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3 More Reasons Good Works Do Not Prove that You are a Christian

By Jeremy Myers
8 Comments

3 More Reasons Good Works Do Not Prove that You are a Christian

Last week I wrote that good works are not the necessary result of justification. Many Christians say that if you are truly a Christian, you will have the good works to prove it. I argued in last week’s post that this is not true.

Let me provide three more reasons that good works do not prove that we are a Christian (and that the lack of good works do not prove that we are NOT a Christian).

good works

1. Good Works might not be evident

Some people in the comments of last week’s post noted that Christians “good works” often get defined by those in charge. This is true. If we are looking for “good works” in the life of a person to determine whether or not they are a Christian, what good works should we be looking for?

Usually, the good works we look for include things like attending church, daily Bible reading and prayer, tithing to the church, and not using bad words.

good works your pastor wantsBut where did this list come from? It seems to have been cherry-picked from various verses in the Bible. Why are these often the types of good works people look for in others? Because these are the types of good works that pastors and church leaders want in the people who attend their church.

Yet the good works that God wants might be completely different than the good works your pastor wants.

The good works that religious leaders tell us to perform might not be the good works that God Himself thinks are important. In fact, the good works that God wants might not be all that beneficial to the ministry that takes place on Sunday morning in the brick building on the corner. For example, James tells us that God wants us to take care of orphans and widows and keep oneself from being polluted by the world (Jas 1:27). Ministry to orphans and widows is not often the first and most important ministry that a local church decides to take on. The same goes for ministry to the poor and homeless.

But beyond this, it is quite possible that the good works that we do perform might not be all that evident to others (or even to ourselves). We may not even realize we are doing good works.

In Matthew 25:31-46, for example, the people who served the hungry, the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned did not realize that they were doing anything “good” for Jesus at all. Their actions and behavior didn’t “count” on the checklist of approved religious good works. But Jesus said that their “good works” were the most important of all, for in serving these other people, they were serving Him.

When we stand before Jesus in His glory, I believe the things we credit to ourselves as being “good works” will be things that receive almost no praise or glory from Him, whereas the things that He praises us for will be those things we didn’t even know we were doing.

The mother who gets up every day and feeds her family and cleans her house without thanks or praise from anyone will likely be among the most honored people in heaven, even though nobody in this world would give her credit for doing anything notable or newsworthy. She may not even have the energy to read her Bible, pray, evangelize, or get involved in a local ministry, but she faithfully serves “the least of these” her children, and God sees what nobody else does, and will honor and praise her in eternity.

And it not just mothers.

Most who truly serve God in the ways that really matter to God serve in obscurity, doing things that nobody notices (including themselves).

2. Sin becomes more obvious as we mature

Another we must be careful about looking to good works as evidence for faith and regeneration is because the closer to God we get, the more aware of our sin we become.

If we are looking at our life and to our good works for evidence that we truly have eternal life, the natural progression of the Christian life will ultimately lead a person to believe that they do not have eternal life.

The more you mature as a child of God, the more you recognize how far from God you truly are.

If you are looking to your good works as evidence that you have eternal life, you are likely to become less sure about it the closer you get to God, rather than more sure.

I always find it interesting that early in Paul’s ministry, he referred to himself as the least of the apostles (1 Cor 15:9). Later, he referred to himself as the least of all the saints (Eph 3:8). Finally, near the end of his life, he called himself the chief of sinners (1 Tim 1:15).

If Paul were looking to his own good works as evidence of whether or not he had eternal life, as he became more and more aware of his sin he would have become less and less sure that he was truly a Christian. But because Paul knew that he had eternal life through the promises of God alone, Paul was able to increasingly glorify God and praise God with every passing year because he knew that each and every sin was covered and forgiven by God.

If you depend on God’s promises in Scripture, and the faithfulness of Jesus to finish in you what He started, then you will never get tripped up or afraid by the sin in your life, for you will know that God always loves you and always forgives. When you sin, you will be able to shrug it off and keep moving forward with God.

