This article is the twenty-fifth installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith." Find the whole series here.
How does this truth affect believers’ holiness? A critic might say that free grace allows people to live however they want and still be saved. If good works don’t save, isn’t obedience optional? This has always been the objection of the Roman Catholic Church: justification by faith alone will produce nominal Christianity, people who are Christians in name only and not in deeds.
And we understand that logic. Gracious justification seems counterproductive. We often work hardest when our labor has earning power (see Rom. 4:4). People tend to undervalue what they are freely given (see Luke 15:11–13). And this can happen in religion. Grace can be an excuse for spiritual carelessness. Is the doctrine of free grace a hindrance to sanctification? Or, as the Belgic Confession teaches, is it the key to becoming a new person?
The Mechanics of Good Works
We need to understand how good works work. Justification by faith alone explains how God makes people able and willing to do good.
No one can do good works who isn’t born again. A diseased tree cannot bear good fruit (Matt. 7:17). It doesn’t matter how attractive a carrot you dangle in front of people or how soundly you threaten damnation. Unbelievers live according to the flesh and are enslaved to sin (Rom. 7:5, 6:17). Those who are enslaved to sin, being under the condemnation of the law, can only try to obey the law “out of love for themselves or fear of being condemned.” Until you are united to Christ by faith you will not attain righteousness or please God, no matter how hard you pursue the law (Rom. 9:31–32; Heb. 11:6). Without Christ, we can do nothing good (John 15:5).
Faith is the starting point of a God-honoring life in union with Christ (Heb. 11:1–3). “True faith, produced in man by the hearing of God’s Word and by the work of the Holy Spirit, regenerates him and makes him a ‘new man’” (BC 24; see 2 Cor. 5:17). Trust in Jesus, provided by the Holy Spirit, activates our works; there is no such thing as inactive faith (James 2:14–26). Faith is fueled by the love God has poured out into believers’ hearts (Rom. 5:5). Trust in Christ “leads a man to do of himself the work that God has commanded in his Word.” Good works can only be the fruit of a renewed life.
Moreover, faith sanctifies our works. Our flesh defiles everything we do, even our best works. Still, believers’ works rest on “the merit of the suffering and death of our Savior” and on the blessedness of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Through faith, our works are actually “good and acceptable to God.” Abel’s sacrifice pleased God because he offered it in faith, looking for his redemption in Christ (Heb. 11:4). Enoch’s trusting life pleased God (Heb. 11:5). The reason faith-driven works please God is because, ultimately, they are God’s works. The Lord does all our works in us (Is. 26:12). God’s word and Spirit animate our faithfulness (1 Thess. 2:13). “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Truly, “We are indebted to God for the good works we do, and not he to us.”
The Motivation for Good Works
Justification by faith alone is the only foundation for genuinely good works. Still, we should understand our motivation for good works. If we don’t work to earn God’s favor then why do we work?
We Do Good Out of Duty to God
Good works are commanded; they are believers’ “reasonable service” to their redeemer (Rom. 12:1 KJV). Even the most obedient “are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty” (Luke 17:10). But for the believer, this is not a slavish duty but a joyful response to God’s mercy (2 Cor. 5:14–15).
We Do Good Because We Love God
We love because God loved us (1 John 4:19). And Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15; cf. John 21:15–19). He’s not only saying that obedience is proof of God’s love, but that love drives obedience. “The love of Christ controls us.” (2 Cor. 5:14). The beauty of God displaces “from the human heart its love of the world” and makes us “exchange an old affection for a new one.” Faith works through love (Gal. 5:6).
We Do Good Because We Love Others
When we are ruled by the flesh, we hate one another (Titus 3:4). But when God makes us new, he enables us, like him, to so love the world that we cheerfully care for our neighbors. Christians now “love one another from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22). And love shows itself in deeds. “Those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men” (Titus 3:8 NKJV).
We Do Good to Be a Witness to God’s Work in Us
Through Abel’s offering he “obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks” (Heb. 11:4 NKJV). Pious talk is as fleeting as your breath and proves nothing. But practical godliness has eternal value (Rev. 14:13). When done rightly, our good works tell others that we rely only “on the merits of the suffering and death of our Savior.”
We Do Good to Gain Eternal Reward
God “will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in welldoing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life” (cf. Rom. 2:6–7; cf. 2 Cor. 5:10, Rev. 2:23; 1 Cor. 3:14, 15:41, 42). Believers aren’t mercenaries, motivated strictly by reward. But the prospect of gracious reward should help cheer us even when we perform work that goes thankless on earth. “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6).
There are many other reasons to do good: to glorify God, to avoid the consequences of sin, to experience joy, for example. But we will only care about these and other reasons when we are graciously pardoned of our sins.
We need more of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, not less. Faith enables us to believe that God is eminently worth serving. We perceive that the fight against our selfishness is worth our full attention and energy. We fix our eyes on Jesus who answered God’s call for human righteousness and bled and died for our disobedience. And moved by Christ’s love for us, we live honorably as his dear brothers and sisters.
Footnotes
Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection (Louisville, GLH Publishing, 2015), 1.
