Does God Accept Everyone's Good Works? | Theocast Clips

Thinking about it, you know, it's like we're children, right? God is our Father, and it's as though, the way we think a lot of times, it's as though we come to God with our imperfect things that we've done, and we say, hey, here, here these are, and I'm assuming that on the basis of these, I can get in to your holy heaven.

That's the wrong way to think of it. But rather, we come to him and we say, you know, I know that because of Christ, and because of Christ alone, I am now going to be welcomed into your joy forever. And here are things because of that, here are things that I did for the good of my brothers and sisters, and I know that they please you.

And as imperfect as they are, I trust that you accept them in the Lord Jesus. And, you know, here I am. And that's a much more helpful posture, and that is the posture of the Christian. And so, John, I'm happy.

I think we've got time to finish. Do you have any other comments on 16 .6 that we want to conclude with 7? Sure, we can go with 7. Yeah, just for clarity, say we may as well. We're one paragraph from the end.

Sure. Works done by unregenerate people, that's folks who are not born again by the Spirit of God, may in themselves be commanded by God and useful to themselves and others, yet they do not come from a heart purified by faith and are not done in a right manner according to the Word, nor the right goal, which is the glory of God.

Therefore, they are sinful and cannot please God. They cannot qualify anyone to receive grace from God, and yet their neglect is even more sinful and displeasing to God. So a few clarifying comments here.

Works done by people who are not trusting Christ, they might be works that God has commanded, they might be useful to that individual, and they might very well be useful to other people, yet they do not please the Lord.

Why? Because they are not done in faith. Hebrews 11 .6. Apart from faith, it's impossible to please God. They're not done from right motivation, etc. However, even though that is all true, they can never earn merit through doing these things, it is better for even unregenerate man to do these good works than to neglect them, because in neglecting them, they just confirm their guilt all the more.

So that's a helpful, just kind of clarifying paragraph maybe to conclude. Because a lot of us, I think, look around at our neighbors who are not Christians, and we think, well, they're doing good things, and we need to talk like that.

People do good things in this world. They're not salvific. They don't merit anything from God, but they're good in terms of being commanded by the law, and they benefit neighbor. And then I think we need to be able to say, yeah, there are a lot of people that I look around and I interact with non-believers in my work or at the gym or wherever, and they're kind of easier to get along with than a lot of people at my church are.

True. But this is one of those great things, the distinctions that we have to draw and the ways that we need to speak. God is not in the business of saving likable people, and there are going to be many folks who do good things in this life, but they're not doing anything that would merit God's favor.

And we as the saints receive everything that we need from the Lord in terms of salvation, and any good works that we do are simply done imperfectly, but really in Christ out of love and gratitude and love of neighbor.

And so I hope that's clarifying in some way. John, any parting shots maybe before we head over to Semper Reformanda?

I think it's helpful. Sometimes, again, we always look at good works as means of clarification or justification or confirmation. And when we understand that God does not look at your good works as confirmation or justification, then your neighbor's good works are of no value.

Our good works are designed for two things. They are designed for the glory of God and for the advancement of the kingdom. That means that we're to love, care, and encourage our believers in the advancement of the gospel.

I mean, if works aren't done by faith, that means they're not advancing God's glory and they're not advancing God's kingdom, and therefore they're of no value. And that's why it says this, they're of no value, as it relates to the eternal kingdom.

Now, is there temporal value? As Justin said, obviously, it's good to suppress evil. It's good to suppress evil, but by and large, your good works have no value eternally if they are not based upon these criteria.

And that's why I think it's so important to think that your good works aren't eternally valuable because they're justifying you or they're confirming you. Your works are eternally valuable because they're glorifying God and advancing His kingdom.

And you need to stop worrying about this confirmation pietism because it actually distracts you from what you should be doing.