What ever happened to good works?

The Dutch theologian Hermann Bavinck (1854-1921) once quipped that ‘the [Roman] Catholic righteousness by good works is vastly preferable to a Protestant righteousness by good doctrine; at least righteousness by good works benefits one’s neighbour’. It may well have been said partly in jest, but he raises a good question. What role do good works take if only faith saves? Does faith mean that works are no longer necessary? What did the Reformers believe about the role of faith and works? This debate has raged on for centuries.

We need both faith and works

‘Faith without works is dead’, declares James (James 2:26 KJV). Today it seems that many Protestant Christians can sometimes slip into practical antinomianism (anti- ‘against’ –nomos ‘law’), living as though it doesn’t matter how we live because only faith saves. Protestants rightly emphasise salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ alone, the key doctrine of the Reformation. Our own good works, our following of the Ten Commandments, play no part in our salvation; only Jesus Christ’s good works were enough to merit salvation. However, the Reformation rediscovery of the Gospel never meant that good works are no longer necessary. The Reformers would turn in their graves to see the slovenly attitudes of the Evangelical church today. Do we really believe the Gospel when it barely seems to change the way we live? Good works are vital. We’re not saved to sit on our backsides, lounging around all day and talking of theology in the abstract, ‘we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (Ephesians 2:10 NIV). It is faith alone that saves, but Jesus looks at the evidence of faith, its fruit, to determine His sheep, as shown through actions like caring for the poor and needy (Matthew 25:31-46). 

Catherine Parr (1512-1548), the last wife of Henry VIII and the first woman to publish a book in English, spoke of ‘not [a] dead, human, historical faith, gotten by human industry; but a supernatural and lively faith, which worketh by charity’. She went on to affirm salvation by faith alone, but then added: ‘This dignity of faith is no derogation to good works; for out of this faith spring all good works’. It seems to me today that the Protestant church has forgotten this. In our eagerness to correctly define the doctrine of justification by faith alone and nothing else, we have almost entirely forgotten the doctrine of sanctification. Sanctification is the Spirit’s ongoing work in our hearts, quickening us to holiness and good works. The preacher Robert Traill (1642-1716) spoke of the distinction in this case between ‘righteousness’ and ‘holiness’. We might define them as:

Righteousness	Holiness
• Christ’s good works • Results in justification • Justifies and saves us • Spirit’s work to make us accepted by God • One-time, completed transaction. Does not admit of degrees—it’s a binary—you either have it or you don’t • See Jeremiah 23:6; Romans 1:17; 3:21-23; Philippians 3:9	• Our good works • As a result of sanctification • Does not save us but proves we are born again • Spirit’s work to remake us into the likeness of Christ • Does not happen overnight! Admits of degrees—a lifelong journey and struggle which begins the moment we are saved • See 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-12; Hebrews 12:14

Love is a better motivation for good works

‘Good works do not make a person good, but a good person does good works,’ writes the Reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) in his great little book The Freedom of a Christian, which sets out a positive vision of what Gospel life should look like. To the Christian, doing good works should be as natural as breathing, but the motivation is totally different. You are no longer trying to earn your salvation through good works. Your motivation is no longer for yourself that you might somehow build up enough brownie points to outweigh the black marks and so avoid time in purgatory or worse. A Christian ‘does [good works] with no thought of gain, out of uncoerced love, in order to please God,’ says Luther.

The French Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) writes in his famous Institutes of the Christian Religion:

It is not mere fear of his vengeance which holds the [believing] heart back from sinning. It is because it loves and reveres him as its Father and fears him as its Lord; even if hell did not exist it would dread to offend him. That is what is meant by pure and true religion.

The Ten Commandments (the moral law) are an expression of the greatest commandment, which is to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37).

In marriage, it’s natural to want to please your spouse, not just out of duty but out of love. The church is the bride of Christ, doesn’t she want to do the things that will please and honour her husband? Christ has paid the ultimate price to free His bride from all her debts, will she now go back to her old ways? Will she degrade herself again? No! ‘Faith cannot tolerate [evil],’ says Luther. The gift of faith, the presence of the Spirit of Christ, now fights to suppress the sin within and honour and glorify our Creator and Redeemer:

For because the soul is pure through faith and loves God, it ardently desires that everything be pure, above all its own body, and everyone loves and praises God with the soul.

Good works lead to assurance of faith

The Italian Reformer Peter Martyr (1499-1562) says that ‘our assurance [of salvation] is related to holy living’. Some think that assurance of salvation is impossible, thinking it presumption, how wrong they are (e.g. Romans 8:16; Hebrews 10:22; 1 John 5:13)! Peter Martyr goes on:

We must not just seek the forgiveness of sins, but renounce the practice of sins. We can never live comfortably with sin when true repentance is our ever-present companion. No, we work by love, and so give our neighbour a plain token of our inner character. Faith does not leave the elect empty of that fruit which Christ will declare to be so praiseworthy in believers on the last day. [Our works] will be presented as the outward evidence of the righteousness and holiness that we obtained as a gift through faith.

In other words, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Just as it’s no good merely looking at a nice Victoria sponge cake or merely thinking about it, likewise faith is not just about belief. ‘Faith does not stand idle […] it must be expressed by works of love’ says Peter Martyr (see Matthew 7:21; Micah 6:8). We can take encouragement from our good works: God is at work in His children. Never underestimate the power of a clear conscience (2 Corinthians 1:12-14; also compare Job 31)! Good works should never puff us up, it’s only by God’s grace we can do anything; true assurance humbles us. Faith leaves no room for self-righteousness or complacency. But sometimes we don’t give the Spirit the credit He deserves. Jesus says, ‘if you have faith as small as a mustard seed […] nothing will be impossible for you’ (Matthew 17:20). So as believers we ought to take heart and say with John Newton (1725-1807):

Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be—I can truly say that I am not what I once was—a slave to sin and Satan. And I can heartily join with the apostle and say that “by the grace of God I am what I am!” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Good works feed assurance and the fruit of assurance is not just peace within—it leads to a yet greater desire to serve God and do good works. Hear the challenge of the Puritan William Gurnall (1616-1679):

Would you have your hope strong? Then keep your conscience pure: you cannot defile one without weakening the other. The godly person that is loose and careless in his holy walking will soon find his hope languishing.

Get used to heaven now

As a youngster, I used to think heaven would be pretty boring, just sitting around all day with nothing much to do. But this is not God’s plan for His people in the new heavens and the new earth! We will have a lot of work to do (see Isaiah 65:17-25). Even in the perfect garden of Eden, man and woman were put to work. The more we live for our God on earth now, the more we will be prepared and made ready for heaven. The Puritan Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) prayed for this eternal perspective:

Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs!

The world with all its iridescent bubbles can be very tempting, but we must work for ‘treasures in heaven’ (Matthew 6:20). In the context of eternity, this life on earth will seem but a distant memory, a blip, a dream we’ve woken up from. But it’s a vital blip, the faith that we have now and the works that we do here matter (Matthew 5:16).

To do anything, we sure do need God’s help; it’s only by His Holy Spirit that we can make any headway. But we can be sure He will help us; He answers all prayers for help. The Lord Jesus is our pattern. He saved us so that we might join Him in glorifying the triune God, now on earth imperfectly, later in heaven perfectly. So let’s get used to heaven now.

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