April 11, 2007 - Works

Apr 11, 2007

Rom 4:4-5 WNT
(4) But in the case of a man who works, pay is not reckoned a favour but a debt;
(5) whereas in the case of a man who pleads no actions of his own, but simply believes in Him who declares the ungodly free from guilt, his faith is placed to his credit as righteousness.

I have had a few jobs in my time. In every one of them I did not get paid the day I did the work I got my pay at a time that was convenient for the company to distribute checks the all the workers of the company. When I got my pay I did not say 'thank you for giving me this money, I do not deserve it.' Nope, I said to my self I worked for it and it is mine. My pay was not a favour, it is something that I worked for.

Becoming a Christian though is a different matter. It is a favour to me from God. I cannot do anything to earn it. I can only ask God to forgive me of my sins and except Jesus as my Saviour. It was strange to me because I came from a denomination that taught that certain prayers at certain times were the only way to heaven. If you died when you had not done the ritual, you were in hell. I had to work for it. So, in my early years of being a Christian I usually tried to tie my salvation to the things that I did. If I was not doing good works I was not saved.

Now I am not saying that you should not do good things, James tells us that doing such is a outward display of our internal commitment. Paul, however, makes it clear that I cannot do anything to get my salvation except to have faith in the blood of Jesus. For people like me, we have to learn to rest in His work, not our own. We do not need to wonder why, just know that God loves us and if He loves us so much He sent His Son, we need to learn to love ourselves like that as well. No work, just love.

(WNT) NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN SPEECH by Richard F. Weymouth