From James 2:18, "But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your
faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
This morning I had some yogurt as part of my breakfast. This particular yogurt is supposed to have some good living things in it that are good for your insides. You consume them, and they are supposed to help bring a good, healthy balance to the things that live inside of us. As they do their work, good health and better digestion are supposed to follow.
There is a part of me that has long been fascinated by the interplay of our faith and the good that we do in life. The order of these two things has been recognized as important by the Christian church for centuries. Indeed, what I say today is nothing new at all. God does His good work in us by planting faith within us. He does this either through the water of baptism or through the hearing of His Word. Either way, faith simply cannot come into being within us if God is not the first and acting agent.
As God does that good and gracious work, something incredible happens. We become a new creation. Where formerly there was only a sinful person, now there is a new creation also within the person. And that new creation recognizes its creator, and desires nothing more than to live as the Creator designs and desires. To put it another way, the new creation desires to do the good that God calls for in our lives.
This process simply cannot go in any other order. To say that we have to do good in order for God to make us into a new creation is like saying that our insides need to be healthy before the bacteria can be introduced that does that. The good bacteria cause the good health to follow. Good health doesn't precede the bacteria of my yogurt. One takes place first, and the other happens in response.
The good we do is the work of the new creation that God creates within us. It does that work because it recognizes God as the good and gracious giver of all things. May our new creation strive to do even more as it sees God and strives to live according to His design and desires.
This morning I had some yogurt as part of my breakfast. This particular yogurt is supposed to have some good living things in it that are good for your insides. You consume them, and they are supposed to help bring a good, healthy balance to the things that live inside of us. As they do their work, good health and better digestion are supposed to follow.
There is a part of me that has long been fascinated by the interplay of our faith and the good that we do in life. The order of these two things has been recognized as important by the Christian church for centuries. Indeed, what I say today is nothing new at all. God does His good work in us by planting faith within us. He does this either through the water of baptism or through the hearing of His Word. Either way, faith simply cannot come into being within us if God is not the first and acting agent.
As God does that good and gracious work, something incredible happens. We become a new creation. Where formerly there was only a sinful person, now there is a new creation also within the person. And that new creation recognizes its creator, and desires nothing more than to live as the Creator designs and desires. To put it another way, the new creation desires to do the good that God calls for in our lives.
This process simply cannot go in any other order. To say that we have to do good in order for God to make us into a new creation is like saying that our insides need to be healthy before the bacteria can be introduced that does that. The good bacteria cause the good health to follow. Good health doesn't precede the bacteria of my yogurt. One takes place first, and the other happens in response.
The good we do is the work of the new creation that God creates within us. It does that work because it recognizes God as the good and gracious giver of all things. May our new creation strive to do even more as it sees God and strives to live according to His design and desires.
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