! The gospel guarantees that God will never spoil your plans by demanding that you do what you already want to do.

God has planned in advance some things for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), but not in a “To Do” checklist kind of way; it’s more of a ‘hang onto your hat, you’re in for the ride of your life’ kind of way. God has fashioned us so that, even in difficult circumstances, we will feel most fulfilled when we are doing the things he has planned for us to do. He loves for us to do things because we are excited to do them; when we are so grateful for what we have been given that we can’t wait to do them; when we give freely because all expectations have already been satisfied.

Action/Consequence says that we must be required to work or we will become lazy and do nothing.  Death/Resurrection assures us that the gospel is the only true motivation to do anything. Action/Consequence discounts the way the Holy Spirit compels us with the love of Christ and says we need to be threatened with punishment. Death/Resurrection knows that, when we are secure in the love of Christ for us, we will delight in finding ways of sharing that love with others. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

The works we do will be done with one goal in mind – spreading the news of what Jesus Christ has already done. The more we grasp and believe this news ourselves, the greater our joy and excitement will be to pass it on.  The works which the Holy Spirit will lead us to do are for the benefit of others and the glory of God; not to fulfill any further requirement. They’re what we get to do, not what we have to do, and that is what makes all the difference.