Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” USA Olympic hockey team, was known for his motivational and sometimes off-the-wall quotes. One of my favorites is when he would tell his team, “You think you can win on talent alone? Gentlemen, you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.”
In part 1 of “Ecclesionomy vs. Ephesians,” (Dec. 28th blog entry), I took up the issue of faith vs. works in Christianity. This was a follow-up to a previous (silly) blog where I quoted from the book of “Ecclesionomy” and discussed whether children need to do good works in order to receive presents from Santa Claus, or if they merely need to believe (have faith) in him.
In part 1, I posed the question: If salvation, or going to heaven, is based on good works, then how many good works does it take? Ten per day for the rest of your life? More than the next guy? Remember that the Bible describes God as divine, holy, and perfect—and His standard for us is holiness and perfection. This puts us in a bit of a bind, since the Bible also says that we humans are not perfect (i.e. we are all sinners). If I may paraphrase Herb Brooks: You think you can get to heaven by good works? Ladies and Gentlemen, you can’t do enough good works to make it to heaven on good works.
As discussed, Ephesians 2:8-10 (among other biblical passages) gives us the answer. Verses 8 and 9 say, “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.” We are saved by accepting the free gift of God’s grace, and we do so by placing our faith in God. “Faith in God” means believing that God sent His Son, Jesus, to the earth to live a perfect life, pay the penalty for our sins by dying on a cross, and being raised again to life.
That’s all well and good, you might say. But based on that, it sounds like a person can profess to have “faith,” accepting this gift of “grace,” then simply go back to the sofa, eat chips, drink soda, watch reality TV, and never do a good deed for the rest of his or her life. What is the role of good works? Certainly part of Christianity is living a good, moral life, right?
This is where Ephesians 2:10 comes in. It says, “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” There are three key points here.
First, we are all a special creation of God, His “workmanship.” Thus He has established a relationship with humankind.
Second, we are created anew in Christ Jesus when we place our faith in Him as described previously. Notice that we “do good works” as a result of this experience, not as a prerequisite to earn it.
And third, this is God’s will. God has actually “prepared in advance” for us to do good works.
So, the Christian does good works as a loving response to the loving gift of God’s grace, not as a means to earn God’s favor. We don’t act “well behaved” all year in order to receive “presents.” Rather, we do good deeds because as Christians, we are in effect a brand new person—a “new creation” (see 2 Corinthians 5:17), doing the good works that God has prepared for us to do.
Obviously, this discussion only scratches the surface of the “faith vs. works” question. We could continue all day and look at many other important passages in the Bible, such as the second chapter of James, and as I mentioned, the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians.
But let me finish by saying this. I think you will agree that there are many religions out there today that have at their root the idea that people have to earn their salvation—that they somehow have to appease or please their deity whom they may or may not know. Folks, that is not the gospel of the Christian faith. If you are trying to earn salvation through good works, you will never, ever get there. Christianity maintains that a person is saved by the grace of a God who we can know, because He created us and has established a relationship with us. What we must do is place our faith in Him.
If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ve noticed that before Christmas I had a little fun with something I called “Fractured Christmas Bible studies.” One of these studies focused on whether children need to do good works in order to get presents from Santa Claus, or if they merely need to believe, or have faith, in him.
I’d like to elaborate on this idea a little (with all joking aside), because this raises the real-world question of whether one needs to do good works in order to get to heaven, or merely believe (have faith) in Jesus. One of the best biblical passages on this matter is Ephesians 2:8-10, so I will use that as a basis for my discussion, with an assist from other sections of the Bible.
Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Verse 8 makes it clear that a person is saved by grace. Saved means that a person is forgiven of his sins, given a new status as a child of God, and will spend eternity with Him after he dies. Grace means that this salvation is unearned, in that there is nothing a person can do in terms of human effort to receive it. As verse 8 says, this grace is “the gift of God.”
Verse 9 makes the point even more clearly. Salvation is not by works. Let me put it this way. If God really is a divine, perfect being, and your salvation depended on doing good works, then how many good works would it take to get to heaven? A million? Ten per day for the rest of your life? How could we even define the requirement for good deeds, knowing that God is the perfect, almighty creator of the universe? In my view, this defines the human predicament. There is no way any of us can do enough good works to satisfy a perfect God.
So if we can’t earn our way into heaven through human effort, then how do we get there? Let’s go back to verse 8 for a second. It is through faith. Faith means placing our trust, or believing, in God. What’s more, the verses preceding these in Ephesians 2 (as well as many other Bible passages, such as 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 and Romans 10:9) make it clear that “saving” faith in God involves believing that His Son, Jesus, died on a cross and was subsequently raised from the dead.
Salvation, then, does not come by doing good works, but by placing one’s faith in God by believing in Jesus Christ—that is, believing that Jesus was God made flesh (what we celebrate at Christmas), that He lived a perfect life, died in our place though He was totally innocent of any wrongdoing, and was raised to life again, defeating death.
But this might logically raise a very important question in one’s mind. If a person is saved by faith alone, what then is the role of “good works?” Certainly, a Christian is supposed to live a good life, right? He’s not supposed to live in an immoral, unethical, selfish, or evil way. I will elaborate on this question in an upcoming blog entry.
Have you ever had someone take a pillowcase, fill it with a few bricks, swing it around, and smack you in the head with it? I haven’t. But when God began to lay these things on my heart, I felt as though I had.
I was besieged with all sorts of reminders of what my attitude had been like over the last few years. I had been extremely selfish. I wanted a baby. I wanted one now. And I wasn’t going to be happy about anything until I got what I wanted. What’s more, I realized how arrogant it was of me to think that the initial doctors were somehow wrong, and that I needed only to find a better, smarter doctor to tell me the “truth” about Matthew’s condition. I didn’t even think to pray about the situation—this after I had chuckled at my older son Chad for praying that Matthew would be born on his birthday.