3. Good Works are part of sanctification

When a person first believes in Jesus for eternal life, they are justified. They are declared righteous by God. From that moment on, the process of sanctification begins, which only ends with our death and final glorification in heaven.

It is a very possible that a person can believe in Jesus for eternal life and then not come to understand many of the sanctification truths that are necessary to understand in order to make progress in the Christians life.

So if a person has believed in Jesus for eternal life, but they continue to live like the devil, the proper response is not to challenge the validity of their faith, but rather to come alongside them an disciple them into some of the truths of what it means to follow Jesus.

When a Christian lives like the devil, they do not need their faith challenged; they need their faith grown.

They need someone to teach them the Scriptures, to show them what is true of them now that they are members of the family of God.

They need to come to an understanding of their new identity in Jesus.

Good works come from an understanding of these truths. In this way, we can say that good works are a result of understanding these truths, and therefore also a condition for further sanctification.

If a person hears these truths and says they understand them, but they continue to disobey and rebel, then we can say that they are living in rebellion or have failed to understand the truths they have been taught, but one thing we cannot say is that they didn’t really believe in the first place.

Maybe they need someone to come alongside them and show them how damaging and destructive sin truly is. They might need someone to say, “Yes, you can go sin all you want … but when you understand what sin does to you, why would you want to sin?”

Many Christians have the false idea that God is a cosmic killjoy out to ruin their fun and keep them from enjoying life. Some good teaching corrects this idea, and shows that far from ruining our lives, God wants us to enjoy our life to the fullest extent possible. The reason He tells us not to sin is because He loves us and doesn’t want to see us get hurt by sin.

So when a person doesn’t have good works, they don’t need to be told that maybe they aren’t a Christian after all; maybe they need to be shown the destructive nature of sin and the life-giving power of following God’s instructions.

If a person claims to be a Christian but lives like the devil, my response to them is not to tell them they are not really a Christian, but rather to engage them in conversation about how they became a Christian and what this means for their life now.

If, in the course of this conversation, I discover that the only reason they think they are a Christian is because they grew up in a Christian family and went to church a few times growing up, then I get to introduce them to the central gospel truth about how eternal life is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

But if, in the course of this conversation, they express the idea that they have eternal life because God gave it to them as a free gift when they believed in Jesus, I will not challenge the validity or reality of such faith, but will instead begin to address sanctification issues with this person.

The person who has been justified but who is not being sanctified doesn’t need to be told they were not justified. They need to be instructed, encouraged, and befriended by someone who can lead them further down the path of sanctification.

sanctification

Good works, or the lack thereof, do nothing to prove whether or not a person has eternal life. They do, however, help us know where a person might be at in understanding Scripture and how to live as a child of God. They do help us gauge the process of sanctification and how we can partner with others to encourage them in this process.

The Gospel According to ScriptureWant to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

God is Redeeming Life, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: eternal life, good works, gospel, gospel according to Scripture, ministry, obedience, sanctification, sin

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How much does a person need to know to receive eternal life?

By Jeremy Myers
4 Comments

How much does a person need to know to receive eternal life?

How much does a person need to know to receive eternal life? The answer is that it depends on the person! Yes, there is a minimum, but no one will ever believe in Jesus for eternal life if all they know is the minimum. So how much should you share? How much must a person believe? When you present the gospel, what do you need to say?

One of the greatest problems in presenting the gospel today is that people confuse “Preparation” gospel truths with “Purification” gospel truths. Then they confuse all these various truths with the one, simple “Presentation” truth of the gospel. With all this confusion, the gospel gets pretty muddied.

Let me provide you with some suggestions for clarifying your gospel presentation… I go into great detail on all of this in my course on the Gospel, but let me briefly explain for you here.

gospel truths for sanctification

The 1 Gospel Presentation Truth

The one, central gospel truth this:

Jesus gives eternal life to anyone who believes in Him for it.

