In this episode of the Verity podcast, we delve into the significance of good works for believers, highlighting that our actions are an expression of gratitude for salvation rather than a means to attain it. This understanding fosters a more profound relationship with Christ and has a positive impact on the world.
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Transcription
What if the works that we do aren’t about what we get, aren’t about us proving ourselves to God or us being good enough in the world or getting the applause of man? What if the works that we do in this world are part of the pavement of the road bringing other people to God. What if that’s what it’s about? Welcome back to Verity podcast friends. I’m Felicia Mason Hymer, your host, the founder of every woman, a theologian. And today we’re going to answer another question in the beginner believer series. We’re going to ask the question, if I’m saved, why does my behavior matter? Why does it matter how I live my life? Now last week’s episode touched on this a little bit but we’re looking at it from a slightly different angle this time. If I’m saved, why do my actions matter? I really want to hone in on this because there’s so much false teaching surrounding sanctification, which is the process of becoming like Christ, and justification, which is the process of being made or the status of being made righteous in God’s eyes. What happens at salvation is justification. You receive a brand new identity that you could not work for and you could not earn.
This is given to you through Jesus Christ. But as we all know, just because we’ve received Christ in our inner person, we have the holy spirit doesn’t mean that we’re going to automatically be freed from all of our bad habits, sinful behaviors and actions that we’ve participated in in the past. So how do we think through and obey God in our sanctification if it’s not a one time thing? That’s a great question and that’s what we’ll be looking at today. Now, to revisit what salvation is, let’s talk a little bit about justification. What does it mean to be justified? Romans 3 is a great passage to look at when it comes to the idea and the righteousness of God has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith.
He did this to demonstrate his righteousness. So as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. So what’s happening here is a change of identity, a change of status before God. We call it justification because the language of Romans is very legal. It it’s really using legal language, the idea of a courtroom, the idea of being made completely new, given freedom, no longer owing a debt to God. And this is why it’s so interesting that he says here, everyone sinned, everybody’s fallen short of the glory of God, and in the same way, all who call upon the name of the Lord are justified freely by his grace. So we receive this justification freely by God’s grace, a change of status through the redemption of Christ Jesus. And this redemption, this is an idea of Christ buying something back and the something that he bought back is the people of God.
He bought us back from the condemnation that should have been ours. He is the sacrifice of atonement. The shedding of his blood which was a willing sacrifice allows us to receive by faith a change of identity, a way to be completely restored to God. And we participate in this through faith. This is why everyone in the old testament was saved by faith. They were looking forward to God’s promise. They were putting faith in God. Genesis 15 says, and Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Same thing today. Phylicia believed God and it was credited to her as righteousness and that righteousness becomes my identity. That’s who I am. So justification is becoming righteous in God’s eyes, earning this new status because of what Jesus did that we could never have deserved on our own. So if you are still thinking of yourself as unrighteous, you gotta pause right here in Romans 3 and accept what Christ has done for you. He has given you a new identity and that new identity is the basis for all of the actions that you are going to take. See this question, if I’m saved, why do my actions matter reveals a theology that is very works based. Well, if my works, you know, would earn me salvation then they would be worth something.
But because I have salvation by a free gift then my actions don’t really matter. This is revealing either a trivialization of salvation, so minimizing what Christ did, or a magnification of works. So thinking that our works are more important or better than they are or that they could have earned our way to heaven. So someone who’s asking this question and it’s a good question, I’m glad you’re asking it, but they’re revealing their theology. That they think that works are only worth doing if that gets them something. What if the works that we do aren’t about what we get? Aren’t about us proving ourselves to God or us being good enough in the world or getting the applause of man. What if the works that we do in this world are part of the pavement of the road bringing other people to God? What if that’s what it’s about? Or what if it’s simply an act of worship to the God who gave us the free gift of salvation? What if it’s making us into the kind of human being that is more like the God who saved us? There are so many other ways God uses the good works of his people. And when we narrow it down to like, well, if I can’t earn my salvation through works, works don’t matter or, you know, why bother even trying if I’m under grace, really shows us that we have taken great advantage of this salvation we’ve been given and we’ve minimized what happened on the cross.
Sometimes, American Christians in particular, we need to just take a minute and sit with this. Sit with the gospel story. Sit with what it is. Go back to the basics. Meditate on it. Pray about it. Go to the gospels and spend, you know, several weeks months really praying through it and studying and breaking it down. Are we actually appreciating the salvation that we have? Because when we do, we will want to listen to the Holy Spirit’s conviction to become someone who has a desire to point to Jesus, who has a desire to do the good works that pave the path for other people to know him.
We have a desire to change and to become more like him. When we minimize the gospel and we minimize salvation, oh, that’s such a travesty. What if we stepped back and we let the gospel be new to us again? Now some of you, you genuinely are new, but a lot of you who follow my YouTube channel and listen to my podcast, you’ve been in the faith a long time. And you might be asking this question, why do my actions matter? And I just really hope that this convicts you to go back to the basics and to ask yourself, do I have an intimate relationship with Christ? You cannot have an intimate relationship with Christ if you do not spend time with him. And I know that we have all these things calling our names. Listen, I have 3 kids that I homeschool. I lead a ministry with now 12 employees who are all working together. If I don’t spend time with Christ, if I don’t make time for that, I’m not gonna know his voice.
