God has a plan for us... to do good.
In the 1992 movie, Sister Act, two of the nuns follow Sister Mary Clarence (Whoopi Goldberg) out of the Convent over the road to a Bar. Sister Mary Clarence orders a philli-cheese steak and a beer. The other two stare around the bar wide-eyed: the smoke, the alcohol, the crystal ball hanging from the roof. Then the youngest nun says: "So this is what it feels like to be a Protestant!"As a lifelong Protestant, I can testify that what makes the hairs on a Protestant's neck stand on end is the notion that good works have anything to do with our salvation. How then can we come to terms with Paul's words to the Ephesians: "For we are created in Christ Jesus to do goods works"? If the grace of God saves one, then what is the use of works?
Matthew 24 and 25 contain a series of sermons Jesus preached, in which he described the Kingdom in ultimate terms. The series ends in a graphic description of the last judgement (25:31-48). A close reading shows that eternity is the reward given, not to the 'right thinkers' or even the 'right talkers' but to the doers, the people who 'practice' their faith. Barbara Brown Taylor puts it this way: "The goats aren't condemned for doing bad things, but for doing nothing" although she cautions: "One thing is for sure. You cannot win this truth like a scavenger hunt, checking off one hungry person, one thirsty one, one sick one, and one in prison. You cannot toss a quarter in a cup or throw a dollar bill at a woman in the grocery store and call it done. "There! There's my good deed for the day, my ticket to eternity with the sheep!""
So we are saved by grace according to Paul (Eph 2: 8-9) but also by works, according to Jesus (Matt 25)! The evangelical writer, Dallas Willard, helps us split the hair. "The path of spiritual growth in the riches of Christ is not a passive one". Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is attitude."
So there can be no doubt. Christians don't earn their salvation but Saved Christians discover that their ultimate vocation, the way they "work out their salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil 2: 12-13) is to do good works. After all, since we are God's workmanship -- why shouldn't we do a bit of work?
| For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians2:8-8) |
George Marchinkowski lives in Somerset West in the fairest Cape with his life companion, Sascha, and their daughters Leah and Zoë. He is a reader, a collaborator, and wants to be a catalyst for new ways of being Church.
