CHAPTER 16
OF GOOD WORKS
Section 16.1.—Good works are only such as God hath commanded in his holy Word, [Mic 6:8; Rom 12:2; Heb 13:21] and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intention. [Matt 15:9; Isa 29:13; 1 Pet 1:18; Rom 10:2; John 16:2; 1 Sam 15:21-23]
Section 16.2.—These good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith; [James 2:18,22] and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, [Ps 116:12-13; 1 Pet 2:9] strengthen their assurance, [1 John 2:3,5; 2 Pet 1:5-10] edify their brethren, [2 Cor 9:2; Matt 5:16] adorn the profession of the gospel, [Titus 2:5,9-12; 1 Tim 6:1] stop the mouths of the adversaries, [1 Pet 2:15] and glorify God, [1 Pet 2:12; Phil 1:11; John 15:8] whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto; [Eph 2:10] that, having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end, eternal life. [Rom 6:22]
These sections teach the following propositions:
1st. In order that any human action should be truly a good work, it must have the following essential characteristics: (1) It must be something directly or implicitly commanded by God. (2) It must spring from an inward principle of faith and love in the heart. Works not commanded by God, but invented and gratuitously performed by men, are utterly destitute
of moral character, and, if offered in the place of the obedience required, they are offensive.
2d. The effects and uses of good works in the Christian life are manifold, and are such as—(1) They express the gratitude, manifest the grace of God in the believer, and so adorn the profession of the gospel. (2) They glorify God. (3) They develop grace by exercise, and so strengthen the believer's assurance. (4) They edify the brethren. (5) They stop the mouths of adversaries. (6) They are necessary to the attainment of eternal life.
1st. In order that a work may be good, it must be an act performed in conformity to God's revealed will. The law of absolute moral perfection to which we are held in subjection is not the law of our own reasons or consciences, but it is an all-perfect rule of righteousness, having its ground in the eternal nature of God, and its expression and obliging authority to us in the divine will. Not self-development, not the realization of an ideal end, but obedience to a personal authority without and above us, is precisely what reason, conscience, and Scripture require. The good man is the obedient man. The sinner in every transgression of virtue is conscious that he is guilty of disobedience to the supreme Lawgiver. David says in his repentance, "Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight." Ps 51:4. God has given in the inspired Scriptures a perfect rule of faith and practice. Every principle, every motive and every end of right action, according to the will of God, may there be easily learned by the devout inquirer. God says to his Church: "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; thou
shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it." Deut 12:32; Rev 22:18-19. And God very energetically declares his abhorrence of uncommanded services, of "voluntary humility" and "will-worship." Isa 1:11-12; Col 2:16-23.
2d. In order that a work may be truly good, it must spring from a principle of faith and love in the heart. All men recognize that the moral character of an act always is determined by the moral character of the principle or affection which prompts to it. Unregenerate men perform many actions, good so far as their external relations to their fellowmen are concerned. But love to God is the foundation-principle upon which all moral duties rest, just as our relation to God is the fundamental relation upon which all our other relations rest. If a man is alienated from God, if he is not in the present exercise of trust in him and love for him, any action he can perform will lack the essential element which makes it a true obedience. Good works according to the Scriptures are the fruits of sanctification, having their root in regeneration. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them." Eph 2:10. James says that faith is shown by works; which of course implies that the kind of works of which he speaks springs only from a believing heart. James 2:18,22.
