Sermons
Listen to sermons from Christ Covenant Church in Charlotte, NC and Pastor Kevin DeYoung.
Sermons
Dr. Kevin DeYoung | How to Think About Good Works
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Sunday Evening, August 9, 2026
Given by Dr. Kevin DeYoung | Senior Pastor, Christ Covenant Church
How to Think About Good Works
Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 32
Father in heaven, help us as we reflect upon the truths of your Word, that we might not only understand, but we might be doers, we might live such good lives among the pagans, that though they want to accuse us of doing wrong, yet something in our lives would cause them to ask for a reason for the hope that we have, or would so adorn the gospel that it might be the beginning of the means of grace to speak the words of truth, and that they may glorify you on the day of your return. We pray that we might be the people in Christ that you have called us to be. In his name we pray. Amen.
Being a good theologian means knowing your terms and looking carefully at the words in sentences. Part of learning theology is learning vocabulary, and it's also learning to be a careful thinker and pay very careful attention to words. Let me ask you a question. I wonder how you would answer this. True or false: are good works necessary to salvation? Are good works necessary to salvation? Now notice, if you're a careful reader of words or listener at this point, the word there I gave you is salvation, not justification. We may use them interchangeably, but really, theologically, salvation is a broader category, encompassing everything on our way to heaven. So, the question was not about justification in particular, but are good works necessary to salvation? If you say, in order to defend in your mind sola fide (justification by faith alone), and you want to say no, good works are not necessary to salvation, what do you do with great swaths of the New Testament or the whole Bible and moral imperatives and the demands for obedience and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount if somehow now good works are not necessary unto salvation? So, you want to answer yes, and I'll just tell you, “yes” or “true” is the right answer. Good works are necessary to salvation. But at that point, okay, I'm going to need some help there, because that makes me a little nervous. There's some obviously wrong ways that we might say good works are necessary to salvation. The crassest way would be, well, obviously good people go to heaven. All dogs go to heaven. That was a movie. I’m sure it's based on truth. And good people go to heaven. You live your life. Somehow you're weighed in the balance, or you're graded on the curve – you do enough good things, you go to heaven. Or slightly more nuanced than that, someone may say, "Well, God enables us to so participate with him in being inwardly righteous, such that something in that righteousness is some small part of the ground by which we are accepted.” Those would both be bad ways to understand the “yes” to the question “Are good works necessary to salvation?”
This has often perplexed Christians, and especially Reformed Christians, because it has been one of the most consistent criticisms of Reformed or just Reformation theology. You can see this developing – and we'll come to the catechism in just a moment – but back before the section on the sacraments, which went on for many weeks, the Heidelberg Catechism asked how are you right with God? Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Why do you say it is by faith alone? Because it is not because of any value my faith has. Only I receive this righteousness. And why can't the good we do make us right with God? Because the righteousness does not pass God's scrutiny. How can you say the good we do doesn't earn us anything? Because the reward is not earned; it is a gift. So, the catechism has been stressing faith alone. Your works do nothing to merit justification. And then, having the section on the means of grace and the sacraments and last week on discipline, now coming back around to this question: okay, if that's the case, then why must we still do good?
You may have noticed that this transitions us into the third major section of the Heidelberg Catechism: guilt, grace, and gratitude. If we were to say, on the one hand, good works are not necessary, then it seems as if our entire lives are indifferent. Rather, how we live them doesn't matter. That's what, perhaps, libertines might say or a kind of easy-believism. You heard me give the term this morning antinomianism. Nomos is the word for law, like Deuteronomy. Deuteronomos is the second giving of the Law before they entered the Promised Land, so an antinomian is someone who's anti-law. There are very few people among Christian churches who just stand up and say it doesn't matter at all what you do. But there is a certain kind of attitude that says to insist upon following the commands of Scripture is to demand the impossible or it's to load people down with guilt or it is to undermine the gospel itself. That is the spirit of antinomianism that sometimes leads to answering, “No, good works are not necessary to salvation.” On the other side, if you answer, “Yes, they are necessary,” how do we avoid becoming a legalist or a Pharisee or a Pelagian or a semi-Pelagian or the mistakes of Roman Catholic theology? We want to affirm, as the catechism leads us and the Scriptures teach: sola fide. Opposed to sola fide, which the Roman Catholic Church has been for 500 years, will say, “What must you do to be saved? You must repent, believe, and live in charity.” This was one of the most critical objections raised by Catholics and continue to be raised by opponents of Reformation theology: why must we still do good? If this is faith alone, then tell me – you are setting yourselves up, your churches – you are going to be the most wicked, despicable people. You will do evil that grace may abound, as we read from Romans chapter 6.
