The Litmus Test weblog

Certainly, there are no works that a person can do to earn his salvation in Messiah. All of his good deeds have no more value than filthy rags in the currency of redemption.[26] It is only Messiah’s worth that counts — the infinite value of His blood which He shed on our behalf.

In fact, anyone who really understands the futility of his own unredeemed life, with all the material manifestations of his own selfish works,[27] will be eager to abandon it all as soon as he discovers the pearl of great price.[28] It would not even enter the mind of someone who truly hates his own life in this world[29] that giving up his possessions in order to gain eternal life[30] could be considered “works salvation.” He would be like Paul, who wrote,

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish,[31] in order that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:8)

Paul understood in the very core of his being what he was saved from and what he was saved for. The “loss of all things” was part of the reality of his old life being buried with Messiah in baptism,[32] not a “good work” that he did to earn his salvation.[33] Paul was glad to be free of his old life, career, and possessions so that he could lay hold of that for which Messiah had laid hold of him.[34] That is the revelation he had that caused him to write to the Ephesians,

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

The word translated as works here (and in verse 9, for that matter) actually means employment or occupation. It is not speaking of isolated good deeds that one does from time to time, but rather the direction of one’s will[35] — what he does with his time, energy, skills, and strength. Everyone who is saved is saved for the purpose of spending the rest of his life employing his gifts[36] to build up the Body of Messiah:

From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by that which every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds. (Ephesians 4:16-17)

Paul and the other apostles did not conceive of the Body of Messiah as a mystical union of isolated believers who live their own independent lives all week (“walk as the Gentiles walk”), and get together for an hour or two on Sunday. It was to be a full-time, visible demonstration of disciples living together in unity,[37] loving one another just as their Master had loved His first disciples[38] — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — serving one another according to their gifts and abilities. Such people do not need to be concerned about what they will eat or what they will wear,[39] but can actually seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, knowing that all their needs will be met through the “effective working of every part” for the benefit of the whole. Such is the miracle of self-sacrificing love.[40]

If you love Me, keep My commandments. (John 14:15)

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. (John 14:21)

He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. (1 John 2:4-5)

It is impossible to obey His commandments on your own. It takes a community. That is where the love of God is perfected in us — where we can truly love one another. That is where God has commanded the blessing of eternal life.[41]

Amazing Grace

The amazing thing about grace is that it brings about the purpose of God on the earth through willing human beings who receive faith when they hear the word of God, which causes them to believe to the point that they actually obey His commandments.[42] Together they bear the fruit of the kingdom[43] — the life that bears witness to the fact that the Father actually sent His Son,[44] because as He is, so also are they in this world.[45]

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[26] Isaiah 64:6

[27] Even if those past works looked good to the natural man, as in Titus 3:5.

[28] Matthew 13:44-46

[29] John 12:25

[30] Mark 10:28-30; Luke 14:33

[31] The Greek word Paul used here means something worthless and detestable, such as the excrement of animals.

[32] Romans 6:4-7

[33] Titus 3:5

[34] Philippians 3:12

[35] See the article Friends & Enemies for more on this theme.

[36] His “calling” or employment in the Body of Messiah, Ephesians 4:1.

[37] John 17:20-23

[38] John 13:34-35; 15:12-14

[39] Matthew 6:31-33

[40] 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

[41] Psalm 133:1-3

[42] John 14:15,21; Revelation 22:14 (KJV, NKJV)

[43] Matthew 21:43

[44] John 17:23

[45] 1 John 4:17

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