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Good Works 1.
ONLY the works that God has commanded in His holy Word are to be
accounted good works. Such works, as men have invented out of blind zeal
or upon the mere pretense of good intentions, are not good, for they lack
the sanction of Holy Scripture. 2.
Works that are truly good, and which are done in obedience to God's
commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and living faith. By
means of them believers make known their thankfulness, strengthen their
assurance of salvation, edify their brethren, adorn their Christian
witness, and deprive their opponents of arguments against the gospel. In
sum, they glorify God who has made them what they are, namely, new
creatures in Christ; and as such they yield fruit that evidences holiness,
eternal life being the outcome of all. 3.
The ability of believers to do good works does not spring in any
way from themselves, but is derived from the Spirit of Christ alone. But
besides the graces which they receive from Him in the first instance, they
need His further actual influence to give them the will and ability to
perform the works that please Him. Yet this does not mean that, without
that special influence, they are at liberty to grow careless of duty, for
they must be diligent in stirring into activity the grace of God that is
in them. 4.
In rendering obedience to God, those believers who attain to the
greatest height possible in this life are so far from performing works of
supererogation (that is, beyond what God actually requires) that they fall
short of much which, as their duty, they are bound to do.
Job. 9:2,3; Gal. 5:17. 5.
We cannot, even by our best works, merit either the pardon of sin
or the granting of eternal life at the hand of God, for those works are
out of all proportion to the glory to come. And furthermore, there is
infinite distance between us and God, and no works of ours can yield Him
profit or act as payment for the debt of our former sins. Indeed, when we
have done all that we can, we have done but our duty and remain
unprofitable servants. We are also to remember that, so far as our works
are good, they are produced by His Spirit. As far as they are our work
they are marred, and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that
they fall utterly to meet the searching requirements of God's standards. 6.
Nevertheless, since believers as to their persons are accepted by
God through Christ, their works also are accepted as being wrought in
Christ. Not as though they were, during this life, beyond reproach and
unreprovable in the sight of God, but that, as He looks upon them in His
Son, He is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, even though
it is accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections. 7.
As for works done by unregenerate men, even though God may have
commanded them, and they may be highly useful both to themselves and to
others, yet they remain sinful works for the following reasons: they do
not originate in a heart purified by faith; they are not done in the right
manner prescribed in Scripture; and they are not directed to the glory of
God as the only right end. Hence they cannot please God, nor can they make
a man fit for the reception of grace. Yet the neglect of such works is
more sinful and more displeasing to God than is the performance of them. [Previous Chapter] [Next Chapter]
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