Francis Turretin, the 17th century theologian, describes two extremes. The one extreme of libertine, anything goes, and the other extreme of a legalism, a pharisaical attitude. And he says, trying to hold to the middle ground between these two extremes, which he calls “the opinion of the orthodox,” he said good works are necessary, but not according to the necessity of merit. Here's where being a good theologian means paying very careful attention to words. Listen to what Turretin says. The question before us: are good works necessary to salvation? “The question is not whether good works are necessary to effect salvation or to acquire it of right” – so that's not the question. You say, God, here's my good works. I have now effected salvation. I have now acquired. You are holding it there. You have a purchase price. I pay the purchase price of my good works. Therefore, you give me salvation. Turretin says that is not the question we are asking – “but whether good works are required as the means and the way for possessing of salvation.” And in this last sense, he affirms the necessity of good works: “Although we acknowledge the necessity of good works,” he observes, “we do not on this account confound the law and the gospel and interfere with gratuitous justification by faith alone. Good works are required” – listen carefully – “not for living according to the law, but because we live by the gospel; not as the causes on account of which life is given to us, but as effects, which testify that life has been given to us.” Not as causes on account of which we receive life, but as effects, which testify that life has been given to us. And this is the uniform teaching of Scripture: the necessity of good works. It is necessary to live as transformed people.
Eric read the first 11 verses from Romans chapter 6. Let me just read to you verses 1 and 2 and then 12-14. And listen here in Paul's argument – I want you to listen for two analogies that he uses: “What then shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” He's anticipating that's what some people are going to say about this gospel, especially in Romans 3 – we're coming to it. Romans 4, Romans 5. Some people are going to say, "Me and God, we get along great. I love to sin. He loves to forgive. It's a partnership made in heaven. This is wonderful. I just sin, and he says, ‘Grace, grace, grace.’ I'm happy. He's happy.” Paul of course says, "By no means." How can we who died to sin still live in it? So, there's the first analogy. That old person in you died. You died. That's what he continues with “buried with Christ in baptism,” that we have been raised to newness of life. When you think of that indwelling sin in you that still wants to go to that website, that wants to feel sorry for yourself, that wants to wallow in self-pity, that wants to hold a grudge, that wants to be surly towards your family, that wants to stoke the fires of bitterness, that's tempted to cheat at work or to lie to get ahead or to be vain and proud – that old part of you, Paul says, you hung on the cross, that old you. See, we think of how Christ died as a substitute in our place. Romans also teaches we died in union with Christ there, so that that person that is clamoring for your attention, that old you, is dead. Don't be a zombie Christian. Don't bring back the dead you. You're alive in Christ. So that's the first analogy: death.
The second one in verse 12, “Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members” – which often in Paul's language can mean sexual organs, but can just be the members of your body, yourself – “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life” – there's the death metaphor – “and your members to God as instruments for righteousness, for sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” So, he weaves in there that first analogy, death, but do you see the second one? Bondage, slavery, dominion. You think if you were fighting one of the wars in the Middle East over the last decade or two against al-Qaeda or ISIS or the Taliban, and if you were made a prisoner, and you were a POW, and through great effort some Navy Seal team came in and set you free, and you were delivered, and you were now back on the side of the United States Armed Forces and flying you back to the United States to your home where you belong, to your people. And if you snuck on a plane, and you wandered off into one of those mountains, and you found one of the caves where the terrorists were hanging out, and you came, and they said, "What are you doing here?" And you said, "Bind me. Put the shackles on me again." We would all say, "What a grotesque tragedy to return to your captives, to say, "Enslave me again. Put me in bonds. Put me in fetters. Let me be in bondage. Have your dominion over me once more.” For freedom you have been set free – that's the analogy that Paul gives. You died in Christ on the cross. That old you died, and you've been set free. Don't present your members to come back to sin and say, “I'm ready, sin, to be your slave again. Have mastery over me.” Every one of us would say, "What an utter blasphemous tragedy, and what a dishonor to the one who set you free." That's what Paul says. So yes, good works are necessary for the Christian. You live in freedom, not in bondage.