3d. The effects and uses of good works in the Christian life are manifold, and are such as—(1) They express the gratitude, and manifest the grace of God in the believer, and so adorn the profession of the gospel. Faith works by love. Gal 5:6. Christ says that we
are to express our love for him by keeping his commandments. John 14:15,23. As they are the fruits of the Spirit, they render manifest the excellent working of the Spirit. 1 Tim 2:10; Titus 2:10. (2) They glorify God. Since God is their author (Eph 2:10), they manifest the excellency of his grace, and excite all who behold them to appreciate and proclaim his glory. Matt 5:16; 1 Pet 2:12. (3) As they spring from grace, so the performance of them exercises grace in general, and each grace severally according to the nature of the work performed. Thus by the universal law of habit grace grows by its exercise. And the assurance as to our own gracious state naturally increases with the strength and evidence of those graces unto which the promise of salvation is attached. (4) They edify the brethren. Good works edify others, both as confirmatory evidence of the truth of Christianity and the power of divine grace, and by the force of example inducing men to practice the same. 1 Thess 1:7; 1 Tim 4:12; 1 Pet 5:3. (5) For the same reasons good works disprove the cavils and render nugatory the opposition of wicked men. 1 Pet 2:15. (6) They are necessary to the attainment of salvation, not in any sense as a prerequisite to justification, nor as in any stage of the believer's progress meriting the divine favour, but as essential elements of that salvation, the consubstantial fruits and means of sanctification and glorification. A saved soul is a holy soul, and a holy soul is one whose faculties are all engaged in works of loving obedience. Grace in the heart cannot exist without good works as its consequent. Good works cannot exist without the increase of the graces which are exercised
in them. Heaven could not exist except as a society of holy souls mutually obeying the law of love in all the good works that law requires. Eph 5:25-27; 1 Thess 4:6-7; Rev 21:27.
Section 16.3.—Their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ. [John 15:4-6; Ezek 36:26-27] And that they may be enabled thereunto, besides the graces they have already received, there is required an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit, to work in them to will and to do of his good pleasure: [Phil 2:13; Phil 4:13; 2 Cor 3:5] yet are they not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to perform any duty unless upon a special motion of the Spirit; but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them. [Phil 2:12; Heb 6:11-12; 2 Pet 1:3,5,10-11; Isa 64:7; 2 Tim 1:6; Acts 26:6-7; Jude 20-21]
As we have seen under WCF 10, in regeneration the Holy Spirit implants a permanent holy principle or habit in the soul which ever continues the germ or seed from which all gracious affections and holy exercises do proceed. In respect to the implantation of this permanent holy principle by the Holy Spirit the soul is passive. But the instant this new moral disposition or tendency is implanted in the soul, as a matter of course the moral character of its exercises is changed, and the soul becomes active in good works, as before it had been in evil ones. But, as we also saw under WCF 13, sanctification is a work of God's free grace, wherein he continues graciously to sustain, nourish and guide the exercise of the permanent habit of grace which he had implanted in regeneration. The regenerated man depends upon the continued indwelling, the prompting
and the sustaining and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit in every act of obedience in the exercise of grace; nevertheless as the acts of obedience to the performance of which the Spirit prompts and enables him are his own acts, it follows that he, while seeking the guidance and support of grace, must actively cooperate with it, acting like every free agent, under the influence of motives and a sense of personal responsibility. Hence this section asserts—
1st. That the ability of the Christian to do good works is not at all from himself, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ.
2d. That in order thereto, in addition to the grace implanted in regeneration, there is needed a continual influence of the Holy Ghost upon all the faculties of the renewed soul, whereby the Christian is enabled to will and to do of his good pleasure.
3d. That this doctrine of the absolute dependence of the soul is not to be perverted into an occasion to indolence, or to abate in any degree our sense of personal obligation. God's will is exhibited to us objectively in the written Word. The obligation to voluntary obedience binds our consciences. The Holy Spirit does not work independently of the Word, but through the Word, nor does he work irrespectively of our constitutional faculties of reason, conscience and free will, but through them. It hence follows that we can never honour the Holy Spirit by waiting for his special motions, but that we always yield to and co-work with him when we, while seeking his guidance and assistance, use all the means of grace and all our own best energies in being and doing all that the law of God requires. It is never the
waiters for grace, but always the active seekers for grace and doers of his word, whom God approves. Luke 11:9-13; James 1:22-23.
