Of Good Works, XVI:2

These good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith: and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that, having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end, eternal life.

This paragraph enumerates several characteristics of good works in the life of the believer in Christ:

1. Firstly, they are done out of obedience. Space does not permit any lengthy discussion about the so-called lordship controversy, but it would seem to be self-evident that if God commands a thing be done the Christian should be the first one to do it. That we are so often lax in our obedience says much about the seriousness with which we take our professions of faith.

2. The performance of good works is the outworking of saving faith. Something is wrong with a fruit tree that bears no fruit. Similarly, the quality of the fruit borne speaks to the health of the tree.

3. Believers manifest thankfulness to God by doing the good works he has prepared for them to do. We demonstrate our love and gratitude for God and for his salvation by obeying him.

4. Good works are even a testimony to ourselves that we truly believe and are in Christ. We know that the natural man has no power within himself to do the things of which God approves. So when we find ourselves doings these things we have assurance that we really are children of God.

5. Other Christians benefit from our good works; they are encouraged and built up by the visible demonstration of God's life in us.

6. The hoary old saying, "Preach the gospel, and if necessary use words," (often ascribed to Francis of Assisi) goes to the idea that the living of the Christian life before the world is frequently a more powerful testimony of the truth of our beliefs than the words we say.

7. So many times the complaint of the unbeliever is that the church is full of hypocrites. True enough--it is a hospital for sinners and not a hotel for saints (in the conventional sense of the word). But this complaint could be stopped by a conscientious obedience to the commands of Christ.

8. Our good works glorify God, in that they testify of his power and love that have transformed sinners' hearts.

9. Without holiness no one will see the Lord. Our good works, being a means and outworking of sanctification, are the fruits of holiness. The faith and new life within that work themselves out in good works achieve the goal of eternal life in the end.

It is a wonder that more Christians do not do more and greater good works.

Tomorrow: The source of good works.