That’s it.

I wrote more about this truth in this post: The Gospel Invitation

The problem with this one presentation truth, however, is that if this is all a person hears about the Gospel, they are unlikely to believe in Jesus. If they know nothing about God, Jesus, their own separation from God, or anything else, why would they believe in Jesus for eternal life?

This is where the gospel preparation truths come in.

7 Gospel Preparation Truths

There are likely hundreds (maybe thousands) of truths in the gospel which help prepare a person to believe in Jesus for eternal life. A person needs not know all of these in order to believe in Jesus for eternal life, but most people will need to know at least a few of them before they are ready to believe in Jesus.

I covered 7 of the more popular and persuasive gospel preparation truths in a previous post: 7 Gospel Preparation Truths.

But what happens after a person believes? Well, most Christians don’t realize this, but the gospel has more to say to a person after they believe than before. This is where the Gospel Purification Truths come into play.

7 Gospel Purification Truths

Again, much like the preparation truths, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of truths in the gospel which help Christians grow into maturity and become more like Jesus Christ.

And yes, all these truths are part of the biblical gospel.

The gospel has more to say to believers than it does to non-believers.

christian purificationSo here are 7 of the more helpful categories of gospel truths that a new believer might need to know in order to be sanctified and grow into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ:

  1. Unconditional Love and Grace of God
  2. The Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ
  3. Repentance from Dead Works and Religion
  4. The Indwelling Work of the Holy Spirit
  5. The Future Resurrection and Judgments
  6. The Bible and Other Believers
  7. Christian Apologetics

I know that a simple list like that might not be super helpful, but again, this is partly why I created my online course on the gospel. By taking this course, you can learn more about the entire line of thought I have presented in this post, as well as more details about the 7 Categories of Purification Truths presented in the list above.

These 7 types of gospels truths will give Christians a firm foundation on which to purify their lives and become more like Jesus every day. This process is not automatic and is not guaranteed, but growing in the knowledge of these gospel truths will help a person build their lives on Jesus Christ.

But notice what happens…

When we Confuse the Gospel Truths

gospel confusionIf you confuse purification gospel truths with the presentation truth, then you might think it is necessary for a person to repent of their sin or believe in the future judgments in order to receive eternal life. (But the Bible never teaches this.)

The same goes for a commitment to other believers, or various works of the Holy Spirit, or even having all their questions answered about the Trinity, the authority of Scripture, or the origin of the universe. But again, all these sorts of things can be discussed and studied after a person believers. They are still gospel truths, but they are purification truths, not presentation truths.

When you keep your preparation gospel truths and purification gospel truths separate from the one presentation truth, you will then be able to share the gospel clearly with others.

The Gospel According to ScriptureWant to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: apologetics, believe in Jesus, gospel according to Scripture, Holy Spirit, judgment, love of God, purify, repentance, sanctification

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Was Jeremiah saved before He was born? (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

Was Jeremiah saved before He was born? (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

JeremiahThere are several texts throughout Scripture which seem to indicate that God has specifically chosen or elected certain individuals before they were ever born. One of these is Jeremiah 1:4-5, which says this:

Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

Though this text does not use the words “choose” or “elect,” it is plain to see why it is a favorite verse for those who want to defend the Calvinistic understanding of Unconditional Election. Clearly, before Jeremiah was even born, God “knew” him, “sanctified” him, and “ordained” him.

Jeremiah 1:4-5 is not teaching Unconditional Election

Several things about this text, however, indicate that something else is being taught in this text than the Calvinistic doctrine of Unconditional Election. The first and most important thing to notice about this text is that even if God did elect or foreordain Jeremiah, it was not to eternal life, but rather, to be “a prophet to the nations.”

In other words, if election is being taught in Jeremiah 1:4-5, it follows the same theme of election we have seen in the other posts on election. Jeremiah’s election was not an election to receive eternal life, but an election to perform a specific service.