So I made a decision. Knowing full well that I would mess up (daily), that I would never be able to stop all the sin in my life, and that I could only keep my word imperfectly, I told God that I would believe what He told me. Not just “believe,” but BELIEVE. I would do my best to live out Hebrews 11:1 in this situation. I would have FAITH. I wasn’t even totally sure what God meant by “Your son will be okay.” Maybe that he would be fully healed. Maybe that the brain damage would not be too bad. Maybe that it would be significant, but we would be able to handle it and that the whole ordeal would serve some greater purpose. Regardless, I decided to live my life with the certainty that what God told me was true.
As I mentioned previously, one of the early worries was that Matthew’s head was not growing. A lack of growth could indicate that his brain was not growing properly, which would result in a permanent state of being physically and mentally handicapped. As you have no doubt noticed, as I relate these events, some memories are still fairly clear in my mind, while others are quite fuzzy. But in this instance, I have a very vivid recollection of one of the first times that we measured Matthew’s head after we brought him home from the hospital. I can remember that as I watched Barbara lean over with the measuring tape, I was really, really nervous. But the circumference of his head had grown one centimeter! I prayed, “Thank you, Lord, that Matthew’s head grew one centimeter, and please let my faith in you be the evidence of what I can’t see.”
Another key milestone was an MRI that was scheduled at the three-month mark to check for any brain damage. I began to pray, and circled August 15th on my desk calendar at work. Then I circled it again. I think I circled it so much that I almost bore a hole in my desk. Much to my amazement and joy, the MRI came back showing no damage. Again, “Thank you, God. Help me to live out Hebrews 11:1.”
Over the first year of Matthew’s life, he had frequent check-ups to test for growth, motor skills, and overall development. But visit after visit, the news was always good. Finally, when Matthew was about nine months old, the neurologist told us that he did not need to see Matthew anymore. Matthew was by all accounts a normal baby with no signs of any brain damage.
The icing on the cake for me, though, was the day in July, 2002, when Matthew took his first steps. I can remember being overwhelmed with a rush of emotions. The previous year, I wasn’t sure if Matthew would ever be able to stand up, let alone walk. Yet here he was. I believe that I had seen a miracle happen before my eyes. This was one of those times when I went upstairs, closed the bedroom door behind me, fell to my knees, and burst out in tears. “Thank you, Lord, for healing my son. And thank you for beginning to teach me what it means to walk in faith.”
There are certain things in life that, when they happen, you can never go back. That is, you can’t go back to the way things were before. It was only over the course of time that I could process what had happened to me in 2000 and 2001. As I did, two very important questions came to my mind. And as I’ve said before, the answers to these questions have caused me to think differently about almost everything in life.
The first question is: Why me? That is, why was God so good to me by giving me a second child, and healing him from what multiple doctors said would be at least some level of brain damage? I know couples that have tried and tried for years, yet are not able to have any children, let alone two. I know couples that have a physically or mentally handicapped child. Matthew has no handicap. And, I know couples that have had the terrible experience of the death of a child. These are all people that I know personally. What had I done to deserve a beautiful, healthy son? All I had given to God was an attitude of selfishness and arrogance. I came to realize that I deserved none of the good things that God had given me in this situation. None.
Over the years, this realization has caused me to contemplate two words a great deal: grace and thanksgiving. Grace is when God gives us something that we don’t deserve. Thanksgiving means having a deep sense of gratitude. I can say that this experience has given me an appreciation that I did not previously have about God’s grace—particularly the gracious gift of His Son, Jesus Christ—as well as a determination to be thankful for every last thing that I have, no matter how seemingly insignificant.
The second very important question is this: Now that this circumstance had passed, what should I do about Hebrews 11:1? Is this verse, teamed with other things that the Bible teaches about faith, meant to be taken off the shelf, dusted off, and used only during those rough patches in life? Or is something more involved? Is faith as described in Hebrews 11:1 something that should be applied to every area of my life? It did not take long for me to realize that if the latter was the case, it could have enormous implications. I mean, if I really believe that God is who He says He is, and that His Word is true, then total trust in Him might lead to some very uncomfortable questions: Should I sell my house and move? What career should I pursue? How much or little money should I make (and does that even matter)? What if I sense God telling me to make a major life change, and I can’t see how I can do it?
Now, in case you were wondering, I went into this experience as a sinner, and I came out of it a sinner. So if I’ve given anyone the impression that I am now perfect, I am sorry. That is far, far from the case. What I can say is, that over time, I have grown to the conviction that Hebrews 11:1 is not simply my magic genie in a bottle that I can call upon to get me out of a jam. My goal in life is to make Hebrews 11:1 my lifestyle, that I would have faith—real faith—in God in every matter in life, no matter how big or small. And I continue to pray that my faith in God be the evidence of what I can’t see.
Starting in 2002, things started to happen in my life that put this principle to the test, so to speak. It would take several more episodes of “my story” to recount them all in detail. But rather than do that, I will wrap up my story with one more episode, in which I will talk about three specific things that have transpired in my life since 2002. I think, and hope, that by describing these three particular circumstances, you will get a taste for how God has picked me up as I was walking in one direction, and placed me on a different path—a path that is indescribably exciting, even though I can’t see how it is all going to work out.
Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” USA Olympic hockey team, was known for his motivational and sometimes off-the-wall quotes. One of my favorites is when he would tell his team, “You think you can win on talent alone? Gentlemen, you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.”
