BE USED in doing Good Works

Our CLCB Vision slogan is Be Changed, Be Nice, Be Used.

This blog is about the 'BE USED' part of it.

The challenge is to BE USED in doing Good Works. We are not save by our good works but we are saved to do good works. Good works are the fruit not the root of our salvation. They express but don't earn salvation. This is how Ephesians 2:8-10 puts it:

'[8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.'

Doing good works is not just about us trying hard, it's a matter of co-operating with God and working out what He works in. We see this call to co-operate with God in Philippians 2:12-13, which says, 'work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.' It's a matter of 100% me working it out and 100% God working it in. But we can't work out what God isn't working in and God works in our lives by His Spirit.

The promise of the New Covenant is found in Ezekiel 36:27 where we hear God say 'I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.' The heart of the New Covenant is this Divine enabling from within (See Jeremiah 31:31-34). The difference between law and grace is this matter of enabling. The law tells us what God wants and condemns disobedience, grace enables us to obey God (See 2 Tim. 2:1). It's therefore very important that we keep on receiving grace and allowing God to work in us by His Spirit.