Good Works
Recently, I listened to a group discussing “good works” in a conversation about the Westminster Confession of Faith. And the discussion kept coming back to the question of whether non-Christians can perform “good works”. There was an apparent assumption in the group that Christians could perform “good works”. They might not always do so, but they were at least capable.
As I listened, I kept thinking about Total Depravity. And Election. And Predestination. And the sovereignty of God. And I was thinking about a passage I read by C.S. Lewis. It was in the book The Weight of Glory. He writes “I mean the pestilent notion (one sees it in literary criticism) that each of us starts with a treasure called ‘personality’ locked up inside him, and that to expand and express this, to guard it from interference, to be ‘original’, is the main end of life. This is Pelagian, or worse, and it defeats even itself.” He says in another part of the chapter that the real purpose in life is to empty oneself of the self and take on the character of Christ.
Anyway, it occurred to me as I was thinking, that this quote is applicable here. Several people were asking about whether a non-Christian can do “good” works. Any maybe that is the wrong question and is part of the stumbling block that keeps people from a saving faith in Christ. The question is not correct. Or at least, the answer is no. The truth is that the answer to another question “can Christians do “good” works”, is also no. We get trapped in the thinking that these works are ours to claim and own when, if we believe in Total Depravity, they are only possible by the indwelling spirit of God.
But then you must define what a Good Work really is. And, for that matter, what does the word good mean, at least in a biblical context. I think that a work of any kind, whether good or ill, can only be defined based on the will that is behind it. So, a man who saves a child from an oncoming car is only good or ill based on the impetus that caused that man to save that child. If the man saved the child because he has some nefarious intention for that child, then saving that child from the oncoming car would be an ill act, not a good one. And if that man saved that child from pure instinct, in other words, if there was no prior thought or motive, how can we be sure that the impetus came from that man at all? Isn’t it more likely that the thought to save the child came from some outside will that either was imposed on that man instantaneously or was imparted at birth? And given our view of God, isn’t it likely that this instinct had its origins not in the man at all, but in truth came from God?
But this goes further also because if good works are based on the will that lies behind them, then the act itself is neither good or evil, it is neutral but for the will that lies behind the act. Is this why we can be saved even though we continue to commit acts that are against God’s commandments? Because our will has been replaced or substituted by the will of Christ? And is that why “moral” atheists (an oxymoron I know) cannot be saved by their acts? Because their will remains depraved? It is easy to say that “moral” atheists cannot be saved by their acts because they are incapable of following the law (even were they inclined to do so). But if we imagine a hypothetical atheist who became so inclined to follow the God’s law because he or she believed it contributed to the greater good, and was also capable of following God’s law to the letter, they would still remain apart from God. So it is not the actions that we take that save us, but the heart of flesh from Ezekiel 11:19 that we have been gifted by God, irrespective of our actions that is what reconciles us with God.
Chapter 5 of the Westminster Confession begins with, “God, who created everything, also upholds everything. He directs, regulates, and governs every creature, action, and thing, from the greatest to the least, by his completely wise and holy providence.” And Chapter 3 starts with, “From all eternity and by the completely wise and holy purpose of his own will, God has freely and unchangeably ordained whatever happens.” Finally, Chapter 6, item 4 states “This original corruption completely disinclines, incapacitates, and turns us away from every good, while it completely inclines us to every evil.” If we really believe this, then the question of whether our actions are good or evil is moot.
We are completely evil and incapable of any good. Any good that occurs in this world is only a product of the good and loving God who provides for and sustains us. And so, any good that a person, Christian or not, is said to enact is only possible because God is sovereign.
Some will say this is just semantics. But I don’t think it is. I think it is really important. If I do something that is good, do I do it because I want to do good? Or do I do it because the one who created me is good and has imbued this world with his goodness, even through the haze of corruption, so that our lives here on earth would not be totally devoid of good.
So do Christians perform good actions? No. Do atheists perform good actions? Also no. All good comes from God alone regardless of us. No actions are good in and of themselves apart from the will of God that is imputed to us through Christ. Of course, this does not mean we should not strive to be obedient and follow God’s commandments. But we do so knowing we will fail and that any good thing we accomplish in life is only possible because God first loved us and created us in His image. Our attempts at obedience are an expression of thanks and praise, not an expression of performance.
This is a topic that I struggle with a lot. And it occupies a lot of my thoughts. I recognize in myself rebellion, vanity, pride, arrogance, anger, lust, gluttony, etc. I can point to events in just the recent past where I have known God’s will and chosen to act counter to that. Sometimes I feel like I have some form of schizophrenia. Like there are 2 voices in my head. The angel and the demon on the shoulder feels all too real in my head sometimes. And I have prayed so many times that God would remove this from me and he hasn’t. I still struggle. And I have come to believe that God has not removed my failings so that I will lean more heavily on His grace. This is hard to accept as I want to be obedient.
The alternative, of course, is worse. Because the alternative is that it is up to me. And I know I am incapable. While I struggle sometimes with whether I am elect, that is nothing compared to the struggle I would have were my salvation reliant on my ability to follow God’s commandments faithfully. It is the hope that I have in Jesus, that He will show mercy and invite me into His presence. That is all that I can depend upon. And to me that means that I must depend entirely on Him. If I were capable of good works, then that would mean God could demand that I perform to His expectations. The fact that I am incapable is a mercy from God and is why Jesus says His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
I know I will still struggle with shame, likely for the rest of my life on earth. And I will have reasons to feel that shame. And sometimes the shame itself will be the sin. But there is still light. The light of God’s mercy that will never be dimmed.