Grace, Works and Freedom

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.  All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.  But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:1-10, NLT)

It is only by God’s grace that we are saved. Nothing we do or say can earn us salvation except for accepting the gift of the shed blood of Jesus Christ when he was crucified for us. Nothing can change the finished work on the cross. So why should we do anything in the church, in our community, in our homes, in our workplaces if we can’t add to or take away from the finished work of salvation through Christ? I was talking to God about this because, although I had understood this issue to a lesser degree in the past, something finally clicked with me and I was able to put it all together in my mind. I hope to be able to share this with you. Let’s start with God’s Word.

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? (James 2:14-20, NLT)

At first glance it may appear that one must do good deeds, or works in other translations, in order to receive salvation, but when we try to balance James 2 with Ephesians 2, it appears that they are in conflict. One says you need works with your faith in order to be saved, and the other one says it is by grace alone. So which one is it? Let’s look at a couple more scriptures to see what else God has to say on this issue because we always need balance.

But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. (Galatians 5:5-6, NLT)

Love causes us to want to do good things for others. So if the most important thing in our lives is allowing our love to cause us to do good works, then that is what we should do. This brings us to a place of freedom, which is the circumcised vs. uncircumcised issue mentioned in Galatians 5. Circumcision was a big deal in the Old Testament because it meant that one was a chosen man of God. When a man was uncircumcised, he was a Gentile and could not be associated with by those of circumcision. The circumcised man was clean and free while the uncircumcised man was considered unclean and not free to live for God. The next scripture, when taken with the passage in Galatians 5, will hopefully tie everything together as it did for me.

¹Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? ²Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? ³Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? ⁴For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. ⁵Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. ⁶We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. ⁷For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. ⁸And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. ⁹We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. ¹⁰When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. ¹¹So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. ¹²Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. ¹³Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. ¹⁴Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. ¹⁵Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! ¹⁶Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. ¹⁷Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. ¹⁸Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. ¹⁹Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. ²⁰When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. ²¹And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. ²²But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6, NLT)

A couple of the verses actually stand out in this passage to balance all of the scriptures that I’ve mentioned. In verse 2 we are reminded that continuing to sin does not show more of God’s grace in our life. Our goal in life should not be to see how much we can put God’s grace to the test. His grace is unending, but we don’t need to test this but to be thankful for it.

In verses 4-8 we are reminded that through baptism after our salvation experience, our sinful nature has been put to death as though we share in the crucifixion Jesus endured for us. This was not just to make us pure and right in God’s eyes, although that was definitely part of the reason for Jesus dying on the cross, but it was a symbol for us to know that our sinful nature is dead and no longer has power over us. Not only did Jesus only have to die once to overcome the power of sin, verses 9-11 remind us that we also are alive with Christ when He rose from the dead.

In verses 14-16, we are reminded that sin is no longer our master because we have risen to live “under the freedom of God’s grace”, and we should not continue to sin because we will be controlled by whatever we choose to obey. Verse 16 goes on to say that choosing to obey God will lead to righteous living. And this is where good works/good deeds come into the picture. When we want to live right, we pursue that and end up becoming holy (v. 19).

I have one more point on this issue of Grace, Works and Freedom! Verse 20 tells us that doing right is an obligation. By continuing in sin, we are released from that obligation. But verse 21 tells us that when we choose that route, we become ashamed of our choices because we know that they lead to eternal doom. We know that we are cut off from God’s grace. So our grace, while a free gift, comes with an obligation to do right, to do those good works, so that we do not allow ourselves to become slaves to our sinful nature. We are free from the sinful nature if we choose to do the things that lead to holiness and eternal life (v. 22).

Ultimately, verse 23 reminds us that this issue of Grace, Works and Freedom boils down to a choice. If we choose to continue in sin, we will receive death; however if we choose to accept His grace daily, because to err is human, we will receive eternal life. What will you choose today?

In His Grace!