Hebrews 12:14 says, "Strive for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” It's not a holiness scale. You need so many holiness points. It is simply saying a good tree bears good fruit. You show yourself to be changed. As you probably remember me saying before, just think very simply about a math problem. I won't make you think about it for very long. F equals faith in this equation. W equals works. J equals justification. If you say F on the board plus W equals justification: anti-gospel, anti-Christian. So, people say, "Okay, that's right. That's right. The works do not contribute to our justification." And what critics of Reformed theology say, "See, you just erased the W. There's no W in your equation.” No, there is. It goes on the other side of the equal sign. F equals J yielding W. Faith alone receives justification, and once justified, we are sanctified and ultimately glorified. So, we are not erasing the W. We are not saying that good works are indifferent in the life of the Christian. They are, in fact, necessary. And you say, well, does that really make a practical difference, because either way you're saying they're necessary. If you put the W on the one side of justification or the other side, does it really make a difference? Well, let me ask you the question. Does it make a difference if you say to a child, “If you love me well, and if you show yourself to be obedient, I will welcome you into my home as my very own child”? Or if you say to a child, “I love you. You are my child. I adopted you. You are mine. Come live with me as my family member in my home,” and then you start to live as a part of the family that you already are. I think that would make a tremendous difference to a child. What message, though you may have in your mind that the end is a similar kind of behavior, it makes a massive difference to say to that child, "Love me, listen to me, obey me, then come into my home,” or “You are mine. I love you. I've adopted you. Come into my home, and live as a family member would live in this home.” People sometimes naively think, well, religious people disagree on their doctrine, but they basically all agree on how to live a life and be a good person. Now, that is demonstrably not true, but even if it were true that religious people all agree you should be a good person – now, that's not true; we don't agree on what the good in that good person means – even if we did, we would still be left with the all-important question, why? Why must we do good works? Why must we be transformed people? And that is the question that Lord's Day 32, question 86, answers for us. You can see it printed in your bulletin.
Q: Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of our own (see, it's bringing all of this good theology to bear, and then it's raising the question that might naturally follow), why, then, should we do good works?
A: 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.
I want you to notice the catechism helpfully gives us five reasons. Sometimes as Christians we get locked in, and maybe it's something that we heard or something that's helpful to us, and we forget that the Bible has many medicines for our motivation. Sometimes we think, you know, good counselors know that there are lots of different levers to pull, lots of buttons that can be pushed. And so it is if you're a good physician of the soul for yourself or for others, you realize you don't just go – it wouldn't be a good doctor, “Alright, what do you need?” Amoxicillin. Get that. Maybe penicillin. Something with an “illin,” because you're illin’. I just thought of that. So, there you go. That's why they're there. That's why they help you. That would not be a good doctor that gives you the same prescription. There are many motivations, and here, helpfully, the catechism gives us five reasons why we do good. First, good works are the fruit of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. That's what Ursinus – he's the principal author of the catechism – says in his commentary. The way the catechism puts it is Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also renewing us by his Spirit into his image. So, this is the first reason, that Christ is still at work in you. The problem with antinomians is that they champion a grace without repentance. They celebrate acceptance without correction. Look at 87: “Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and unrepentant ways? By no means.” Scripture tells us – and you could cite Galatians 5, as it does, or 1 Corinthians 6 or Revelation 21 – that no person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber or the like will inherit the kingdom of God. Now, it's not talking about anyone who ever commits one of these sins, but someone who has given themselves over habitually, unrepentantly, to this way of living. Scripture says in numerous places, such a person will not inherit the kingdom, because they have not shown that Christ has been at work in them to renew. They have heard a gospel of grace, but without the grace that also leads us home, the grace that saves a wretch like us, but doesn't leave us as wretches. Sinclair Ferguson's well-known book The Whole Christ communicates this. We need not just half a Christ, but the whole Christ. Theologians often refer to – and you can sound real smart if you can put it into a different language – the duplex gratia. That just means the double grace or the double gift of our union with Christ, that through our union with Christ, there is justification, and he also gives us the gift. Now, it operates differently but gives us the gift of sanctification. That is the whole Christ, the Christ to both justify you and, having been justified, to then sanctify you. The catechism tells us Christ by his Spirit is renewing you. So, if you are tempted to say, "But Jesus loves me just the way I am," it would be truer to say, "Jesus loves you enough not to leave you the way that you are.” A good coach doesn't just tell his players as they let touchdown after touchdown go or a goalie who's afraid of touching a ball or basketball players who airball all their free throws – a good coach doesn't just say fist bump. Love you guys. Love you, man. You're mine, and you're so special to me. Come on. Bring it in. Hug it in guys. That coach should not be a coach. He doesn't train anyone. He doesn't discipline anyone. He doesn't make them better. So, if you say, "Well, this is who I am.” Maybe who you are right now, and praise God, the gospel is not “clean up your life and then you can be saved.” Just like the Ten Commandments did not come to Israel when they were in Egypt: I got 10 rules for you. I'll check back in a year. If you seem to be getting at least 65% of this, good. I got some plagues. Okay. So, let's start with the Ten Commandments. You get those bang up, 10 plagues come and you're out of here. Let's come back in a year. Doesn't do that. Saves them, but then gives them the law. You may say, "This is who I am. Look, I'm just stuck." Well, it may be who you are right now, but who is Christ forming you to be? The person who is not interested in good works does not believe that Christ can do anything in your life. That's the first reason.
