Lord’s Day 32 · Part III: Gratitude
Why Do Good Works?
Taught by a pastor from the Reformed churches. The whole series on YouTube
Free video courseTake this Lord’s Day as a step in the course, with checkpoints along the way and a certificate at the end.Go to the courseAnswers are hidden. Say each one, then tap it to check.
Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why then should we do good works?
Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also renewing us by his Spirit into his image, so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits,1 and that he may be praised through us,2 and further, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits,3 and by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.4
Since then we are delivered from our misery, merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we still do good works?
Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us by his blood, also renews us by his Holy Spirit, after his own image; that so we may testify by the whole of our conduct, our gratitude to God for his blessings, and that he may be praised by us; also, that every one may be assured in himself of his faith, by the fruits thereof; and that, by our godly conversation, others may be gained to Christ.
Since, then, we are redeemed from our misery by grace through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we do good works?
Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, renews us also by his holy Spirit after his own image, that with our whole life we may show ourselves thankful to God for his blessing, and that he may be glorified through us; then, also, that we ourselves may be assured of our faith by the fruits thereof, and by our godly walk may win our neighbors also to Christ.
Dieweil wir denn aus unserm Elend, ohne all unser Verdienst, aus Gnaden durch Christum erlöset sind, warum sollen wir gute Werke thun?
Darum, daß Christus, nachdem Er uns mit seinem Blut erkauft hat, uns auch durch seinen Heiligen Geist erneuert zu seinem Ebenbild, daß wir mit unserm ganzen Leben uns dankbar gegen Gott für seine Wohlthat erzeigen, und Er durch uns gepriesen werde. Darnach auch, daß wir bei uns selbst unsers Glaubens aus seinen Früchten gewiß seien, und mit unserm gottseligen Wandel unsern Nächsten auch Christo gewinnen.
- 1Rom. 6:13; 12:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:5-10
- 2Matt. 5:16; 1 Cor. 6:19-20
- 3Matt. 7:17-18; Gal. 5:22-24; 2 Pet. 1:10-11
- 4Matt. 5:14-16; Rom. 14:17-19; 1 Pet. 2:12; 3:1-2
Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and unrepentant ways?
By no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like will inherit the kingdom of God.1
Cannot they then be saved, who continuing in their wicked and ungrateful lives, are not converted to God?
By no means: for the holy Scripture declares that no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or any such like, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Can they, then, not be saved who do not turn to God from their unthankful, impenitent life?
By no means; for, as the Scripture saith, no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or any such like, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Können denn die nicht selig werden, die sich von ihrem undankbaren, unbußfertigen Wandel zu Gott nicht bekehren?
Keineswegs; denn, wie die Schrift sagt: Kein Unkeuscher, Abgöttischer, Ehebrecher, Dieb, Geiziger, Trunkenbold, Lästerer, Räuber und dergleichen, wird das Reich Gottes erben.
- 11 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-20; Eph. 5:1-20; 1 John 3:14
TranscriptRead the film: Lord’s Day 32Tap a time to play the film from there · transcribed from the film
Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why then should we do good works? Because Christ, having redeemed us by His blood, is also renewing us by His Spirit into His image, so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for His benefits, and that He may be praised through us, and further, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and by our godly living, our neighbors may be won over to Christ. Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and unrepentant ways?
By no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like, will inherit the kingdom of God. This Lord’s Day starts at the beginning of the third section of the Catechism. The first section is the acknowledgement of our sin and our misery. The second section is the wonderful announcement of God’s salvation and our deliverance from our sin and misery.
And so you see that reflected in the beginning of question 86.
Implied in that is this, isn’t that the end of the story? We’re free in Christ? Well, yes, we are free. That’s the first part of the answer, because Christ having redeemed us by his blood, he has redeemed us, but this is not an absolute freedom from all obligation. Rather, this is a freedom from slavery to sin, and a freedom to live as we were made to live. This is what Galatians 5 says spiritually about us. It says, For freedom, Christ has set us free.
Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. How do we do this? Through Christ in me. By the power of Christ’s spirit in me. And so this also is in answer 86. Why should we do good works? Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also renewing us by his spirit into his image. You see, the gospel is bigger than forgiveness. That’s the heart of the gospel message, but it’s not the whole story. Christ has redeemed us. He is also renewing us. You could say that God has saved us by his grace. That’s our justification.
And now he’s transforming us by his grace. That’s our sanctification. So question and answer 86 gives four reasons why your good works matter.
Reason number one is so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefit. Of all the religions in the world, we have the highest view of God’s holiness. The only standard that is acceptable is perfection. Yet no other religion offers a full and free salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
And so the work of Jesus is unique and wonderful. And because of it, we are thankful. And so this is closely connected to the second reason that we do good works. Reason number two, as the Catechism gives it, so that he may be praised through us. We praise God through our good works. What does it mean to praise God? It is to give him glory, to acknowledge that he is worthy of honor. And so when we do the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do, when we live according to God’s will for our lives, we’re showing to others and to ourselves that God is good and worthy of our praise.
So reason number three is the internal testimony.
