“For Good Works”

Well, good afternoon. It’s good to see you, as always. And we’re glad, as Ron says, to have people come for the first time. Some people actually come back a second time, and that is encouraging too.

We’ve been dealing here with the verses that are the first ten verses of Ephesians chapter 2. For those of you who are visitors, when we set out on this venture in September of last year, we determined that what we would do is that we would provide a lunch that was affordable in a time frame that was acceptable and provide a talk that was biblical. So, if you have come here under false pretenses expecting that it would be something other than that, then I apologize for whoever has led you up the garden path, as it were. So far, the time frame has been acceptable. The lunch is very affordable, as you can see—which, of course, is tough for me as a Scotsman, just to let you away with that, but nevertheless. And so now I make no apologies for the talk being biblical.

And some who have followed the line all the way through know that we’ve really been dealing with a kind of good news / bad news situation. We’re all familiar with those good news / bad news stories. Somebody said the other day that they saw a little cartoon where a guy was sitting on the psychiatrist’s couch, and the psychiatrist said, “The good news is you are not paranoid. The bad news is everybody is actually out to get you.” So, we’ve been discovering that the bad news is that by very nature, we’re in deep trouble spiritually; and the good news is that we don’t need to stay there. And so for these weeks now, we’ve been looking at Paul’s very clear statement, and we’ve been seeking to answer the question “Is it possible for us to come to an understanding of what we might refer to as genuine Christian faith?”—something that is not simply psychological, something that is not merely routine, but something that would be, in terms of what we’ve discovered here in Ephesians 2 and in the sheets that you have in front of you, actually life-changing.

As we’ve gone through these ten verses, we’ve discovered that men and women—when I use the word “man,” incidentally, I’m using it generically, if you’ll pardon me, ladies—but mankind in its natural state, according to Ephesians 2, is not just lost and in need of direction. It’s not that we’re simply confused and in need of an explanation. Nor is it that we are merely unhappy and in need of a solution, nor that we are weak and in need of strength. But far more significantly, we are, according to Ephesians 2, dead spiritually and therefore in need of life.

And what we’ve been discovering is that neither reformation coming from the outside in nor indoctrination, whereby we simply stir up our minds to an approach to life—neither reformation nor indoctrination—will be able to deal with our predicament. Nothing less than resurrection is required. You cannot rehabilitate a dead man. You cannot indoctrinate a dead woman. The only hope for those who are dead is that they might be resurrected.

Now, this afternoon, our focus is on the two phrases which I think my secretary highlighted for you on the sheet. You’ll find them towards the bottom. And indeed, there’s a heading, I think, on the sheet which I never asked for. The heading I think reads “Not by Works but for Good Works,” or something like that. Is that what it says? “For Good Works, Not by Good Works.” Is that it? Okay. Good. Now, this lies at the very heart of the instruction here concerning a genuine Christian experience.

No one ever came into a genuine experience of Christian faith as a result of doing good things. But when someone comes into an experience of genuine Christian faith, they will do good things.

Incidentally, what we’re endeavoring to do in these studies is to provide a platform for those who would profess faith so that in coming together for twenty minutes or so in the middle of the week, you might receive, as it were, a kind of shot in the arm to be able to reprogram and go out to be more zealous concerning faith; and for those of you who are agnostic, who are quite honestly saying, “I’m not really sure about these issues,” that we would provide a context for you at least to begin to grapple with what the Bible has to say rather than simply the conjecture of men or women.

Not by Good Works

Now, at the heart of what Paul is instructing us here is this notion that no one ever came into a genuine experience of Christian faith as a result of doing good things, but that when someone comes into an experience of genuine Christian faith, they will do good things. That in itself is a point of great confusion—tremendous confusion—not only by people on the outside, as it were, looking in but also amongst those who would walk, as it were, the corridors of our churches. Many people within the framework, the orb, of Christendom, however we may wish to define that, are themselves confused as to the place of good deeds. And it would be a surprising group if here in this lunch hour today there were not at least some who, when confronted by the title at the top of this sheet, find yourselves immediately recoiling from it. And the reason is that you have long since determined that it has been and remains as a result of good things that you have done that you may hope for any credit rating in the bank of heaven and any possibility of tipping the scales in your favor on the day when we stand and give an account of our lives.

The confusion is sown at the very essence of the thing. Men and women by nature may accept the need for a little rehabilitation, but mostly, we resent any suggestion that what we require is a total transformation. We know that everything is not brilliant—just a little maneuvering, and we really are okay. But if someone comes along and says, “You know, you’re not okay. You’re actually in need of a complete refit. You need your engine taken out and a brand-new engine put in,” that’s a little hard to swallow, especially—if you contain the analogy for a moment or two—if you think that all you needed was a little bit of polish and a couple of pieces of trim realigned and two new bulbs in the headlights. You drive your car into the garage, and you think that you’re going to get a bill for fifty-three dollars, and the guy takes a look at it and says, “I’ll call you with the estimate.” And when he calls you with the estimate, you think it’s the sales department that’s calling you to sell you a complete new car. But the fact of the matter is that when we look at the events here, we discover that that’s what it’s saying.

