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Often I am confused as to the role of works in my faith. I have often been told that since my faith is to “bear fruit,” if I am not doing good works I am not saved. This even appears to be the message of James when he writes, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” In his book God’s Yes and God’s No: The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, C.F.W. Walther states in Theses X, page 54,
“The believer need not at all be exhorted to do good works; his faith does them automatically. The believer engages in good works, not from a sense of duty, in return for the forgiveness of sins, but chiefly because he cannot help doing them. It is altogether impossible that genuine faith should not break forth from the believer’s heart in works of love. . . . You may regard all the doctrines that are preached in the Lutheran Church as true, but if your heart is still in its old condition, filled with the love of sin, if you still act contrary to your conscience, your whole faith is mere sham. Yours is not the faith of which the Holy Spirit speaks when He uses the word “faith” in the Scriptures; for that faith – the genuine article – purifies the heart.”
Thus good works are the evidence (or fruit) of salvation, but they cannot earn one’s salvation. Even so, the only works that are good are those which are done for the glory of God and the good of man. Such works, however, no man performs unless he first believes that God has forgiven him his sins and has given him eternal life by grace, for Christ’s sake, without any works of his own (John 15:4-5). Since good works never precede faith, but are always and in every instance the result (or evidence) of faith in the Gospel, it is evident that the only means by which we Christians can become rich in good works, which God desires for us (Titus 2:14), is unceasingly to remember the grace of God which we have received in Christ (Romans 12:1; 2 Corinthians 8:9).
Hence we must reject as foolish any attempt to produce good works by the compulsion of the Law or through carnal motives. At the same time, we must recognize that “faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself” (James 2:17), as I stated earlier. Even in the Old Testament, God says, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:27). This is a word of caution to those who would “continue in sin that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1), but is not meant to remove the assurance of the sincere believer who has repented of his or her sins. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2). Remember that “the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
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