That is the question, are my good works looked by God as "good works"? Or is it me, by fiat, declaring my works, good? If you are going to come to God for acceptance based on what you believe to be your good works, may I have a suggestion? You'd better be sure that those works you have are darn "good" and God judges them to be so.
God saved us from our "good works", he is not requiring us to rely on the good works that we might thought we have performed as the basis for being in a right status/ relationship with him. God has released us from looking at our "good works" as a basis of having a relationship with Him, that is what I mean by saying God saved me from (my) good works. I forget the words of Luther, he even said somewhere that we should repent of our good works! Good works when used to front up to God is no longer "good".
I believe St. Paul's attitude towards his good works were the same, he said (one of my favorite verse) in Phil 3:9
...
9and be found in him, not having(V) a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but(W) that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
Having good works is not the problem, having faith in Christ is.
6 comments:
But we are save by good works. It is the good works of Christ that saves us. Since God doesn't need nor requires our good works for salvation, our good works is for our neighbor.
Thanks Steve.
Right on, we are saved by the good works of another.
I wanted to add that we are saved for good works but we are saved for the good works of God, saved for God's good works.
Thanks,
Lito
Lito,
Another problem we have a sinners, is that we confuse what we consider to be a "good work" and what God calls a "good work". We can easily perform true good works and never know it. Likewise, if we do something that we believe is a good work can easily be just filthy rages before God.
Yes, in Mt 25, the people whom Jesus praised were people who were not aware of their good works!
Amen, we readily excuse ourselves. One time a relative of mine said how come now I am just aware that I have not been doing good but before I was not like that I thought I was pretty up with good works? I replied, before you were lying to yourself and thinking you were an OK guy, but the word of God says today you ain't.
Lito
David Dickson said: “I have made a heap of all my bad works and all my good works and I flee them both to Christ.”
I like that quote, we rest all in Christ, he is everything, our righteousness and holiness, he won these for us that all may give him Glory.
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