Now, even with the notion of rehabilitation—the idea of cleaning up our act a little bit—most of us, all of us, by nature want to plead our own cause, want to exercise a plea based on ourselves. And I want to say, especially for the attorneys that are here today, that every plea that would be offered up on the basis of self in the court of heaven is immediately ruled out of court. It will not even be entertained. It is not possible to bring that as a proceeding into the court of heaven. If we are going to sue for rehabilitation, we must apply forma pauperis. We must come as total paupers, unable to offer anything whatsoever in our defense. There is no other plea that can be offered.

Now, that, of course, is a difficult thing for those of us who have spent most of our lives establishing ourselves, determining our status, making sure that in the pecking order of life, we are at least at a level that allows us to maintain some measure of self-esteem—even within the framework of religious experience to have determined that what we have managed to put together may not be perfect but at least it is acceptable. Then, however, if the searchlight of the truth of Scripture shines into our lives and challenges that, then it is something with which we’re going to have to reckon.

Now, the fact that we have to come, then, in an acknowledgement of the fact that there is no plea that we can offer which includes self is enough for many of us to refrain from entertaining any further thought of what genuine faith might be. Do you hear what I’m saying? As soon as we as individuals discover that the entryway is so low, is so narrow, is so demanding, it is enough for most of us to turn on our heels and say, “If that’s what that thing is about, you can forget me.”

That is exactly what happened when Jesus Christ himself made clear to those who had begun to follow in his wake the nature of what it would mean to be his disciple. After he’d fed the five thousand with the little guy’s lunch, thousands and thousands of people were following him. And Jesus recognizes that when you get a great crowd of people behind you like that, the crowd draws a crowd, and so it begins to swell. And so he turns around to the crowd, and he basically calls a time-out, and he says, “I’m not sure all of you are getting the picture.” And then he explains the nature of genuine Christian experience, and suddenly, ten thousand goes to five, and five to three, and three to one, and one to a hundred, and a hundred to twelve, and he’s left with his twelve disciples, and he says, “And what about you guys? Are you going to split as well?”[1]

Because endemic in our hearts is the notion that we have something to offer, that salvation is something attainable, achievable. After all, think about most of the societies that are represented in this room this afternoon. How did you get into them? If you’re a member of a professional organization, how are you a member? You’re a member as a result of being a professional that is able to be a part of that organization. If you’re a member of a professional banking association, I can’t join, because I’m not a banker. I would need to go through that in order to qualify for that. If you’re a member of some Mensa society on account of your intelligence, I can’t join, because I would have to go through that, and I can’t do that. If you’re a member of Canterbury Golf Club in Shaker Heights, you put down twenty-five thousand as your initiation. And I can’t do that—but I’m prepared to take donations for it.

Everything else in life, if you think about it—every other deal that we’re involved in—we have some measure of achievement in it. We contributed something to it. If you’re a member of the Pepper Pike Club on 91, you know that the only reason you were able to join that is because you are also a member in two other country clubs somewhere else in the United States of America. So those of you who have only managed to join one, don’t join Pepper Pike just yet, ’cause you need to join at least another one before you join there. So when you park your car in the Pepper Pike Club, you can walk away from it and say, “My, my, what a guy I am! Everybody knows how I got in here. They’ve got to know what I achieved.” So it appeals to our significance.

And that’s how most of us want to come to church. That’s how most of us want to come to the gospel. We want to come on the exact same basis: “Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know what I’ve done? Don’t you know what I contribute?”

Now, what does Paul say? He says, “Listen: You guys were dead. You got made alive.” And on the basis of what? Well, last time we said it was amazing grace that had done this—verse 8: “For it is by [God’s] grace you[’ve] been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it[’s] the gift of God”—and here comes the phrase—“not by works.” Why? “So that no one can boast.” So that there’s no place for big shots.

That’s why Jesus took the tiny baby in his arms, and he uses the child as an illustration. He looks at the group. His disciples had been really obnoxious in the way that they’d been responding to the mothers and the children, remember. And the disciples—it’s recorded for us in Mark chapter 10—were saying, “Hey, get these kids out of here. Don’t you know that Jesus Christ’s a very busy person?” And Jesus turns, and he rebukes his boys, and he says, “Hey, cut it out.” And he takes one of the children in his arms, and he looks at the child, and he says, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of [heaven].”[2] And then he says, “Unless you enter the kingdom of heaven like a little child, you’ll never enter it.”[3]

Now, what we’ve done in the years that have elapsed—in the two thousand years that have elapsed, we have corrupted that. So now we believe that what Jesus actually said was “Unless you enter the kingdom of heaven as a little child, you’ll never enter it.” He didn’t say that. He said “like a little child”—not childish but childlike, totally dependent, recognizing I have nothing to contribute, no contribution to be made to join this most significant society.

All the leverage that you and I possess to get into every single place in the world today does not matter one scrap in terms of getting into the kingdom of heaven. You might be able to get tickets for the Cavs game at this late stage. Good. Talk to me afterwards. You may be able to go and play Augusta. Super. You may be able to walk into various significant restaurants in key cities around the country. But none of those cards will gain entrance to the kingdom of heaven.