Second reason: we do good works as a display of gratitude, so that with our whole lives, we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits. That's the great turn in Romans chapter 12, “Therefore, in view of God's mercies” – all of the great mercies evident, pouring over you, pounding you with a glorious waterfall of grace in Romans 1-11 – “therefore, in view of these mercies, present yourselves as a living sacrifice.” Here's how you live a life that's pleasing to God. It's a response to God's unmerited favor in our life. This is not a debtor's ethic. We don't talk about gratitude because it's sort of a quid pro quo. Wow, God. Oh, man. You did so many things for me, and I guess I better try to prove to you that I really love you. That's not at all how gratitude ought to work in our lives or how it's meant to work in the New Testament. Nor is it a manipulation for future gain. You may do that to someone who gives you a nice gift, and you're very acquiescent in accepting it, “Oh, thank you, thank you,” and you're really just manipulating, hoping for more. That's not gratitude. Ursinus, the author of the catechism, called calls gratitude “the impulsive cause of good works.” It's the impulse. It's the energy. It's the chemical reaction propelling you to good works. Most of our sin – I certainly think this is true in my life – most of our sin is downstream from not seeing all that we've been given. You get impatient as I do, complain as I do. You got messes in your house. That's because you got people in your house. You got stuff. Some people don't have people. Some people don't have stuff. You don't have eyes to see the clothes you're wearing because they're not the clothes you want. The home that you've been given, the body that you have, though it may be failing, though it may be allergic to too many things. You have been given this body. You have relationships. You have a Bible. You have forgiveness. You have a church. You have the Holy Spirit. Our sin is downstream from not having the eyes to see everything that God has done for us.
Often think about the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. You know, where the first one comes out and the landowner says, "I'll give you a denarius." And then all throughout the day, he gets more and more people to work until the one who comes at the 11th hour. And then after 12 hours, the work day, out in the hot sun, when it comes to pay, and he gives to the one who had been there an hour, a denarius all the way down the line to the man who showed up and has been out there in the heat of the day for 12 hours. And what does he get? A denarius. And you know what he says? You're not fair. Of course, the master was fair, because he gave exactly what he promised. But in his eyes, you gave to someone else more than they deserve. Therefore, you did not give me what I deserve. And I've often thought about that parable, and it's a rebuke in my own life at times, to think about you can live your life with – so I have glasses. These are new glasses by the way. Wow. They look very much like the old ones, but very trendy. And I need glasses. It's not a fashion statement. I have very, very bad eyes. You put on glasses each day. You can live your life. There are people that live their life with fairness goggles. Everything they see is just always calculating, always measuring, always sizing up, always looking over at that person. They think, "Oh, that person got a lot more than they deserve, and why didn't you do that to me?" And of course, they don't really know that God is more than fair to them, but they are constantly calculating, and they put on each day. It's a miserable way to live. The laborers in the vineyard says, "Take off those fairness goggles. Wake up every morning, and put on the glasses of grace.” That's a way to walk around the world. Look at I'm doing so much better than I deserve. Look at all the things that I have that I didn't even work for. Look at all the advantages. Look at all the kindnesses the Lord has given to me.
