Saved
By Grace XII – Saved To Good Works
Introduction – The five points are
not the end all of Reformed Theology.
They are not even central.
Central to the work of salvation is the exhaustive sovereignty of God. We have argued that God is absolutely sovereign
in the work of salvation, from beginning to end. But this is true because God is absolutely
sovereign over all of His creation over all time. This has tremendous implications for how you
individually think about what you will be doing tomorrow morning, and where the
Lord is leading the corporate church, the descendants of the second Adam, over
the course of history.
Saved to Good Works (Eph 2:10) – From
death, brought to life, Paul argues this is all the work of God in His free
grace through faith. God is active, we
are responding. We are not saved by any
good works. But, as James argues, faith
without works is dead. We are saved to
good works.
God, the
Workman – God was active in our salvation. He did not wait for us to apply for a new
heart. Neither does He wait passively
for our application to sanctification.
He is at work in us.
Created in
Christ – This harkens back to the original creation
(and we are the new creation). Out of
nothing, God spoke the creation into existence.
Then He shaped form into that which was formless and void, separating,
identifying, and blessing. In Christ
Jesus we are brought to life out of nothing and then God shapes us and places
us into our vocations, our works, and blesses us.
Prepared
Beforehand – Here we see the exhaustive sovereignty of God
again at work. Ordained before we have
done anything are the works that God has for us. He is not passively waiting for our service. He is actively leading us in the works He
prepared.
“Good” Works
– Certainly these refer to the fruit of the Spirit manifest in our lives. Certainly these refer to our witness of
Christ to the lost and our works of charity and mercy to others. But God charged the moon to rule the night
and called this work “good”. Good works
are much broader than we often think.
Understanding our Vocation(s) in Christ
– We have all been created in Christ to particular works that He has for
us. Therefore, all of that work is
sacred and good.
Priests and
Kings (1 Pet 2:9-10, Rev 5:10) – As God’s covenant
people, called out of darkness, we all serve as priests, proclaiming His
excellencies in our words and deeds, and as kings, serving Him as vice-regents
upon this earth, bringing the dominion of Christ to bear (law, truth, peace)
and tending the new garden (beauty, order).
“Holy” Work
– If God has called you to the offices and jobs and duties you find yourself
doing (and He has), then it is all sacred work.
You are not to work ‘for the weekend’ but for the Lord (Col 3:23-24). William Tyndale said something to the effect
that ‘in God’s eyes, there is no difference between washing dishes and
preaching the gospel’. As an employee,
your time is therefore rendered to your employer as unto the Lord. As a shop-owner, your excellent work, your
faithful word, your honest work, are more important than whether you have a
‘fish’ on your business card.
Multiple
Callings – Vocations are not limited to the thing that
brings a paycheck, but it does include that.
There are familial, civil, and ecclesiastical vocations in our
lives. And God encourages those who do
not ‘feel called’ in their work to remain faithful serving Him until such time
as God releases them to another calling (1 Cor 7:21-22).
The Work of Christian Culture
– We have so little to offer the world today because we have so little
culture. But if we are the new creation,
if we are the kingdom of heaven that is to spread from a mustard seed to become
the largest of the trees in the garden, if we are the sons and daughters of the
second Adam, then we are to cultivate something that is much more than a
truncated ‘seven steps to Christian faith’.
And we can only do so by faith if we believe in the exhaustive
sovereignty of God; we can only do so consistently if we are Calvinists.
Ministers of
Mercy (Matt 5:7) – Mercy is to be extended as we seek
to bring Light to the lost (1 Cor 2:2) and care to the downtrodden (Luke
10:29-37). It is our protection from
becoming preoccupied with religious trifles (Matt 23:23-24) because it is the
heart of true religion (James 1:27).
There are no unplanned meetings in the providence of God.
Not a Harmless
Delusion (Matt 28:18-20) – God (and therefore His
church) is not interested in a smattering remnant. As His Son rules at His right hand, He is
going to bring all nations to Himself through the faithful work of His
church. Too often, we act as though we
would rather crawl off into our little Christian ghettos rather than go and
live in the world. But this is because
we have been taught that in the end, Jesus will not have saved the world. But that is not the teaching of scripture
(John 3:17).
Absolute Truth
(2 Cor 10:4-6) – We are allowed to be tenderhearted towards those who do not
know God. We may even tolerate their
sins. But we must never compromise our
mission of discipleship and our commitment to the Truth. And we must remember that we do not believe
that Truth is simply a set of abstract propositions. Truth is the second Person of the
Trinity. Truth is our Lord to whom we
submit, worship, and follow. Science,
law, ethics, medicine, education, and every other discipline of life must
therefore be called upon to submit to the Lord Jesus, who is Truth.
Guardians of
Beauty (2 Chron 3:6, Phil 4:8) – Why bother with
things beautiful? Because God apparently
cares. He is to be worshipped in the
beauty of holiness and He wants us to know what that is in the area of the arts
and aesthetics. Our minds are to be
dwelling upon such beauty and our hands given to creating ‘in His image’.