03/23/2022
When we go about trying to earn our own way into Heaven, or win eternal life for ourselves by doing good deeds, it might temporarily make us feel better about who we are, but such efforts have little to no effect on our salvation. These are called dead works, and although all good deeds have some intrinsic value, these deeds are a hollow attempt at creating our own version of redemption. Only through Jesus Christ can we come to God, and truly be cleansed of the sin and guilt that has plagued mankind since his fall in the Garden of Eden.
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Hebrews 9:14 ESV
There is nothing that we can do for ourselves that will wash away our sin, or make us worthy of an eternal existence with God. Only by God’s grace that flows through Jesus Christ are we redeemed, and only by His resurrection do we receive freedom from death. Our good and moral works mean nothing if not done out of love and in obedience to God, and His Son Jesus.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
John 3:36 ESV
Without Jesus we can’t obtain redemption, or earn the tiniest reprieve from sin. It is our faith in Him alone that justifies us, not our desperate earthly desire to be righteous, or feel good about ourselves. Any attempt, outside of Jesus, is a lame effort to make ourselves worthy… to make ourselves feel better about who we are in our sinful condition.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 ESV
I have stood in the serving line at the downtown Mission and served meals to hungry men. Sometimes I go there with other believers and we do this just as we are instructed to in Matthew 25:35, but at other times I have gone there by myself and worked alongside unbelievers. Their motivation was to do something good for their fellow man out of a sense of morality, and to make themselves feel better by working to help someone in need. I am not belittling their efforts because they were good people doing a good thing, but those hours of filling plates did nothing to glorify God, and nothing to heal the real pain within them, which is sin. It is like taking a drink of water and quenching your thirst for a while, as opposed to drinking the living water that Jesus offers us, and never being thirsty again.
“Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.””
John 4:13-14 ESV
So, just doing good deeds is not the same as doing something good out of love for God and Jesus Christ. Doing something good because it makes us feel better, or makes us appear to be benevolent, has nothing to do with glorifying God, and doesn’t free us from the sin and death we have within us. It is a loving gesture, but misguided. You see, we can give someone a red rose without it being anything but a friendly gesture, even though it is commonly known to be a sign of love, but if we look lovingly into their eyes and give it to them while professing our love for them then that rose becomes something much greater. This is the difference in dead works, and works done in conjunction with our faith. One means nothing, but the other is life itself.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for loving us so much that you sent your Son Jesus to redeem us. Thank you for calling us to yourself through Him, and for allowing us to love you, and to do your will as a sign of our love. Help us Lord to show mercy to others, not to demonstrate our own loving kindness, but yours. Keep our hearts focused on you, and never let us be tempted to claim the glory for our efforts, but to give all glory to you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God whose grace abounds, and whose mercy knows no end. Wash us clean in the blood of your Son Jesus, and remove the sin and death from us that had stained our souls for so long. Call us worthy, redeemed, saved, and righteous. Call us saints, heirs, and your beloved children. Say that you are well pleased with us. Hear our prayers, our praise, and our worship as we sing of your glory and goodness before all creation. Then, on the day of judgement, look at our lives, and pronounce us worthy, and redeemed in Christ. Glorify yourself in us, and seat us before you forevermore.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
Romans 3:23-28 ESV
Rich Forbes