Dead Works vs. Good Works

 

This morning the Holy Spirit led me to study WORK, WORKER, and WORKS, first by this verse: from 2 Timothy 2:15. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Wait a minute. The Bible teaches that no one is saved by works, then says His people are workers? Reading through the dozens of verses on this topic reveals a simple answer: without a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, our works are ‘dead’ — separated from God and the life of God. In contrast, ‘good works’ are motivated and energized by God, like a hand in a glove. The glove is useless without Him.

The OT gives the first clue in Exodus 35:35. “The Lord filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.”

Much of Scripture tells what the works of God look like so we should know the difference between our efforts apart from faith and our work done in faith. For instance, Proverbs 8:30 tells how wisdom is part of God’s work. Also, Moses declared, “You shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord.”

The psalms tell how the works of God make us joyful, produce righteousness and justice, are good and kind, and never considered our own or worshiped as if they were. God gets the glory.

In the beginning, God’s work of creation was done with a word yet is also called “the work of His hands”. Our work for Him uses words and the work of our hands. We term His work as miraculous. Our work in faith might not get that designation but the results usually make us shake our heads in surprised wonder.

Jesus supplies a clear example of what Christian work is like. All He does is in relation to God, the Father. He says, “My Father is working still, and I am working too.” John 14:10–14 firms this up and connects it to how we are to do the same.

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

Dead works are condemned as a way of salvation yet the NT speaks of positive works besides those works of darkness or the works of the flesh. We are to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” yet also “work out our salvation” and do “the work of the Lord” in faith, as confirmed in many passages such as these:

John 6:28–29. Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Ephesians 2:10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Matthew 5:16. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Philippians 2:12–13. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Mark 16:20. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. I can take all sorts of matters into my own hands, even church work and ‘good’ deeds, yet without faith. Those are dead works. Or I can listen for the Lord’s direction and be prompted by the Holy Spirit to do good works. The difference is my fleshy desire to be important, and the resistance of that flesh to be obedient. The opposite is a deeper longing for Christ to be glorified and for opportunities to demonstrate my love for Him. A strong focus on Jesus and rightly dividing the Word of truth is vital lest I waste time and energy on that which will not last for eternity.