Good Works and the Christian - Nick Napier

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10

You know how it goes: you are scrolling through some social media page. There is a picture that has a generic statement about faith and it tells you that if you love Jesus, you will like and share it. Or you get an email that portrays some ridiculous scene where an image that is supposed to be the devil says to some image that is supposed to be Jesus (never mind that it’s a second commandment violation), “He doesn’t love you, he won’t pass this email along.” The supposed drawing of Jesus says, “Yes, they do. They will forward it.” Are those things the “good works” required of the Christian life? Is that what it means to love Jesus? Is that what it means to have good works?

The text at the head of this article speaks of works twice mentioning them sort of casually, but not fully developing them until chapter 4 and running through the end of book (Ephesians 4:1-3, 17-6:20). But, in Ephesians 2 we are given the great hope of all Christians—that we are saved not by our own works, but the works of another. However, we see that though we are not saved by our works, we are saved unto good works. So then this text teaches us some important things about good works in the Christian life.

The Source of Good Works

The text makes it clear: salvation is strictly from God’s gracious giving. It is received by faith—and in order to press it home with more force and leave absolutely no room for boasting, Paul says, “and that (both grace and faith) not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” And you notice—he throws in, so that there is no question: “not of works, lest any man should boast.” Paul is snuffing out any chance that we might have to have an air of achievement about us; any thoughts that we might have that we have come to Christ due to some moral superiority or better faculty within us. He is keeping us from being puffed up in any way so that we do not say we are trusting in God, while we are actually trusting in ourselves. In the Christian life, there is no room for boasting—except in the cross of Christ. (Cf. Galatians 6:14, 1 Corinthians 4:7).

So then, the Christian life is that God saves. He gives life to dead men by his glorious and free grace. We are his workmanship (think Psalm 100:3)—and we have been saved from dead works, “unto good works.” It is only after we have been made alive unto God that we no longer have dead works—but are then walking after good works. But what are good works? Are they passing along that story on social media or email? Are they putting a fish symbol on the back of your car? Or wearing Christian t-shirts? Or listening only to certain radio stations? What are the good works that Christians are to do?

The Nature of Good Works 

To answer, “What are good works?”, let’s look at our Confession of Faith for some guidance: Good works are only such as God hath commanded in his holy Word, and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intention. (Emphasis added.)

Let’s deal in reverse with what our confession points out. First we’ll deal with what our text says about them: negatively (as we saw above), good works are not something we do unto salvation. That is, they are not something by which we commend ourselves to God. They are not something by which anyone puts God into their debt. 

Secondly, no matter how zealous a person may be for what they are “doing for God”, if what they are doing is something that God has not commanded it, it is not good works.  It is merely doing what we want while disobeying God—no matter how religious it seems or sounds. (See 1 Samuel 15:20-23 where Saul sounds pious and zealous for the Lord, but that which he did was not obedience to God.) Zeal does not equal good works. So, it is not good works to pass along that chain mail/forward that email/click like and share or any number of things along those lines.

Here is the key phrase in WCF 16.1: only such as God has commanded in his holy Word. What are the good works in the Christian life commanded by God? They are summarized in two: 1) love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and 2) love your neighbor as yourself. (Those two—you know—are the sum of the ten commandments.) God is calling us to the kind of good works that are out of a love to him and to our neighbors. As we’ve already said, this is not unto salvation—but out of our salvation. Dead works are those things which go against the love to God commanded in the first four commandments and against the love to our neighbors in the last six. 

Our works then, are accepted because we are “in Christ Jesus”. The Westminster Confession of Faith 16.6 makes it clear that our good works are accepted because we are in Christ. They are not accepted because we are now perfected in this life, but because God views us in him. “Notwithstanding, the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in him; not as though they were in this life wholly unblameable and unreproveable in God's sight; but that he, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections.” 

In other words, we are made sons of God through Christ, and so our attempts of pleasing him because we love him, though weak and failing, are accepted. Think about it in this way: the artwork of children for parents is hung with pride on the refrigerator, not because it is classically beautiful and perfect, but because they are sons and daughters who have made it out of love to their parents. There is often still a mess to be cleaned up by the parents—brushes, water cups, paint off the table. But the sincere love of the child to the parent makes it acceptable and beautiful. In Christ, we offer up imperfect works of love—but they are acceptable because he has made us sons and daughters.

The Necessity of Good Works

The text says we have been, “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” We have been created unto or for good works. That is why we have been brought to Christ—that we may be delivered from dead works, and serve him through our good works. If something is not serving the purpose for which it was made, has it really been made for that which is said of it? 

Let me illustrate. Suppose someone says to you, “The doctor gave me bionic arm that can curl 700 pounds. You look at his arms, and the bionic arm looks the same as the non-bionic arm. There are no surgical marks, and man never curls 700 pounds or does anything that is different, even if he says it is different. What would you think of that man’s claim to have a bionic arm able to lift 700 pounds? You would think that he doesn’t have a bionic arm. It has never been demonstrated.

So it is with good works. They don’t count toward salvation. No. The text is clear. Salvation is by grace alone. Then what purpose do they serve? What do they do? Good works demonstrate a genuine love for the God who has saved us and brought us into his family—who has placed us in his son. They show a whole-souled desire to sincerely serve and love and worship him and be a son or daughter who is like the Son. (See John 14:15; 1John 2:3-6; 2 Peter 1:5-10; Ephesians chapters 4-6.)