| A simple way to put it is like this: we cannot perform any good works to either get saved or stay saved. Works are entirely removed from the act of justification, which is purely by God's free grace through the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
However, after justification, we perform good works because we are saved. The good works that are performed by believers are both the proof that justification has genuinely taken place and the fruit of that justification.
Good works (which are given to us by God) are a demonstration to ourselves and to others that we are saved. This is why sanctification is described as a process, not an act (like justification).
Justification takes place in a moment of time. Sanctification takes place throughout the rest of the believer's life until he arrives in Heaven.
Again, good works make absolutely no contribution to the believer's salvation, which is completely of free grace. But good works do confirm our salvation and bring glory to God.
Ephesians 2:8-10 is the crucial passage here:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (NKJV)
I sure am glad that I'm able to make absolutely no contribution to my salvation. And I am equally glad that the Holy Spirit prompts me to perform those good works - after salvation - that glorify Him and act as an assurance that I am saved. And, it's the combination of justification, and the sanctification that flows from it, that molds me into the likeness of my glorious Savior, in whom I will be perfected once I see His face in Heaven.
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Richard T. Zuelch, M.Div
Ruling Elder, OPC (not currently serving)
Westminster Presbyterian Church, CA (OPC) www.reiterations.wordpress.com www.foft.wordpress.com
Talking to oneself is, I believe, considered a sign of lunacy. Thinking to oneself is most certainly a sign of it. - G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), in January, 1906
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