Faith Without Works By Phil Drysdale Quote "Faith produces good works, but good works don’t produce faith – just as milk produces butter but butter does not produce milk." Reinhard Bonnke Thoughts As Christians we are obsessed with works. Everywhere I go, I talk about the Christian walk not being about works but rather about God’s grace, which we accept in faith. No matter who my audience is, there is always at least one person (or a hundred) who has to throw in this caveat… “Yes, but works are equally important, we have to make sure we have works or our faith is dead.” The problem with this thinking is that the person has put the cart before the horse. They are focusing on a byproduct rather than the actual goal. The goal of Christianity has never been better works, it has always been pure faith. What happens, is we focus on works so much, that we never actually refine our faith. Works do not create faith! Worse still, we end up producing our own fruit rather than the fruit of the Spirit! Faith however always creates works. It causes the Spirit to bring forth fruit. Works which you have to stop and think about are not works produced by faith. They are produced by you and your efforts. This Martin Luther quote is one of my favourites regarding the topic of faith and works: “A living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn’t stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an unbeliever.” What I have found, is that most of these people will quote James to try to prove their point that works are ever so important. However they miss the whole point James is trying to make. He is simply saying that works are the evidence of good faith. He’s not telling people to go work harder, he is telling people to look at their works to see if they have good faith. He’s saying if you don’t have works then your faith is dead… it is no faith at all! And guess what, if you don’t have good works the solution is not trying harder to produce them. The solution is to evaluate your faith and change what you believe. Remember today that good works come from faith, rest and abiding. As Jesus said, our job is not to produce the fruit, our job is to bear the fruit. Let’s let Jesus focus on production and we can focus on abiding. Prayer for the day Father forgive me for when I put the cart before the horse. Help me to remember that my good works are merely fruits of abiding in you. Help me not to focus on my works today but rather to focus on my beliefs, accepting what you have to say about me, yourself, others and my circumstances. Thank you Father that as I focus on the right thing, I will create a vessel through which the Holy Spirit can produce fruit. I will have countless good works produced effortlessly. May I be able to boast like Paul did that I outwork everyone else, but not me, Christ in me. phildrysdale/2013/07/faith-without-works/
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 22:37:20 +0000
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