Redeemed for Good Works – Uses of the Law: To Clarify the Good News (5)

Redeemed for Good Works

Uses of the Law: To Clarify the Good News (5)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10

In the Gospel we insist that men are not saved by works. To try to use the Law of God—or any standard of human righteousness—as a means of redemption is to fall short of God’s glory. We are not saved by works but unto them. In the Gospel, having called people to repent from dead works, we now invite them to take up a life of good works in Jesus Christ. Now if I am living in a foreign country, which I have embraced as my own new land, I must learn its laws so that I may fulfill that country’s citizenship requirements. Those who repent of their sins and believe the Good News enter into Jesus Christ and should expect, therefore, to live by the laws He has established for the prosperity and progress of His reign.

Those laws are found in His Word, beginning in the Law of God and the interpretation of that Law given by the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New (Matt. 5:17-19). The Law encodes the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” If we would fulfill the purpose and promise of our redemption, therefore, we must take up the Law of God and walk in obedience to it as Jesus did (1 John 2:1-6).

To this end, God, in the Gospel, gives us a new heart and puts His Spirit within us. The Spirit teaches us the Law of God and makes us willing and able to do that which is pleasing to God (Ezek. 36:26, 27; Phil. 2:13). We “work out” our salvation as we are filled with the Spirit, rooted in God’s Word, and earnest in obeying the Lord toward the fuller realization of His holiness (Phil. 2:12; Eph. 5:18; Col. 3:16; 2 Cor. 7:1).

We are not saved by good works; however, we may not be sure of having been saved without good works (Heb. 6:9), the good works outlined in the Law of God and developed and further explained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Thus, as we call the sinner to repent and believe the Gospel, we must also point him to the way of righteousness, and call him to take up his own cross of obedience and follow in the steps of Jesus our Savior and Lord.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Bookstore, then Church Issues.

–

In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.