Good Works

Man I love how Luther emphasized that God doesn't need our good works But our neighbor does I mean that's so weighty when you Think about it because all our good deeds Our sanctification, our skill-sets, Our responsibilities, and various roles Are for the benefit of those around us Our families, society, our neighbor, right? But what makes us right with God, Paul says, is our faith That's how we are made righteous And how we remain righteous, in Christ But when you blur those lines And start looking at your sanctification for assurance That you're right with God A bunch of problems arise First off, we end up filled with discouragement From constantly missing the mark We can also end up filled with self-doubt From constantly applying subjective and arbitrary measures To assess our level of sanctification In order to determine whether or not we are justified Or on the flip side We could be filled with self-righteousness As a result of fulfilling some criteria we created And then in turn Cast judgement on others who don't check our specific boxes This is a common experience Especially among Calvinists Because it flows from functionally Placing sanctification above justification This stems from the fact that, in general, for Calvinists There is a primary emphasis on God with obedience to the law Which perpetuates this inward focus Luther on the other hand Places the perfect work of God in justification Over the incomplete process of sanctification We are to look Extra Nos, or outside of ourselves Towards the righteousness of faith Which is our justification for assurance This is where we find identity, stability, objectivity, and security Luther is committed to justification truly being Sola Fide Meaning by faith alone His primary emphasis is on serving your neighbor through your vocation This emphasis helps to maintain the clear distinction Between our identity being found in our righteousness of faith Which we receive from God, aka passive righteousness Versus our performance or our active righteousness Which is righteousness we live out for the benefit of our neighbor As Christians, we should see both kinds of righteousness But for different purposes We should guard our good works becoming The basis for our righteousness before God And we should guard against our righteousness of faith Being used to eliminate the need for good works Our good works have value here on earth, Coram Mundo But it does not justify us before God, Coram Deo It is vital that we keep these separate