Section 16.4.—They who in their obedience attain to the greatest height which is possible in this life, are so far from being able to supererogate, and to do more than God requires, as that they fall short of much which in duty they are bound to do. [Luke 17:10; Neh 13:22; Job 9:2-3; Gal 5:17]
Section 16.5.—We cannot by our best works, merit pardon of sin, or eternal life, at the hand of God, by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come, and the infinite distance that is between us and God, whom by them we can neither profit, nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins, [Rom 3:20; Rom 4:2,4,6; Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-7; Rom 8:18; Ps 16:2; Job 22:2-3; Job 35:7-8] but when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty, and are unprofitable servants; [Luke 17:10] and because, as they are good, they proceed from his Spirit; [Gal 5:22-23] and, as they are wrought by us, they are defiled and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection, that they cannot endure the severity of God's judgment. [Isa 64:6; Gal 5:17; Rom 7:15,18; Ps 143:2; Ps 130:3]
Section 16.6.—Yet, notwithstanding, the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in him; [Eph 1:6; 1 Pet 2:5; Exod 28:38; Gen 4:4; Heb 11:4] not as though they were in this life wholly unblamable and unreprovable in God's sight; [Job 9:20; Ps 143:2] but that he, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections. [Heb 13:20-21; 2 Cor 8:12; Heb 6:10; Matt 25:21,23]
These sections teach—
1st. That works of supererogation are so far from being possible, even for the most eminent saint, that in this life it is not possible for the most thoroughly sanctified one fully to discharge all his positive obligations.
2d. That, for several reasons assigned, the best works of believers, so far from meriting either the pardon of sin or eternal life at the hands of God, cannot even endure the scrutiny of his holy judgment.
3d. That, nevertheless, the works of sincere believers are, like their persons, in spite of their imperfections, accepted because of their union with Christ Jesus, and rewarded for his sake.
1st. The phrase "supererogation" means "more than is demanded." Works of supererogation are in their own nature impossible under the moral law of God. In man's present state even the most eminent saint is incapable of fully discharging all his obligations—much more, of course, of surpassing them. The Romish Church teaches the ordinary Arminian theory of perfectionism. In addition to this error, it teaches, (a) that good works subsequent to baptism merit increase of grace and eternal felicity;[1] and (b) it distinguishes between the commands and the counsels of Christ. The former are binding upon all classes of the people, and their observance necessary in order to salvation. The latter, consisting of advice, not of commands—such as celibacy, voluntary poverty, obedience to monastic rule, etc.—are binding only on those who voluntarily assume them, seeking a higher degree of perfection and a more exalted reward.
We have already, under WCF 13, seen that a state of sinless perfection is never attained by Christians in this life, and it of course follows that much less is it possible for any to do more than is commanded.
That works of supererogation are always and essentially
impossible to all creatures in all worlds is also evident—(1) From the very nature of the moral law. That which is right under any relation is intrinsically obligatory upon the moral agent standing in that relation. If it be moral it is obligatory. If it be not obligatory, it is not moral. If it is not moral, it is, of course, of no moral value or merit. If it is obligatory, it is not supererogatory. When men do what it is their duty to do they are to claim nothing for it. Luke 17:10. (2) The doing of that which God has not made it man's duty to do—all manner of will-worship and commandments of men—God declares is an abomination to him. Col 2:18-23; 1 Tim 4:3; Matt 15:9. (3) Christ has given no "counsels," as distinct from his commands. His absolute and universal command to love God with the whole soul, and our neighbor as ourselves, covers the whole ground of possible ability or opportunity on earth or in heaven. Matt 22:37-40. (4) Increase of grace and eternal felicity, and all else which the believer needs or is capable of, are secured for him by the purchase of Christ's blood, and either given freely now without price, or reserved for him in that eternal inheritance which he is to receive as a joint heir with Christ. (5) The working of the Romish system of celibacy, voluntary poverty and monastic vows, has produced such fruits that prove the principle on which they rest radically immoral and false.
2d. The best works of believers, instead of meriting pardon of sin and eternal life, cannot endure the scrutiny of his holy judgment. The reasons for this assertion are—(1) As above shown, from the nature of the moral law. What is not obligatory is not moral, and what is
not moral can have no moral desert. (2) The best works possible for man are infinitely unworthy to be compared in value with God's favour, and the rewards which men who trust to works seek to obtain through them. (3) God's infinite superiority to us, his absolute proprietorship in us as our Maker, and sovereignty over us as our moral Governor, necessarily exclude the possibility of our actions deserving any reward at his hand. No action of ours can profit God or lay him under obligation to us. All that is possible to us is already a debt we owe him as our Creator and Preserver. When we have done our utmost we are only unprofitable servants. Much less, then, can any possible obedience at one moment atone for any disobedience in another moment. (4) As already proved under WCF 13, on Sanctification, our works, which could merit nothing even if perfect, are in this life, because of remaining imperfections, most imperfect. They therefore, the best of them, need to be atoned for by the blood, and presented through the mediation, of Christ, before they can find acceptance with the Father.