I’m not gonna know his love. I’m gonna have built this ministry that’s on a foundation of sand because I didn’t actually spend time with the God who loves me and reiterate that gospel back to myself. And you don’t have to be in vocational ministry. You don’t have to be a parent for this to matter. You simply have to be a Christian. It matters that you go back and you see what is the power of the gospel. How has it changed me? Because only when you realize that will you freely desire to walk in obedience and holiness. Will you bring the things and parts of yourself that you know are wrong, that you know are sinful and lay them before the Lord for his sanctification? Right now the Lord is continuing to show me some habits and patterns of my life that I’m seeing very clearly that are sinful, specifically in relation to my words.
And so thinking through what would it look like to let the God who justified me also sanctify me in this area. What would that look like? Thankfully scripture tells us, John 14:15 is probably the most blunt example. It says here Jesus talking, he says, if you love me you will keep my commandments. Now when I was struggling with erotica which is, pornographic novels years years ago, this verse bugged me because I thought, well, this means that if I don’t obey his commandments then I don’t love him. So what does that mean? Am I not saved? Well, it’s more nuanced than that. Jesus isn’t saying if you don’t obey every single command I gave then, you know, you’re out, you’re done, your salvation isn’t secure. We have a whole episode about that in this series about assurance of salvation. So go back and listen to that.
He’s not talking about losing your salvation but he is talking about an intimate relationship with God because in John 15 is when he talks about being the vine and that we are the branches and that we can only bear fruit if we’re attached to him. Essentially, only if you are in a love relationship with Christ will you obey his commandments. Otherwise, it’s all just your flesh. It’s all just your own effort. He’s saying if you love me, the natural outcome of your love relationship with me will be obedience. It will be sanctification. You will look more and more like me. I just want to encourage those of you at least in my context in America, this is what I’m seeing.
So if you’re in another country, adapt it to the cultural idols that you’re seeing. In America, a lot of Christians who are embarrassed to be holy, they think that it’s legalistic. They think that it’s boring. They think that it’s, you know, just another Christian being too Christian-y. You know what? We need to stop being afraid of this. Being a Christian means being set apart. And I don’t mean that we’re falling into legalism. Take our Leviticus study. Take our Galatians study. We talk all about that and what that looks like. We’re not working to our salvation. We’re not choosing these behaviors to make people applaud us or to make God love us. Because God loves us, we choose holiness. We choose obedience. We choose to grow more and more like him and to begin to adapt and hear his voice and say, okay, this is an area he wants to change me. 1st Peter 1:14 says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.
So for those of you who were saved later in life and had a life before Christ that you remember, this is a good reminder. Don’t go back to who you were before. Don’t go back to the passions of your former ignorance because you’re not ignorant anymore. Now you know Christ. So now you act like an obedient child because that’s what your identity is. You’re a child of God. It doesn’t make sense to be anything else. So obey him.
Obey him 1st John 5:3, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. This is a big one, friends. We have begun to adopt this idea that God’s commands are burdensome, that God’s just out to ruin the fun. But what if the true abundant life that Jesus said was available is found through obedience, is found through sanctification, is found through those actions that we take that are the overflow of our justified status. Isaiah 119, if you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land. This doesn’t always mean that everything’s gonna go well for you. Many of you know our current story and what we’re walking through, secondary infertility to miscarriages, a whole lot of really hard things that we have walked through this year.
And yet, can we say, in our obedience, that we have eaten the good of the land? Yes. There has been goodness in the land of the living with God because we have chosen even in the midst of this to be obedient to what he’s asking. Sometimes the goodness doesn’t look the way you think it will but there’s still goodness here. Luke 11:28, Jesus said, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. And I think that’s where we should end. Those who hear the word of God scripture and then they actually keep it by the power of the Holy Spirit, those are the people who see amazing things. They see God working. They see God moving in their own life and in the lives of others.
They have something compelling that’s worth sharing. They have something that they want to bring to other people. It’s hard sometimes to choose obedience, but this is where faith comes in I talk about this with my kids a lot. I say, your feelings aren’t gonna change before you obey God or before you will be obey me, your mom. Your feelings might not change, but the strength comes as you obey. As you step out in faith that God’s way is best, the holy spirit gives you the supernatural strength to complete what you’ve set out to do. But it’s a faith walk. See faith isn’t just at the beginning of the salvation process and you’re like, got it.
I am saved by faith through grace and now I’m done. I don’t need faith anymore. No. We need faith for every step of the journey. You need faith to say, okay, God, you’re asking me to walk in restraint with my words. I see where I’ve sinned with my words. And so from now on, I’m gonna listen to your holy spirit and choose better in faith that you’re going to help me because I don’t have the capacity to do it on my own. I’m gonna fail.
I’m gonna say something stupid, something mean, something gossipy, and I know I can’t do this on my own. I’ve justified it in my own eyes. I’m going to give this to you and say, lord, you’ve gotta help me. And he will. That is the role of the holy spirit. He’s your helper, your counselor, your friend, your advocate, and he will make you like Christ. So do your actions matter after salvation? Yes, they do a lot, but they’re not earning you salvation. They’re the outworking, the outflow of your salvation.
They impact the world around you. They change you as a person. And even when it doesn’t feel good to choose what’s right, you can know that there is an eternal impact beyond what you can see. Your obedience, which is a step of faith, is changing you and it’s changing the world. As always, thank you for listening to Verity podcast. We’re so grateful when you subscribe, when you leave reviews because it helps other people to find both our YouTube channel and also our iTunes channel. So thank you so much for listening, for engaging with this content. I would also love to hear from you if you have been touched or encouraged or have some more questions for the Beginner Believer series, you can email me and my assistant at phylicia@phyliciamasonheimer.com.
You can also comment on the YouTube videos. We go in and we answer those comments. If you have any questions, we’re happy to engage with you there as well. We’ll see you next week on Verity podcast.