The Gospel Message: Sanctification And Good Works

In the first portion we determined that the Bible is clear in its message that salvation is by God’s grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. A person exercises faith in Jesus Christ, believing in the message that He died, was buried, and rose again, accepting why He did it. It is only in Jesus Christ that salvation may be found. And when one is saved, they are made a member of the church, which is His body, Acts 2:41. Mind you, I am not referring to a denomination; no, denominations have caused incalculable damage to the witness of the gospel and given rise to some odious and entirely erroneous sects or cults such as Roman Catholicism or Jehovah’s Witnesses.

No, I mean the church universal, the body Christ Himself is building, apart from human effort. Paul writes, “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones…I speak concerning Christ and the church,” Ephesians 5:30, 32. More to the point, we read, “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all,” Ephesians 1:22, 23. Luke records, “And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,” Acts 5:14. Believers are added to Christ, so closely is He associated with the church He began. It is not a building or a system; it is the body of believers across the world that has placed their faith in Jesus alone, apart from merit or works, that comprise the true church. If you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and that He rose from the dead, then you too are a member of the church.

Now that one is a member of the church, how does one remain in God’s good graces? Paul writes, “for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day,” 2 Timothy 1:12. Peter, in agreement with Paul, writes that the saints, “are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” 1 Peter 1:5. Both men mention the Last Day, or the day of our ultimate redemption when God makes all things new. Both men are persuaded that God can perform what He promised because the surety of our salvation does not rest upon our part (of which we have none) but upon God’s, who is faithful. Paul assures Timothy, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself,” 2 Timothy 2:13. We may deny Him and reject the message of the gospel (see 2 Timothy 2:12, John 3:36), but once we have in fact accepted it as the truth we are born again and given eternal life as a free gift of God’s grace. If we have been justified by faith, that is, by believing the gospel message (see Romans 5:1), what sense does it make to believe that once saved man must safeguard his own salvation from forfeiture? Salvation is a free gift, Romans 5:15. What is this gift in detail? “Eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 6:23. Like the men and women added to the Lord in Acts, eternal life abides in Christ, and so too does the believer’s life when we believe the message of the gospel. 

Jesus once said to His audience, “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me,” John 6:57. Earlier He states unequivocally, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day,” John 6:54. Food and drink provide bodily nourishment; without them we would perish. But earthly food and drink does not endure. Jesus contrasts earthly food with the life He imparts to those who believe, asserting that if someone believes they feed upon Him, receiving the eternal benefit of being nourished by the life of Jesus. He compares this further with the life the Father gives the Son, being raised to die no more, Romans 6:9, 10. Death no more has dominion over Him; if He imparts to us identical life then one must conclude that the life every believer immediately possesses upon believing is of the same nature: eternal. By virtue of definition, something eternal CANNOT end. Further, it will not because Jesus promised that the only being capable of removing it will not, John 6:37, Romans 11:29. Paul explains in Romans, after relating to the Roman Christians that they are more than conquerors through Christ, that nothing created can separate us from God’s love, Romans 8:38, 39. He specifies that no created thing can remove us from God’s hand. We are created; therefore even we are incapable of self-forfeiture. Further, God WON’T remove us, because, “He who promised is faithful,” Hebrews 10:23.

If retention of salvation is purely God’s work, what is sanctification, and why must we experience it? Being sanctified, as stated earlier, means to have sin’s power over us quelled by the Holy Spirit, who is given by Christ when we believe to dwell in us and continue leading us into all truth, John 6:13, Ephesians 1:13, 14. The Holy Spirit’s presence in us creates a new life, with a desire to seek the will of the Father. This new life conflicts with the old life, creating in us something of a paradox as the old nature seeks its former comforts with greater fervor, while the new nature, led by God the Holy Spirit, seeks to conform us to God’s Son. As Christ was obedient on this earth to the Father’s will, so too does the Holy Spirit desire to make us, to the glory of God. Looking at the life of our Lord on earth, His works (which were many) were never to vouchsafe the Father’s approval or protect His salvation. They were selfless; they were good works. They were done to ease suffering, and being done in God’s name they revealed the Father’s infinite love for the race that had gone astray in sin and iniquity.

We know in Titus that Paul affirmed good works are, “good and profitable to men,” Titus 3:8. Good works are done from love. Unbelievers cannot perform good works because the mind and conscience remain defiled; therefore they are disqualified from performing them, Titus 1:15, 16. Believers can also perform dead works, when our motivation springs, not from sincere love of God demonstrated by loving our fellow man, but from something more worldly and selfish. If our church demands works and we do it by rote, that is a dangerous path. If we do it to be recognized, applauded, because an authority says we must to preserve our faith, we are fearful God will not accept us if we don’t, etc., we have slipped into error. Our works, being dead, will be burned at the judgment seat, 1 Corinthians 3:15, Hebrews 6:8, John 15:6. One’s salvation is not lost, because the Bible states emphatically that salvation can’t be lost; like the individual who has believed in Christ, it is not ours to lose. We belong to God forever, and that includes the eternal life He imparts to us as a free gift of His infinite love. But we can forfeit reward. Paul wrote, “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified,” 1 Corinthians 9:27. The apostle uses foot races as a metaphor for reward, symbolized by a prize. Rather than a perishable crown athletes receive for competing, Christians receive an imperishable crown, 1 Corinthians 9:25. Crowns and rewards are synonymous in Scripture, and neither indicate salvation, which we already learned is not a reward but a free gift, incapable of being revoked. Rewards may be lost, and we should be zealous to serve the Lord and please Him, but not at the cost of serving mechanically or carnally, using human wisdom and tactics hoping to achieve godly results. It is God at work in us, doing His will as we perform the good works He appointed us to do, Ephesians 2:10. Jesus explained that, as branches in the True Vine, simply abiding in our Lord will yield fruit. We need do nothing more than abide in Him, learning His word and letting the Holy Spirit apply truth to us so we may, with greater clarity and deeper affection, live in the way God desires for us. Does this sound hard? Humanly speaking, it is impossible, John 15:5. But praise the Lord that we have a God capable of what we construe as impossible, Matthew 19:26.

Works are the outflow of salvation. Works cannot precede it, because the unregenerate cannot please God. They cannot merit eternal life or sustain it; both reception and retention of salvation is an act of sovereign grace, entirely on God’s part. Sanctification is the Holy Spirit’s presence conforming us, transforming us, into the image of God’s Son. It is not humanly achieved, but happens by the natural outcome of abiding in Christ and allowing Him to provide for us that which we need to live a life in accordance with His will. It is a humble, submissive road, because it lays bare the uselessness and inadequacy of human endeavor and will. It exposes pride, ambition and hypocrisy for the ugly, growth-retarding evils that they are. But it cultivates love, first for the God that loved us enough to die on our behalf, and then for our fellow man who is hopelessly lost without Him, just as we once were. Good works will come naturally as the Holy Spirit teaches us these things through the Scriptures. God willing, we will consider the final question posed in the third post.