Think about one of two reactions that your kids – not my kids, but your kids – might have on Christmas. Some kids open those presents and quite genuinely are happy the rest of the day, the rest of the week maybe. And it's not manipulative. It really is a spirit of overwhelming gratitude. Wow, I didn't expect this. Wow, I didn't know that you would get me all this. There's a joy. There's an eagerness to help the whole rest of the day or at least a good 45 minutes. They're saying thank you. Gratitude is an impulsive force to good works. Others, you didn't get me what I wanted. I think you got that sibling, that grandchild, more than you got me. The difference is really only one thing. Thankfulness. It's gratitude. Let me tell you a secret I need to tell to my own heart. Do you want to be a happier person? Do you want to be a more obedient Christian? Do you want to be a more useful Christian? Do you want to be more like Jesus Christ? There is one very simple step that you can take. Cultivate a heart of gratitude.
Thankfulness. We have Thanksgiving and think of turkeys and stuffing up that turkey. Thanksgiving is the stuffing that not only fills up your life, it crowds out lots of other things. That's one of the good things that gratitude does. If you got a life filled with gratitude, it's hard to have other kind of nastiness and darkness and vice. The happiest people are grateful people. One of my kids had the opportunity this past week at Bonclarken to volunteer for the Joni and Friends camp that they do there. And you heard this morning Dave is going to be their speaker there this week. What an amazing ministry. We got Chris Hillesheim here, and others have worked with that ministry over the years, and maybe know Joni personally. Nothing is easy in her life, and everything that it takes to see her publicly and sing a hymn from her wheelchair – there's a whole lot of suffering that still takes place. And yet I told one of my kids this week, I said, I think she's the maybe the holiest, happiest person I've ever met. And it's not fake. It is a genuine gratitude. That's what is so powerful about her ministry and what God has done through her. See, there's someone, without minimizing at all the suffering – you’ve probably heard Joni say the first thing she's gonna do when she gets to heaven is, you know, toss the wheelchair into the abyss; she doesn't want that thing, and then bow before Christ – but a grateful heart. “Once you had not received mercy, now you have received mercy. Once you were not a people, now you are a people.” Of course, then, you would be called from darkness, and why would you not walk in light? You weren't a people; you're a people. You didn't have mercy. Now you have mercy.
Third – we'll move quickly through these remaining three – we do good works that God may be praised through us. The catechism says that he may be praised through us. 1 Corinthians 6, “You are not your own. You were bought with a price. Glorify God in your body.” Think of your kids, if they go out and they're not – of course you want them to do well in school, and you want them to do well in sports or music or theater or the arts – but really what makes you proud is when you see they're respectful, when you see them walking with Christ, when you see them obedient, when you see them honoring others, kindness, gentleness, the fruit of the Spirit. That makes you proud, and it brings honor to you. The way you conduct yourselves, if you're somewhere outside of this country, can make your country look good or bad. I'm very pleased to say that when our guys here take their presbytery exams, they make our church look good, because they've worked so hard, and they know their stuff. When we live a life of joyful obedience, it shows that Christ is praiseworthy. It demonstrates the weight and the worth of who he is, that he can be trusted, that his ways are right and good, that he's deserving of our worship and battle. Just like troops on the battlefield, the way they march, the discipline, the way they won't retreat, they'll hold their lines, it brings honor and glory to their commanding officer. So it is when we live lives of joyful obedience to Christ.