We may be assured of our faith by its fruits. Jesus said you will know a tree by its fruit. Good tree produces good fruit. A bad tree produces bad fruit. A good spirit will be characterized by the fruit of the spirit. It will be loving and joyful, peaceable, patient, and so on. And then that will work itself out in good actions.
And so James was able to write, faith without works is dead. Question 87 asks, Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and unrepentant ways?
And the answer is by no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like will inherit the kingdom of God. Now it’s so important that we get the order of things right here. We are indeed justified by faith alone. We are declared, in other words, to be righteous and holy before God on the basis of Christ’s righteousness and holiness. But the magnificent power of Christ’s work is such that it does not only remain somewhere outside of us, but by his spirit it is also something that he is doing in us. So that as those who have been declared righteous, we will, not just maybe, but we will become more actually righteous in our actions.
How righteous? Well, we can’t answer that.
If you’re struggling against sin and you’re prone to despair, you need to remember that the Lord is gracious and compassionate. In fact, God delights to work in our weakness. And so the struggling believer is still a believer. But if you’re not struggling in your sin, but you’re delighting in it, if you’re living in a pattern of sin with no desire to stop, if there’s no evidence of good works in your life, then you really have no ground to be assured of your faith.
And then James is speaking to you, and the Holy Spirit through James is saying, don’t presume on the mercies of God. The fourth and final reason for why we should do good works is the external testimony. So that by our godly living, our neighbors may be won over to Christ. You see, we are messengers, all of us. We all proclaim the message of Jesus, our Savior. Well, how important is it then that we don’t let our ungodly living get in the way of that message, but rather complement the message by our godly living? Perhaps you can think of situations where professing believers have looked like the world rather than like God.
That’s not attractive. Full of anger and resentment.
It’s just smelly. But if we look like Jesus, if we’re imitators of God, if we’re full of compassion and truth and grace, well, then they’ll be intrigued, and this will be so attractive. This Lord’s Day reminds us that we have been saved for a purpose. We are freed from slavery to sin and free to live life as we were designed to live. So this is what counts. Faith expressing itself through love.
Plate IThe Patient Who Walks Again After a Costly Surgery
A man receives a life-saving surgery—painful, complex, and performed entirely at the surgeon’s expense. When he rises from his bed days later, every step he takes in rehabilitation is not repayment, but gratitude lived out in motion. He trains, strengthens, and walks because he has been healed, not in order to earn the surgeon’s work. Our obedience works this way: it is gratitude expressed in the rhythms of life. The catechism roots Christian living in thankfulness, not transaction.
Plate IIThe Branch Proving It Is Alive by the Buds It Bears
In winter, a tree looks dead—its branches bare, its bark brittle. But when spring arrives, tiny buds begin to appear, quiet but unmistakable proofs that life is inside the trunk. Those buds do not create life—they reveal it. Good works are the believer’s spiritual buds: outward confirmations of inward grace. The catechism says our obedience assures us not by perfection, but by evidence.
CommentaryZacharias Ursinus on Lord’s Day 32From the catechism’s chief author · about 8 minutes
OF THANKFULNESS
Having now considered the misery of man, and his deliverance through Christ, the doctrine of gratitude or thankfulness is necessary, 1. On account of the glory of God, inasmuch as the chief end of our redemption is thankfulness, which comprehends acknowledgement and praise for the benefits of Christ. 2. On account of our consolation, which consists in our deliverance by the free grace of God. None now obtain this deliverance, but those who desire to show their gratitude to God. 3. That we may render unto God such worship as is lawful, and acceptable. God disapproves of all worship which grounds itself in self-will. We must, therefore, show from the word of God, what is the nature of true thankfulness, which is the worship due to God. 4. That we may know that all our good works are expressions of thankfulness, and have no merit in the sight of God.
Thankfulness in general is a virtue acknowledging and professing the person from whom we have received benefits, as well as the greatness of the benefits themselves, with a desire to perform towards our benefactor such reciprocal duties as are becoming and possible. It includes truth and justice. Truth, because it acknowledges and makes mention of the benefits received: and justice, because it desires to return thanks equal to that which has been received.
True Christian thankfulness, therefore, which is here taught, is an acknowledgement and profession of our gracious deliverance, through Christ, from sin and death, and a sincere desire to avoid sin, and every thing that might offend God, and to conform the life according to his will; to desire, expect, and receive all good things from God alone, by a true faith, and to render thanks for the benefits received.
This thankfulness likewise consists of two parts—truth and justice. Truth acknowledges and professes the benefit of our free redemption, and renders thanks unto God for it. Justice offers unto God such a return as he requires from us, which is nothing else than a true worship of him, consisting of obedience and good works. The doctrine of prayer belongs to truth; whilst that of good works to justice. That in which both these things root and ground themselves, is the conversion of man to God: for the works of none but those who are regenerated, are good and pleasing to God. Hence we must, under this division of the Catechism, treat of man's conversion to God, and of the law of God. There are, therefore, four principal Common Places which belong to this general division of thankfulness; Man's conversion—good works—the Law of God, and prayer.
