True and False Purveyors of Good Works
The sad reflection on “great” men is they invariably are great purveyors of works for you to do. Endless is their advice for improved performance.
The beauty of the Gospel of Jesus is the primacy of the finished works done by Him. “It is finished,” is all but incomprehensible to our enslaved flesh, ever stimulated by our overlord in this world. How foreign is this “rest” presented by Jesus!
One might ask about the good works of the Christian. The Christian is one created in Christ Jesus. God has prepared good works from beforehand (Eph 2:10), that is, before the foundation of the world, for the Christian to walk in.
As objects of God’s mercy, by His will (Rom 9:15–16, 23), saints are designed and equipped for tasks engineered by their Master.
What then is the difference between the works demanded by the god of this world, profferred by “great” men, inveigling you to be great…if you do them?
First, both of these labors attract laborers driven for achievement. Labors of love, indeed, but one, as a labor involving sin, and the other, as labor unto the Lord. In other words, the wages of one is death (Rom 6:23), and the other is actually produce of life. One is toil, and the other is fruit (Gal 5:22–23).
Second, one labor profits in the world, while the reward of the other is waiting in the next. Joyfully accepting delayed gratification is evidence of faith, which is the substance of things hoped for.
Third, one labor is of the flesh, and the other is of the Spirit (Rom 8). This is crucial for our understanding. “Great” men promote great works in others for them to become great. This is the way of sin. Labor in the Spirit, however, is labor by the Spirit (Is 26:12; Rom 6:29).
He that is in you (Gal 2:20; 1 Jn 4:4), Christian, is willing and doing the works of God because He is the third person of the Trinity (Phil 2:13). God, abiding and working in you, is accomplishing all His holy will, in and through you. Your works, done in the flesh, still rate as filthy rags on the scale of glorious performance (Is 64:6). His works, as it pertains to you, are decreed so that you will walk in them, by the Spirit…as witnesses (Acts 1:8; Gal 5:16; Heb 12:1).
In this ordained arrangement, there is no blessing and no curse, as it was under the Law. All of the blessings are already ours in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:3). Therefore, it is futile for Christians to judge one another in these matters of performance.
As for curses, He endured our curse for us when He hung on the tree (1 Pet 2:24). The only thing left for us to do is to bear witness of His continuing works, done by the Spirit. Oh, by the way, even bearing witness is His work (Acts 1:8; 1 Cor 2:4)! Hence, you have a better sense of your invitation to “rest.” If God wills it, He will do it.
The “great” men entice us to mimic them, with an elusive allure to be great in this world. This erlking is potent, persuasive, and preemptive, but our great God does not share His glory with “great” men (1 Cor 1:26–31).
He who does the work gets the glory; and if you neglect to give the Spirit of Christ the glory, for your labors, then clearly, you do not belong to Him (1 Cor 3:23), and you do what you do for your own glory…and that is the work of the devil in the child of the devil (Jn 8:44; 1 Jn 3:10).
David Norczyk
Hillsboro, Oregon
February 13, 2022