The catechism says, fourth, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruit. 2 Peter 1, “Make your calling and election sure.” Sometimes we get nervous about this language, and we think I don't know. If I look at my life, that never brings me assurance, but our Reformed theology is very consistent in saying there are three chief means by which we have assurance – not by which we are justified, but by which we have confidence. For example, the Canons of Dort says, “Assurance does not derive from a private revelation but from” – note these three – “faith in the promises of God revealed in his Word, the testimony of the Holy Spirit to our spirit, and from a serious and holy pursuit of a clear conscience.” Likewise, Westminster Confession chapter 18 says that “assurance is founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation. The inward testimony of these graces, evidence of these graces, and then the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing to our spirit.” Both confessions say the same thing, that the chief means of our assurance, the first and principal one, is that we rely upon the promises of God. But then second, we know the Holy Spirit through mystical union with Christ, testifying to our spirit, saying in your heart, yes, you are a child of God, and then our holy pursuit of a clear conscience or evidences of grace. Assurance is a community project. It's very difficult in your own life. It usually happens the closer you get to Christ, the more you see your own sin, so you often don't feel holier even as you are getting holier. That's why you need a body of Christ. You need a good, healthy, functioning elder board that believes in church membership. You need people in a small group or in your life. You need people who will honestly say, not from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, but from months and years, to say when I pull down this fruit from your life, there's a little more kindness than there was five years ago. There's a little more gentleness. There's some more self-control, some more patience. There's some more joy. To look at those – do you know you have permission to see evidences of grace? Heidelberg, Canons of Dort, Westminster, they don't tell you that. Well, if you're really Reformed, you only look at yourself as being absolutely terrible all the time. Now, it's true. Nothing we ever do is completely free from the taint of sin. Nothing could stand on its own before Christ. And yet, we're told here, over and over in the Scriptures and in our own confessions, you have permission to see evidences of grace in your life, and it ought to give you assurance that a good tree bears good fruit.
And then finally, don't you love what the catechism says? Sometimes the Reformed confessions get dinged a little bit. Somewhat – there's a little truth to it that they don't talk a lot about mission or evangelism. Now, once you start looking for it, you see it in more places than you might realize, but it's true that that wasn't uppermost in their mind, or at least they thought about the spread of the gospel in Christendom in a different way than we might think of it, but here very clearly is a statement about winning the lost to Christ. We do good works, that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ. Now this isn't, you know, the old canard, you know, lifestyle evangelism means I never share the gospel with people, but it is true that the way you live your life is one, it's supposed to make people curious so that they ask you for a reason for the hope that you have; and two, it arouses in them a kind of holy confusion, that is they think one thing about Christians – they have one sort of stereotype about Christians, and they don't like Christians, they don't like Christianity – and then they meet a Christian who's the best one at work and the most faithful student and the kindest person on the team and the neighbor that they would love to have on every side of their house. They think, well, I can't deny that that's a great neighbor to have. This is all over Scripture. Matthew 5, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people put a lamp under a basket, but on a stand. It gives light to all. Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Titus 2, slaves are to be obedient to their masters in everything. They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn – that's what we're trying to do – adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior. 1 Peter 2, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of his visitation.” We don't want to spend so much time trying not to stick out when sticking out might be the very thing that is the instrument of leading someone to Christ. Now, we don't want to stick out in the easy ways, and we all just wear a certain kind of uniform, or we all talk in certain bizarre sort of speech, but people ought to notice something is different about the things that you watch, about the words that you say, about the way you spend your time, your attitude, the way you spend your money, the way you address your kids, the way you think about marriage and family. You adorn the gospel, not as a substitute for speaking the good news of Christ, but as one of the reasons that the gospel then looks attractive and that some people will have as their story. You won't know it. God will hide most of this from us, not to puff us up, but there will be people who will have their story in heaven that they saw something in the way you lived, and it made them rethink Christianity. Made them wonder if maybe they could have some of what you have, and so they went to church, or they picked up their Bible again, or they gave Jesus a second chance. That our godly living may win others over to Christ.
There are many motivations, many medicines for our good works. Here the catechism helpfully gives us five. Notice we don't have to be content with simply, “I told you so.” God could do that. Why should I do good works? Because God said do it, and I ought to do it. Yes sir. But there are five, and there are more that we could enumerate, but five here to get us, as a medicine to drink this down, and I want you to realize that these good works are necessary, and that this is not “saved by Christ, then do good works,” but everything in every one of these five reasons is centered on Christ. Think about each of these five reasons. Do you know that Christ is working in you? That was reason one. Can you see what Christ has done for you? That’s reason two. Does it matter to you that you help Christ to look good to others? That’s reason three. Do you want to be confident in your life of all that Christ has accomplished for your sake? That’s reason four. And do you long to see others come to know Christ? I hope each and every one of those is answered with a yes, and God will give us the grace to live the life he has called us to live. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, thank you that you have called us, you will keep us, and you are changing us. Help us to walk in the ways that you have appointed for us, to do the good that you have for us at the close of this day and into the next week. And teach us, oh Lord, as the hymn tells us, your holy way, and give us your grace by your Spirit, that we may walk in it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.