Faith and Works - February 28, 2024 - Third Wednesday in Lent - Text: Eph. 2:8-10; Heb. 11:6

Last week we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe, teach and confess about the Freedom of the Will. Today we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe, teach and confess about faith and works and how these two important parts of our lives works together, especially how they interact.
 

There are truly only two religions in the world, the religion of man and the religion of Christ, the Christian Church. The religion of man is based on one’s character or good works. A person is commanded to do in order to live. Failure to do leads to death. This religion is based solely on the law and points a person to himself or herself. As you have heard me say before, a preaching of Law only, without the Gospel will lead a person either to despair believing there is no salvation and no hope or to works righteousness that is believing one is able to do what is commanded, like choose Jesus, dedicate your life to Jesus, be obedient and so on. Of course, the bar for doing enough good is always lowered and lowered as we are unable to do any good in and of ourselves.
 

The religion of man is based on good works, whereas the Christian faith is based on the Gospel and points us to Jesus. We are not saved because of some innate goodness in ourselves, we are not saved because we have been obedient or because we have chosen Jesus, but we are saved by God’s grace, through faith, given to us, in Jesus. We are saved because Jesus chose us. We live by faith and because faith is given to us our response is to live lives of faith. So, instead of doing and living we live and are moved to be doing.
 

The Apostle Paul writes concerning the connection of faith and works. To the Ephesians he writes, “8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul writes to make sure we understand that first and foremost we are saved by grace. We cannot save ourselves. We might asked, “Can a dead man bring himself back to life?” “Can a drowning person save himself?” “Can a person choose to be born?” The answer to all these questions is a resounding “No.” Our salvation must come from outside of us and it does. Our salvation is a gift given to us.
 

As for this word “grace” unfortunately there are others who would misdefine this word as God giving us the ability to do something. The word “grace” actually means gift. Here I would point out that gift and present are not exactly the same. I would define present as, “You give me a present and I will reciprocate and give you a present.” Whereas I would define a “gift” as giving something without receiving anything in return and without expecting anything in return. Indeed, something that is truly a gift is something that always points us to Jesus. Gift is Gospel talk.
 

Paul says that we are saved by grace, that is, salvation is a gift and he goes on to say that it is through faith. Thus, faith is important. So, how do we define “faith?” Although there are different types or aspects of faith, that is faith may simply be an ascent, accepting something as true, “Yes, I believe it will rain,” or it may be an acknowledgment, “Yes, the sky is blue,” true saving faith is complete trust in something outside ourselves. For faith to be saving faith it must have an object and its object must be Jesus and only Jesus. Faith in a tree does not save. Only faith in Jesus, faith given as a gift, that is graced to us, will save us.
 

Now that Paul has established this fact that we are saved by God’s grace as a gift given to us, a gift giving us faith in Jesus alone for our salvation, he moves on to encourage us in our response of faith, that is in what naturally follows the gift of faith, which is our desire to live lives of faith, as Paul further states, “10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
 

As you have heard me say before, and as I said at the beginning of this series, God created us, first and foremost, to love us. At the same time, as God gifts us faith the faith He gives stirs in us the desire to be the people He would have us to be, though as we know we can only be the people He would have us to be rather imperfectly. Paul express our desire as being created to do the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do. In other words, it is something we really cannot help but desire to do.
 

So, Paul encourages us much like James does in his epistle to understand that good works flow from faith. A person who has been given faith cannot help but want to respond by living a life of faith, by doing those works God has prepared in advance for us to do. It simply becomes a natural flow out of a thankful heart.
 

So, what is a good work. What is a good work in God’s eyes? Good works that are truly good works in God’s eyes are those works that are motivated by God, work in and through us by God and give God glory. In other words, our sinful nature will not prompt us to do good works. It is only as God stirs in us that we will be moved to do good works. Because good works do not come natural for us, God works them in and through us, meaning we usually are not aware of when we are doing a good work. And certainly any work that is a good work in God’s eyes is done to His glory. Meaning, quite frankly, most of the time we are doing a good work we do not even realize what we have done.
 

As the writer to Hebrews tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 ).  So, good works in God’s eyes are different than what we would identify as social good works. A rather harsh way of looking at social good works is to suggest that social good works are those good deeds done for oneself, self recognition, tax write off, or other personal gain.
 

We believe, teach and confess that without faith a person cannot do good works that are good works in God’s eyes, but one can only do good works which we would consider to be social good works. In other words, many if not most of the good deeds we see done in our world today, especially those done by people outside the faith, are simply social good deeds and works and have no accounting in God’s eyes for, as Isaiah tells us, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6a). And the polluted garments of which Isaiah speaks are menstrual rags, in other words, when we offer what we believe to be our good deeds to God, outside of faith they are filthy rags. It is faith, and faith alone, that motivates what are truly good works in God’s eyes.
 

What does this mean? First, we would recognize that, although faith and good works go together, faith must come first. It is faith, given to us as a gift, graced to us, and faith in Jesus alone that stirs in us and moves us to live lives of faith, to be the people God would have us to be, though imperfectly we would always add, and to do the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do.
 

Thus, good works are a demonstration of one’s faith. Although a person without faith might be inclined to do a social good work for whatever benefit, a Christian cannot help but let his or her faith shine through not only their desire, but also their doing the good deeds God motivates them to do, works in and through them and does to His glory. Indeed, all good works, that are motivated by God, worked in and through us by God, are done to His glory.
 

As we continue on during this Lenten Season first and foremost we are reminded of our sin and the fact that it was because of our sin and God’s great love for us that the events of Holy Week had to take place. As we celebrate Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday with Good Friday in view we do so in humility understanding that all these things are done because of God’s great love for us. And we rejoice in God’s gifts to us, His grace poured out on us. His gift of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. And most especially the fact that He stirs in us our response of faith, living lives as His people, giving praise and glory to His holy name. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.