3d. Nevertheless, the good works of sincere believers are, like their persons, in spite of their imperfections, accepted, because of their union with Christ Jesus, and rewarded for his sake. All our approaches to God are made through Christ. It is only through him that we have access to the Father by the Spirit. Eph 2:18. "Whatever we do, in word or deed," we are commanded to "do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." Col 3:17.
As to the relation of good works to rewards, it may be observed—(1) The word merit, in the strict sense
of the term, means that common quality of all actions or services to which a reward is due in strict justice on account of their intrinsic value or worthiness. It is evident that, in this strict sense, no work of any creature can in itself merit any reward from God; because (a) all the faculties he possesses were originally granted and are continuously sustained by God, so that he is already so far in debt to God that he can never bring God in debt to him. (b) Nothing the creature can do can be a just equivalent for the incomparable favour of God and its consequences.
There is another sense of the word, however, in which it may be affirmed that if Adam had in his original probation yielded the obedience required, he would have "merited" the reward conditioned upon it, not because of the intrinsic value of that obedience, but because of the terms of the covenant which God had graciously condescended to form with him. By nature, the creature owed the Creator obedience, while the Creator owed the creature nothing. But by covenant the Creator voluntarily bound himself to owe the creature eternal life, upon the condition of perfect obedience.
It is evident that in this life the works of God's people can have no merit in either of the senses above noticed. They can have no merit intrinsically, because they are all imperfect, and therefore themselves worthy of punishment rather than of reward. They can have no merit by covenant concession on God's part, because we are not now standing in God's sight in the covenant of works, but of grace, and the righteousness of Christ, received by faith alone, constitutes the sole meritorious ground upon which our salvation,
in all of its stages, rests. See WCF 11, on Justification.
In the dispensation of the gospel, the gracious work of the believer and the gracious reward he receives from God are branches from the same gracious root. The same covenant of grace provides at once for the infusion of grace in the heart, the exercise of grace in the life, and the reward of the grace so exercised. It is all of grace—a grace called a reward added to a grace called a work. The one grace is set opposite to the other grace as a reward, for these reasons: (a) To act upon us as a suitable stimulus to duty. God promises to reward the Christian just as a father promises to reward his child for doing what is its duty, and what is for its own benefit alone. (b) Because a certain gracious proportion has been established between the grace given in the reward and the grace given in the holy exercises of the heart and life, but both are alike given for Christ's sake. This proportion has been established—the more grace of obedience, the more grace of reward; the more grace on earth, the more glory in heaven—because God so wills it, and because the grace given and exercised in obedience prepares the soul for the reception of the further grace given in the reward. Matt 16:27; 1 Cor 3:8; 2 Cor 4:17.
Section 16.7.—Works done by unregenerate men, although, for the matter of them, they may be things which God commands, and of good use both to themselves and others, [2 Kings 10:30-31; 1 Kings 21:27,29; Phil 1:15-16,18] yet, because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith, [Gen 4:5; Heb 11:4,6] nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word, [1 Cor 13:3; Isa 1:12] nor to a right end, the glory of God, [Matt 6:2,5,16] they are therefore sinful, and cannot please God or make a man meet to receive grace from God. [Hag 2:14; Titus 1:15; Amos 5:21-22; Hos 1:4; Rom 9:16; Titus 3:5]
And yet their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing unto God. [Ps 14:4; Ps 36:3; Job 21:14-15; Matt 25:41-43,45; Matt 23:23]
This section teaches—
1st. That unregenerate men may perform many actions which, for the matter of them, are such as God commands, and are of good use both to themselves and others. The truth of this is verified in the experience and observation of all men, and we believe it is not called in question by any party.
