By Ron. v. Leerdam
Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
many people believe that they are going to get to heaven on the basis of their good works. On the day of judgment they are going to say to God,
“I was a good person. I did not hurt anyone on purpose, I lived a decent life.”
In other words they are saying,
“I was no worse than the next person. I don’t deserve to go to hell”
But is this what the Bible teaches us?
Is this what God says? Lets face it, God makes the rules, He sets the standard.
What is God’s standard?
Jesus, God in flesh, has revealed God’s standard to us.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God and the Word was God…. The Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the
glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full
of grace and truth.” John 1:1,14
Jesus tells us the Truth as he heard it from Father God.
“You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Do you remember what Jesus said to the rich young ruler
who asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Why do you call me good?
No-one is good- except God alone.
You know the commandments:
Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not
give false testimony, honor your father and your mother.
He said, all these I have kept since I was a boy. When Jesus heard this, He said,
‘You still lack one thing.
Sell everything you have and give it to the poor and
you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come follow me.” Luke 18:18-30
For every one of us there is always at least one thing we lack.
“Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles on just one
point is guilty of breaking all if it. James 2:10
There is no way we can earn our way into heaven.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
There is no one righteous NO NOT ONE!” Romans 3:23
Suppose for a moment we only sinned three times a day.
Once a wrong thought came into our mind.
Once we said something unkind.
Once we forgot to do something we ought to have done.
Just 3 small sins per day adds to 1,000 per year and in an average life 70,000 blemishes against our name. We can’t expect a righteous and just God to allow such a person into heaven on account of his good works.
Remember we must be perfect.
The catechism has accurately summed up the teaching of Scripture: But why can our good works not be our righteousness before God, or at least a part of it? Because the righteousness which can stand before God’s judgment must be absolutely perfect and in complete agreement with the law of God, whereas even our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin. Lord’s Day 24
The good we do cannot make us right with God…..
Isaiah 64:6 says, “All of us have become like one who is
unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we
all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep
us away.”
What about trusting in Christ plus our good works?
Will that gain for us eternal life?
Suppose you have to cross from one cliff to another which is 100 feet away. It is 5000 feet to the rocks below. You have a difficulty you have only 50 feet of 1 inch rope I say, ‘Don’t worry, I have 50 feet of thread, if we tie them together we can get across.’ You trust the rope but not thread.
Lets change the story.
Say you have 90 feet of rope and only 10 feet of thread,
Your still not comfortable?
What about 99 feet of rope and 1 foot of thread?
The rope represents what Christ has done.
The thread, what we have done.
We must put our trust in Christ alone.
As Spurgeon has put it,”if we have to put one stitch into the
garment of our salvation, we shall ruin the whole thing.
Our so called righteous works do not make us right with God. In fact apart from Christ we can bear no fruit which is acceptable to God. We must first be made clean-as Christ said to his disciples. ‘You are clean because of the word I have spoken to you.’ You are right with God through believing what Christ says,
‘I am the way, the truth and the life.
No-one comes to the father but through me.’
The Christian can’t help but do good works.
The Christian is the person who trusts in the work of Christ alone for his salvation.
Christ said, “if you abide in me and I abide in you, you will bear much fruit. You will do many good works which are pleasing in God’s sight.”
We are right with God by faith in Christ.
Those who believe in Christ are a new creation.
How are you righteous before God? Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all God’s commandments, have never kept any of them, and am still inclined to all evil, yet God, without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me, if only I accept this gift with a believing heart. Lord’s Day 23
Instead of being stained with sin, doing works of evil-rebelling against God, we are able to do good. We do not claim spiritual perfection, but we do see spiritual progress. You can compare it to a tree. We if you like have been made into good trees. Christ said, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
Each tree is recognised by its own fruit.”
People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from bramble bushes. The good man brings forth good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings out evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.
Even though the Christian can’t help but do good works – because that is his nature i.e. being a new creation and having a new heart, that doesn’t mean that he does not do bad things some of the time. In Christ we are righteous by faith, but we are not yet perfect. We do not claim spiritual perfection, but we do see spiritual progress.
We should not despair if we sin.
For with God there is forgiveness.
Remember Davids Psalm 51. David was forgiven even for murder and adultery. Christ has paid for all our sin. We are called to do battle with Satan and temptation and strive by God’s grace to overcome it. This battle goes on every day. This is why we are exhorted to put on the full armour of God.
Sometimes we lose a fight but in Christ we have the victory. We will win the battle because Christ has won it for us. What then is the reward that the Bible speaks of? What is the value of our good works? Matthew 5:12 Speaks of a great reward for good works. Specifically for enduring persecution for Christs sake. Words can’t tell the glory of the reward. Not told exactly- but its going to be great. Yet we should see that our reward is a gift. It is not earned.
Obeying God, following Christ our Lord is a duty.
It is only doing what we ought so how can it be said that we earn our salvation, or even earn merit. Through faith in Christ we are right with God.
Can we add to the righteousness of Christ?
Make a perfect work more perfect? No!!
Therefore there should be no pride in our hearts.
God is not pleased in ‘good works’ in themselves.
Only in the good works done in faith- believing in Christ.
Christ has purchased our salvation we are saved by grace.
We have been bought with a price.
We are not our own.
Therefore out of gratitude we seek to bring glory to God.
We seek to be more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ.
Only as we keep near to Christ can we do good and bring glory to God.
May God keep us near the cross.
Let us look to our God in faith knowing that He blesses the
labor of our hands as we seek to build His kingdom and
further the work of His Church.
Amen.
Mama by the water 
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