Enjoying Life Under the Sun

Indeed, the ultimate goal of our redemption is the production of good works.  In Ephesians 2:8-10 Paul wrote,  “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  Notice how Paul says that we have been saved,  not because of good works but for good works.  Good works are not the basis of our salvation,  but the goal of our salvation.  This, then, is the first reason why we do good works,  because we have been saved for this very purpose. There are still four other reasons.  1. Good works show thankfulness.  When giving the law to Israel, the LORD taught His people that they must show love and thankfulness to God for His grace by keeping His commandments,  which means the same as doing good works.  In the seco...

From the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer we learn that the way we show our thankfulness to God  is through the things we do and the things we say.  Our thankfulness concerns our walk and our talk. Before we begin to explain what God requires of us in the Ten Commandments, we first must emphasize the reason why we keep the commandments.  We do not keep God’s law in order to be saved.  No, we keep His law because we have been saved.  Our obedience is not the basis for our salvation. We are saved on the basis of Christ’s obedience which He rendered for us in our place. The reason why we stress this so strongly is because of the heresy of Rome.  Rome taught that good works earn salvation.  But that is altogether wrong!  Good works do not earn salvation.  Our good works earn us nothing because they are imperfect,  while God’s justice demands perfection.  That is why we must rely upon Christ’s obedience (righteousness). He alone ob...