2d. Nevertheless, they are at best, all of them, not only imperfect works morally considered, but ungodly works religiously considered. They are, therefore, not in the scriptural sense good works, nor can they satisfy the requirements of God, nor merit grace, nor make the soul fit for the reception of grace.
The distinction is plain between an action in itself considered, and considered in its motives and object. A truly good work is one which springs from a principle of divine love, and has the glory of God as its object and the revealed will of God as its rule. None of the actions of an unregenerate man are of this character.
There is also an obvious distinction between an act viewed in itself abstractly, and the same action viewed in relation to the person performing it and his personal relations. A rebel against sovereign authority may do many amiable things and many acts of real virtue as far as his relations to his fellow-rebels are concerned. It is nevertheless true that a rebel during the whole period of his rebellion is in every moment of time and every
action of his life a rebel with reference to that supreme authority which through all he continues to defy. In this sense the ploughing of the wicked is said to be sin. Prov 21:4. And thus as long as men stay away from Christ, and refuse to submit to the righteousness of God, all their use of the means of grace and all their natural virtues are sins in God's sight.
3d. Nevertheless God is more displeased with their neglecting to do these commanded duties at all than he is with their doing them sinfully as sinners. These works done by unregenerate men are commanded by God, and hence are their bounden duties. Their sin lies not in the doing them, but in their personal attitude of rebellion and in the absence of the proper motives and objects. If they neglect to do them, the neglect would be added to the other grounds of condemnation, which would remain all the same. These ought they to do, but not to leave the weightier matters of the law undone. The amiable acts of a rebel must involve elements of rebellion, and yet he would be more to be condemned without them than with them.
QUESTIONS
1. What are taught in the first and second sections to be the essential characteristics of every truly good work?
2. What is there taught us as to the effects and uses of good works?
3. State the proof derived from the nature of the moral law itself, that every work in order to be truly good must be wrought in obedience to the revealed will of God.
4. Show that all virtue is obedience, and all sin disobedience.
5. Prove that God abhors all "will-worship" and uncommanded service.
6. Prove that a work in order to be truly good must spring from a principle of faith and love in the heart.
7. Show that good works express gratitude, manifest grace and adorn the Christian profession.
8. Prove that they glorify God.
9. Prove that they tend to increase the grace from which they spring, and to strengthen the assurance of hope on the part of those who perform them.
10. Show that they edify the brethren.
11. Show that they stop the mouths of adversaries.
12. Show that they are necessary to the attainment of salvation, and on what grounds.
13. What is the first proposition taught in section 3?
14. What is the second proposition there taught?
15. Prove that, besides the grace granted in regeneration, the believer needs, in order to good works, the constant prompting, sustaining and enabling influences of the Holy Ghost.
16. What is the third proposition there taught?
17. Show that the Christian is not to wait for special influences of the Spirit to prompt him to duty, but in reliance on the constant assistance of the Spirit, and in obedience to God's will revealed in his Word, to use with diligence the grace he already has, looking for and expecting more as the necessity occurs.
18. What is the first proposition taught in the fourth, fifth and sixth sections?
19. What is the second proposition there taught?
20. What is the third taught?
21. What are works of "supererogation?"
22. What is the Romish doctrine as to the merit of good works, and of works of supererogation?
23. Prove from the nature of the moral law, from the Word of God and from the practical effects of the Romish system that their doctrine as to works of supererogation is immoral.
24. Prove that the best works of Christians are incapable of sustaining the severity of God's just judgment.
25. On what grounds are the good works of believers accepted by God?
26. What is the strict sense of the word "merit?"
27. Show that in that sense no works of any creature can possibly merit anything at the hands of the Creator.
28. What is the secondary sense in which the word is used?
29. Show that the term in neither of these senses can be applied justly to the works of Christians in this life.
30. What, then, is the relation which the Scriptures teach subsists between good works and rewards?
31. Why are any of God's purely gracious gifts called rewards?
32. What is the first proposition taught in the seventh section?
33. Prove that the best works of the unregenerate are not only imperfect morally, but religiously ungodly.
34. Prove that nevertheless they commit greater sin in neglecting than in performing these duties.
35. What is the first and absolutely binding duty of every rebel against God and his Christ?