Grace and Good Works

I received a gift today at church. Pastor Joe was teaching our Sunday school class, discussing the origins on the compilation and translation of the Old and New Testaments. This was a spin off from the DaVinci Code movie discussions. As he discussed Greek translations, he said that those translating the Greek New Testament were able to refer to translations being made of the famous philosophers -- Aristotle, etc. Although the content of the two literature sources were very different, the words used were the same. Except for one. The word agape hadn't been defined until Jesus defined it.

Wow. Of course, Joe meant defined as "Agape means...." But that phrase, "Agape wasn't defined until Jesus defined it" is full of such wonderful, layered meaning. Unconditional love wasn't defined until Jesus defined it. Until Jesus demonstrated it. Until Jesus literally gave his life so that we would understand it.

Yes, I'm still thinking about grace. Yes, eventually I'll move on to something else, but I still have thoughts on this topic, inspired from Yancey's book. (My shopping list of notes is six pages long). A few more quotes from Yancey's book:

"Grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us." "Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more."
"Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less."
"God loves us anyhow."

Think about the scripture used in yesterday's post.

Matthew 7:21-23:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
It sounds to me that "many" were saying that they had worked very hard to receive God's grace. Jesus was telling them that all of that didn't earn them grace.

I can understand that. I can say that I believe that God's grace is a gift, not earned by what we do. And then I read something like this:

From James 2:14-26, verse 17: In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

The reconciliation of the idea that we cannot earn grace, and the idea that we must show good works, has always been something of a paradox for me. Especially when you throw in the sheep and goats story from Matthew 25:31-46. It is precisely this disconnect -- this sheep and goat mentality -- that blocks, at times, my ability to believe that God's love in unconditional -- that grace is a gift -- that it is sufficient for our salvation.

I liked the chapter in the book about loopholes, and I think that the last paragraphs address this conundrum.

What is our motivation for good works? If they are not our path to God's love, then why do we do them? Yancey says our motivation for "being good" is gratitude. We first start with the experience of unconditional love -- agape -- grace. Then "we strive for holiness not to make God love us, but because he already does."

When we are loved, we don't treat the other person in a loving way in order to earn love. We already have it. We treat the other person well because we love him. Our "good works" toward that person is the fruit of our love.

In the same way, I think, our good works are the fruit of our relationship with God. We don't do them in order to earn God's love. Because of grace, there is nothing that we can do to make God love us more or less -- he already loves us perfectly. So in gratitude for that grace -- in response to that grace -- as a fruit of that grace, we feed the poor, visit the sick, love our neighbor. We do it out of gratitude to God.

Those good works are the outward evidence of our faith. So when James says that "faith without works is dead," I wonder if he means that if the faith has no fruit -- no evidence -- then it is hard for him to believe that the person has actually experienced grace at all.

Image: From this site

Menu for tonight: Chicken breasts marinated in lemon and lime juices, olive oil, rosemary and garlic, grilled outside, grilled corn on the cob, pasta with basil pesto, tomato and mozzarella salad and cantaloupe. Must go upstairs and help with dinner now.