Good works

Created for good works

Paul sets salvation and good works side by side in one passage:

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

Ephesians 2:8-10

Salvation does not come from works, but it leads to them. The word is ergon (ἔργον), a deed or work. Christ gave himself "to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds" (Titus 2:14), and Jesus told his disciples to let their light shine, "that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). The faith that counts, Paul says, is "faith expressing itself through love" (Galatians 5:6).

James adds that "faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead" (James 2:17). Paul and James are not at odds: Paul rejects earning God's acceptance by works, and James rejects a faith that bears no fruit. Wesley put the relation in a sentence: "Works do not give life to faith, but faith begets works, and then is perfected by them" Wesley.

The church's confession

The Reformation churches also asked what counts as a good work. Not whatever people think worthy, they answered, but what God has commanded. The Heidelberg Catechism says good works are:

Those only which are done from true faith, according to the law of God, for his glory; and not such as rest on our own opinion or the commandments of men.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 91

The same catechism roots good works in gratitude: Christ, having redeemed us, renews us by his Spirit so that with our whole life we may thank God, be assured of our faith by its fruits, and win our neighbours to Christ. The Westminster Confession calls good works "the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith" Westminster Confession 16.2.

Where the traditions differ

Every tradition teaches that good works are necessary and that they are possible only by God's grace. They differ over how works relate to salvation. The Catholic Church teaches that the good works of the justified, done in cooperation with grace, make them grow in righteousness and are a true merit of eternal life Council of Trent, Decree on Justification. The Orthodox churches see good works as part of a life of cooperation with God, growing into his likeness.

Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican churches confess that good works are not the ground of justification but the fruit of it, showing that faith is real. The Wesleyan tradition stresses works of piety, such as prayer, Scripture and the Lord's Supper, and works of mercy, such as feeding the hungry and visiting the sick, as means of grace on the way of sanctification Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation. Anabaptist and Mennonite Christians have made discipleship, following Christ in daily obedience, central to faith. See also the lesson Guilt, grace and gratitude and How should we live?