Once we recognize this, the rest of what God says to Jeremiah become clear. When God says that He “knew” Jeremiah before he was born, it means that God understood everything about Jeremiah. This is a text which teaches about the foreknowledge of God as being comprehensive and complete. God knew everything there was to know about Jeremiah, and on the basis of this foreknowledge, selected Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations.

This is what the word “sanctified” means as well.

Though we often think of the word “sanctified” as a reference to the “second stage” of salvation, so that after a person is justified, they then become sanctified, we must remember that the most basic meaning of the word “sanctified” is “to set apart.” When believers who have been justified then go on to sanctification, they are being set apart from the world of sin so that they can better serve God.

So also with Jeremiah. It is not that he was becoming more holy before he was even born—that makes no sense. Instead, God had “set apart” Jeremiah by choosing him to be a prophet to the nations. He was a special man with a special message.

Finally, the context of Jeremiah 1:4-5 make it abundantly clear why God is saying these things to Jeremiah at the outset of his prophetic ministry.

After God says that He has known, set apart, and ordained Jeremiah to serve as a prophet, Jeremiah basically says, “But God, I am not a good speaker! I am too young!” (Jeremiah 1:6). God knew of Jeremiah’s doubts about his own ability to serve as a prophet, and so indicated to Jeremiah that God knew him better than Jeremiah knew himself (Marston and Forster, God’s Strategy in Human History, 232).

So while foreknowledge and election are certainly taught in Jeremiah 1:4-5, it is not an election to eternal life, but an election to service.

God, knowing what kind of man Jeremiah would be, set him apart from his mother’s womb, and ordained him to be a prophet to the nations.

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, Jeremiah 1:4-5, sanctification, Theology of Salvation, TULIP, Unconditional Election

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Words that DO NOT Refer to Eternal Life (Part 3): Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification

By Jeremy Myers
12 Comments

Words that DO NOT Refer to Eternal Life (Part 3): Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification

justification sanctification glorificationIn previous posts we looked at several words that do not refer to eternal life: salvation and Kingdom of Heaven, and inheritance and reward. This post we will look at three more.

Justification

While it may be true that justification and eternal life are very closely related, they are nevertheless distinct in biblical theology.

To be justified is to be “righteousified.” That is, justification is to be declared or considered righteous by God. It is not the same thing as being “made righteous.”

It may be best to think of justification as being “in right standing” with God whereas eternal life is the actual reception of God’s life in us. The two are closely related and occur simultaneously when we believe in Jesus, but are still distinct.

The critical point to remember is that neither the reception of eternal life, nor the declaration of righteousness actually makes one righteous in all their thoughts, actions, and behaviors. If it did, we would never sin again. But we do sin, which brings us to the topic of sanctification.

Sanctification

It is because of this ongoing sin that we need sanctification. This is the life-long process of being sanctified, that is, of becoming more holy.

Sanctification occurs as we follow Jesus in discipleship and learn to love others like Jesus through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Sanctification often leads to the temporal experience of eternal life, but is not eternal life itself.

Through sanctification we begin to understand what it means to live under the rule and reign of God, and we begin to see other people as God sees them, and ourselves as well. Based on this brief description, you may realize that sanctification is vitally important for the Christian life.

Indeed, it is probably not an overstatement to say that the vast majority of the New Testament is concerned with Christian sanctification.

Glorification

Glorification then, is the future event when we finally gain our perfect, glorified bodies. It is with these redeemed and sinless bodies that we will live forever with God and will serve Him and one another for all eternity.

justification sanctification glorification

Though it is an oversimplification, we could say that if justification is deliverance from the penalty of sin, and sanctification is the deliverance from the power of sin, then glorification is the deliverance from the presence of sin.

So justification, sanctification, and glorification are not themselves eternal life, but maybe it would be safe to say that they are aspects of eternal life. Justification is when we receive eternal life; sanctification is when we learn to live within eternal life; and glorification is when we fully experience eternal life.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, glorification, justification, sanctification, Theology of Salvation

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