Throughout the letter to the
Romans, Paul is arguing against the works of the flesh as the means of
salvation. He writes, “It does not,
therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy (Rom. 9:16).” Even God’s chosen, the people of Israel were
unable to obtain a state of righteousness by their works (v. 32). It simply was not obtainable by that means.
And yet, even today, we continue
to be performance-oriented in our attempts to please God. Let’s get this straight, our works cannot
save us. How then can we be saved? Paul cites an Old Testament passage, “The
Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart (Deut. 30:14).” In other words, “If you confess with your
mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the
dead, you will be saved (Rom. 9:10).”
Enough said.
But, then why do we have to serve
God, do good, and all that? You don’t. Not unless you want to that is. First of all, if you sought out the salvation
that Christ came to offer, you probably appreciate it. So, it may be that out of gratitude, you want
to give something back to Him. Second, you
were most likely wanting to leave a certain lifestyle behind because it wasn’t
fulfilling. Christ has set you free from
the bondage and the consequences of the life you previously lived. However, we are not to use that freedom to
continue to live in that way, and that is pretty easy to do if you don’t adopt
a different way of life; and that life is only available by being obedient to
what he calls you to do.
So, let’s say I choose to do make
the right decision and be a good person.
Is that enough? Keep in mind, we
are incapable of being good on our own.
We are still of the flesh. If we
want to be good, Christ alone can make you good. We are, in fact, made holy by the sacrifice
of His blood on the cross. So, if we are
made holy, we might want to choose to live our lives in such a manner as we are
called to do. So, we are back to works,
right? Yes and no; keep in mind that our
reason for doing good is not to earn our salvation, or because of some mandate
to do so, but out of our recognition that we have been saved, we have been made
holy and righteous before God, and continuing in that state seems preferable to
the old way of life.
God, the Supreme Being, Creator
of the Universe, Lord of all, has saved us, when we could not save ourselves;
given us grace when we could never deserve it; made us holy by the sacrifice of
His very own Son. He expects nothing in
return. He just wants you to know He
loves you, and He hopes you want to know Him better. He has much more He wants to give you, many
more blessings He wants to pour out into your life. But, these come when we do good, when we
serve others, when we share the Gospel with the lost, feed the hungry, care for
the “least of these,” and let them know that He loves them too.
It isn’t like the Boy Scouts
where you get a badge for every good deed you do. What you get by being obedient, trusting and
serving God, is a closer relationship with Him, and the joy of knowing that you
are using the gifts He has given you, helping others with the issues in their
lives. Works, right? Yeah, works…of the heart.