Now, I don’t want to beat it to death. That’s what he’s saying. You can’t do it on the basis of achievement, piecemeal accumulations of merit in the past, feats of asceticism, religious treadmills. All of these are misguided devices of self-righteousness. Good works do not accrue to our credit as a means of helping us in our running balance—a kind of Visa account, if you like, so that if you get one of those gray envelopes, you’re able to bank on your Visa now, because after all, “Dear Mr. So-and-So, you are $9.38 in the hole. But I have good news for you: Because I talked you into that 18 percent account, you’re in great shape,” you know. You’ll pay on it for the rest of your life.

The church in the Western world has fallen foul of suggesting to people that if you just keep coming to church, and if you just keep being a nice guy, and if you just keep vaguely religious, what you’re doing is you’re dumping cash in your Visa account, so if ever you get overdrawn, don’t worry, because you credited up big-time, and you’ll be able to just dip in on that. The apostle Paul says there’s no notion of the same.

But for Good Works

So, what is he doing? Is he saying that good works are bad? No, he’s not saying that. He’s not contending against good works. He’s contending against trusting in good works. Because he goes on immediately to say although good works cannot put us within the framework of the kingdom, once we are within the framework of the kingdom, good works will reveal that we’re actually there.

Good works, says the New Testament, are actually indispensable to salvation, but not as the ground or the means of salvation but as the consequences and the evidence of salvation. It’s all the difference in the world—so that when we do these things, we don’t do them so that we might climb the ladder and reach the gate, but we do them because we have been placed at the gate by one who did something that we could not do: namely, Christ; namely, die for our sins. And now, having been brought through the gate, we are now set free to do good works.

In fact, Paul says something more than that. He says, “Not only are we able to do good works,” he says, “but this is the very reason we were created, for we are God’s workmanship.” That word there in Greek actually means his “masterpiece,” the pièce de resistance. It is just the finest thing that God intended to do. And in his church, he has his “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Why, then, all the confusion? I’ll tell you why there’s such confusion. There is confusion because of what we read earlier in the chapter: that there is an Evil One who sows, as it were, tares amongst the wheat.[4] The Evil One is delighted to have religious people confused about their religion. And so at the very point of good works, confusion abounds. And no one ever came to a genuine experience of Christian faith until they understood Ephesians 2:8–10: that we have been saved not by good works but for good works.

If we breathe spiritually today, it’s because spiritual life has been breathed into us.

“Well,” says somebody as you are about to walk out the door so that the time frame may be acceptable, “I understand what you’re saying: that there’s a lot of spiritual death around. And I can see that,” you say to yourself. “I see the evidences all around.” But let me ask you: Do you see it in the mirror? (Or, as you say, “In the meer.” The word is actually mirror. There are three r’s in mirror, okay? I knew I would have to translate that, ’cause I could see the look on your face when I said, “Do you see it in the mirror?” You don’t even know what a mirror is.)

Anyway, do you see it in the meer? (It sounds wrong. I can’t say that word.) Because as I said in our very first study, what the Bible claims is this: that the happy, integrated, religious, suburban pagan is just as dead as the guy who’s scratching for a dime on Euclid Avenue. But because our shirts were pressed, because our shoes were shined, because our names are in significant societies, we are living with the damning illusion that we will be able to use the same leverage at the gate of heaven as we’re using at the gates down here.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have given you a portion of the Scriptures. You read the Bible. You are sensible people. You check this out and see whether what I am affirming today is what is written there. Because it’s imperative that you discover that this is what God said and not what a man has to say about God.

If we breathe today, it’s because life has been breathed into us. If we breathe spiritually today, it’s because spiritual life has been breathed into us. How does a person come into genuine Christian experience? Not as a result of good works. But good works will always be a result of genuine Christian experience.

Let’s pray together.

I thank you for your time. As you go today, if you’d like to take a booklet that simply speaks along these lines and with greater lucidity than I have given you, then just simply pick it up on the table without any embarrassment. And we’ll always be glad to talk.

Father, thank you today for the opportunity to come down here in the middle of the week and to take these verses from Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. They speak with great clarity to our lives. They are somewhat uncomfortable. They challenge us, and yet they touch areas that we so readily neglect, so easily overlook, so quickly pass on to other areas. We ask that your Spirit will work in our hearts and in our minds that we may consider the things of faith and that, in your grace and in your mercy, that our ears may be unstopped, that our eyes may be opened, and that we might come to see our need. For until we see our need, then, of course, we would never, ever imagine the need of a Savior.

Thank you for this time and for all who’ve come. I pray that you’ll bless them in the marketplace of the business world of Cleveland, that in some small measure, this humble enterprise here in the middle of the week may begin to make an impact for good in offices and workplaces throughout the city. Bless our loved ones today as we turn our thoughts towards them, and be with us in our going. May grace and mercy and peace from the triune God be our portion forevermore. Amen.

[1] John 6:67 (paraphrased).

[2] Mark 10:14 (KJV). See also Matthew 19:14; Luke 18:16.

[3] Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17 (paraphrased).

[4] See Matthew 13:24–25.