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Works


           For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

           Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?”  
           Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:21-23)

          Remember the name, “Benedict Arnold”? He was the Colonial major general in the Revolutionary War. He captured Fort Ticonderoga and did at least as much good as most of the other generals in the war. Then, in 1780, he committed treason. The colonists were kind. They didn’t kill him, but neither was he ever trusted by the Americans again. Remember the name, “Robert E. Lee’? He committed treason and led the Confederate Army in the Civil War. After the war, he was a president of a college in Virginia. By all reports, he did some good stuff both before the Civil War and after, but he was a traitor and there are people who want to pull down statues of him.[1]
          It might seem a little extreme to say that every sin is treason but consider this. As you decide in your mind that a little white lie (or whatever) isn’t treason, you’re effectively telling God that you’re in charge. So, Arnold and Lee both served their country well before they committed treason, and Lee served it well after. None of those good deeds made up for their treason. Put another way, there is no work on our part that can make up for the evil we’ve done. Today’s second passage makes that clear. We can prophesy and drive out demons in the name of Christ but doing those things does not save us.
          That’s why grace is the only means by which we can be saved. It is God’s works that save us, not our own. However, that does not mean that our works lack value in and of themselves. It does not mean that God did not plan for each of us to do things that matter. We were created to play a role, to do good works. Those good works may include prophesying and casting out demons, but they are not enough.
          Think of it this way. If you hire a non-family-member to mow your lawn, would you think he deserves to move into your home and treat it as his own? You hired him to do a job, and you agreed to pay a certain number of dollars. His doing the job you hired him to do does not give him the right to your home. It doesn’t even give him the right to receive a “Thank you.” Your payment of the agreed upon price is all that is required. “Thank you” is a welcome addition, but it’s not owed. Is someone wrong to withhold “the house” from someone who agreed to mow the lawn for $X? The right to the house can come only with adoption, which doesn’t tend to be bestowed based on good works.


[1] The full explanation of my position on this issue is simple. If local folk convince the owner of the statue to pull it down, that’s OK. For folks who don’t live in an area to light torches and storm the “castle” vandalizing the statue or demanding that the local, state, or federal government remove it, and leaving town once they get their way is wrong.

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