The order and connection of these several parts may be thus explained. We have learned, from what has been said upon the two former general divisions of the Catechism, that we are redeemed from sin and death, that is, from all the evils of guilt and punishment by no merit of ours, but only by the mere grace of God for the sake of Christ's merits. From this, it follows that we ought to be thankful to God for this great benefit. We cannot, however, show and approve ourselves thankful to God, except we are truly converted: for whatever is done by those who are unconverted, is done without faith, and is, therefore, sin and abomination in the sight of God. Hence, those things which are to be spoken concerning man's conversion to God, are first in order. Then follows the subject of good works, since true conversion cannot be without them, and we in this way especially show our gratitude to God. Afterwards, there is subjoined the doctrine respecting the law of God, from which we learn what constitutes good works. Those now are in reality good works in which God is worshipped aright, and by which we declare our gratitude to him; which are done by faith, according to the command of God's law, and with the design that we may honor and glorify God thereby. And seeing that God desires to be chiefly honored and praised by us, by invocation and prayer, it follows, lastly, that prayer is likewise necessary, in order that we may properly express our thankfulness to God.
Question 86
Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why then should we do good works?
This Question, with respect to the moving causes of good works, is placed first, even before the Question relating to man's conversion, not because good works precede conversion, but because the things which follow are in this way more strikingly connected with what precedes. Human reason argues in this way from the doctrine of free satisfaction: He is not bound to make satisfaction, for whom another has already satisfied. Christ has satisfied for us. Therefore, there is no need that we should perform good works. We reply, that there is more in the conclusion than in the premises. All that legitimately follows, is: Therefore, we ourselves are not bound to make satisfaction, which we grant, 1. In respect to the justice of (God, which does not demand a double payment. 2. In respect to our salvation, which, in other respects, would be no salvation. Yet we are, nevertheless, bound to render obedience, and perform good works, for the reasons which are referred to, and explained in the above Question of the Catechism:
1. Because good works are the fruits of our regeneration by the Holy Spirit, which are always connected with our free justification. "Whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified." "Such were some of you; but ye are washed; but ye are sanctified; but ye are justified," &c. (Rom. 8:30. 1 Cor. 6:11.) Those, therefore, who do not perform good works, show that they are neither regenerated by the Spirit of God, nor redeemed by the blood of Christ.
2. That we may express our gratitude to God for the benefit of redemption. "Yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." "That ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service," &c. (Rom. 6:13; 12:1.)
3. That God may be glorified by us. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." "That they may, by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." (Matt. 5:16. 1 Pet. 2:12.)
4. Because they are the fruits of faith—that by which our own faith, as well as the faith of others is judged of. "Give diligence, to make your calling and election sure;" after which certain copies add the words, by good works. "Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." "Faith worketh by love." "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." (2 Pet. 1:10. Matt. 7:17. Gal. 5:6, 22.)
5. That we may bring others to Christ. "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." "Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may, without the word, be won by the conversation of their wives." "Let us follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." (Luke 22:32. 1 Pet. 3:1. Rom. 14:19.) These causes, now, must be explained and urged with great diligence, in our sermons and exhortations to the people; and here we may cite, as being in point, the whole of the sixth chapter, and the first part of the eighth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans, down to the sixteenth verse.
For a further explanation of the first cause, we may remark, that the benefit of justification is not given without regeneration: 1. Because Christ has merited both; viz., the remission of sins, and the habitation of God within us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, now, is never inactive, but is always efficacious, and so brings it to pass that those in whom he dwells are made conformable to God. 2. Because the heart is purified by faith: for in all those to whom the merits of Christ are applied by faith, there is kindled the love of God, and a desire to do those things which are pleasing in his sight. 3. Because God bestows the benefit of justification upon none, but such as render true gratitude. But no one ever renders true gratitude except those who receive the benefit of regeneration. Therefore, neither of these can be separated from the other.
We must also observe the difference which exists between the first and second causes. The first shows what Christ effects in us by virtue of his death; whilst the second teaches to what we are bound in view of the benefits received.
Question 87
Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and unrepentant ways?
This Question naturally grows out of the preceding one; for since good works are the fruits of our regeneration—since they are the expression of our thankfulness to God, and the evidences of true faith; and since none are saved but those in whom these things are found; it follows, on the other hand, that evil works are the fruits of the flesh—that they are manifestations of ingratitude, and evidences of unbelief, so that no one that continues to produce them can be saved. Hence, all those who are not converted to God from their evil works, but continue in their sins, are condemned for ever, according to the following declarations of the word of God: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, &c., shall inherit the kingdom of God." "Of the which I have told you in times past that they which do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God." "For this ye know; that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." "He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." (1 Cor. 6:9. Gal. 5:21. Eph. 5:5, 6. 1 John 3:14.)
We may also observe, that another reason for good works may be deduced from the consequence which results from evil works; viz., that all those who perform evil works, and continue in their wicked and ungrateful lives, cannot be saved, inasmuch as they are destitute of true faith, and conversion.
Sing this Lord’s Day
A confessional hymn by Paul Wagenaar that puts Lord’s Day 32 to verse, for children and adults alike.