Articles and thoughts by Steve Green.
On Faith and Works
October 21st, 2010
Is the discussion about faith and works, imputed righteousness and personal holiness merely theological acrobatics or is it really important? I think it is vitally important.
There are those who have climbed the ladder of spiritual success as outlined by many churches, and seem to have an exasperated impatience with those who just can’t get their act together. Simple observation tells us that some are more naturally inclined to discipline and achievement than others. If disciplined rigor is the way to piety, then they will surely win the prize. But the seeming arrogance of such achievers (and I should know, for I am a recovering Pharisee!) contradicts the heart of the gospel. Calvin does not deny that the fruit of justification is sanctification. The two, while distinct, are inseparably linked. Yet he points to Ephesians 2:10, reminding that the good works of the Christian were prepared in advance by God, that is, every sign of growth in sanctification is evidence of grace. Remember that Paul’s statement in Romans 3 is not only for the pagan but also for the believer: “There is no one righteous, not even one.” We had no righteousness of our own and still have none. Of course, there is an observable difference in all those transformed by God’s mercy. “Such were you”, Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, reminding of all the things they had been rescued from. So what about the positive differences and new way of life? Didn’t the Psalmist recount his innocence and uprightness in comparison to those around him? Yes, but not as the means of securing his acceptance with God. That contradicts the gospel. Instead, Calvin suggests that we should take note of all that is good and right in us as a sign of God’s benevolence towards us. Every change of heart, right response, just action and faithful obedience is a gift of God and “rays of the divine countenance by which we are illumined to contemplate that supreme light of goodness.” Rather than be puffed up, the evidence of a changed life should prompt greater thanks for the unspeakable gift in Christ, since indeed we may triumph and be victors in every contest, but only “on account of him who loved us.” Rom. 8:37
34 Comments »
I hear you brother, I am a member of P.A. (Pharisee’s Anonymous) too.
But by grace alone.
Comment by Dennis — October 21, 2010 @ 9:17 pm
I was thinking about prayer tonight and came to the conclusion that even when we pray for people or events in our lives, if we are in tune with the Spirit the things that we pray for just may be the things that God has on his heart as well. Even our prayers are a reflection of him.
Comment by David — October 21, 2010 @ 9:52 pm
Are there people who actually think faith and works, imputed righteousness and personal holiness are NOT important?
Comment by Nancy — October 21, 2010 @ 10:02 pm
My husband and I work as church directory photographers. We’re both Christians, and strong believers, but we’ve found the hardest people in the world to deal with are the rich and the churched. Pastors and their wives, especially, treat us with condescension and disrespect even though we’re always polite and work hard to give them great pictures. You can always tell which pastors are truly called and which are in it for the money, and there are many more of the latter than the former. Their congregations follow their lead, as well. The churches with truly committed pastors are a great deal more likely to have pleasant, caring members. The puffed up pastors tend to have congregations who also treat us like servants beneath their dignity to notice.
Pastors need to read Revelation 2 & 3 and identify where their church falls in the list of churches, then repent and call on God’s help to bring their lives and teaching in line with God’s word.
If my husband and I, as Christians, feel so abused by the churches I can only imagine how the photographers who are not Christians feel.
Comment by Tori Scott — October 21, 2010 @ 10:23 pm
Steve, you always keep me thinking!
Comment by Jeff Hooper — October 21, 2010 @ 11:18 pm
THANKS FOR REACHING OUT TO PEOPLE THRU YOUR AWESOME SONGS AND VOICE. YOUR SONGS REALLY TOUCH ME DEEP DOWN IN MY SOUL. What a wonderful way to draw people to Jesus Christ. Saw your consert once.
Comment by Patricia Groth — October 22, 2010 @ 1:20 am
This is a great truth. As obvious and pervasive as it is in the scriptures once one understands it, it seems difficult for many Christians to understand. We are bent on looking for the rules so we can investigate and exploit the loopholes or figure out how to outperform others. But the Christian life is anything but this. We shouldn’t care if we’re outperformed or if someone uses us as a doormat as long as we’re the doormat to that narrow way for others to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of us.
Comment by Jim Pemberton — October 23, 2010 @ 3:55 pm
i thank God for your nice songs and i am blessed with it.may God bless you
Comment by ela — October 27, 2010 @ 2:00 am
Dear Steve,
I attend a Lutheran Church in Singapore and we celebrated Reformation Day amongst other things with the viewing of your stirring rendition of A Mighty Fortress. It was truly a blessing to hear the words of the song with such clarity and power. It made me remember our blessed assurance in Christ.
This also led me to your website and this post. Thank you for the insight. It is not just for the puffed up, but for the guilty and condemned too, who need to know that it is not by works, but by God’s grace that we are sanctified.
So thank you for the double blessing and may you have a blessed week.
Jimmy
Comment by Jimmy Lee — October 31, 2010 @ 9:23 pm
If uprightness and right responses are gifts from God, I would like God to be more lavish with his gifting!
Comment by Adam — November 2, 2010 @ 8:31 am
Very true. And yet I cannot resist quoting from Rich Mullins: “Faith without works is like a song you can’t sing. It’s about as useless as a screen door on a submarine.”
Comment by Beth — November 3, 2010 @ 1:42 pm
hola steve soy de mexico escucho tu musica y su letra es tan bella y hoy se que a dios le agrada mucho siento cuando la entono me da gusto que le cantes a dios yo estoy intentando dejar el mundo porque vivir para dios es vivir en verdad
Comment by maria luisa — November 5, 2010 @ 10:17 pm
Dear Steve - Your music & words have been a blessing to me since I bought my first CD. May the Lord continue to bless your ministry.
Comment by Caryle Kassahn — November 10, 2010 @ 12:49 pm
What an awesome thought and truth to ponder…thank you for your words, Steve. My family loves your newest cd.
Comment by alicia giess — November 11, 2010 @ 1:12 pm
Steve,
I attended your concert in Dallas this evening. Thank you for bringing the gospel both to me and my family in a bold and eloquent way. I was mostly unfamiliar with your ministry, but through hearing you speak and what you have written here, I greatly appreciate the work you are doing.
Something you focused on struck me in particular when you mentioned the offensiveness of grace when we come to understand how lost we are and how righteous God is. A friend and I have been struggling to wrap our minds around everything that such grace means. He says it best when he says, “It’s almost like I need to say to God, How dare you?!…. not reckon my sin to me, but rather treat me with such mercy.”
I shared with him briefly what you had said and it encouraged us both. So, thank you.
Comment by Brian — November 19, 2010 @ 11:57 pm
OBEDIENCE BY Joe La Bianca If you think that obedience is required for salvation, instead of voluntary, you are in dangerous waters. We should obey God because we want to, not because we have to. A parent would much rather have his child obey him out of love than out of legal obligation. We obey Jesus out of love, because we want to. We do not obey Jesus to get something from Him, even salvation. True obedience has no ulterior motives. It comes from gratitude. Jesus said that if we love Him we will obey Him. One man says that obedience is love for Jesus. Another man says that obedience is the result of love for Jesus. There is a difference. Obedience and love are two different things. They are not one thing. Legalists try to make obedience the same as love. They say that obedience is partially the reason that we are saved. Jesus said that obedience is separate from love. If we love Jesus, that’s one thing, we will obey Jesus, that’s another thing. Why am I splitting hairs you ask? Because our obedience must come from a pure heart. If we think that we obey God to get saved, we are making salvation our work. If we obey God because we are already saved, salvation remains the work of Jesus. So obedience is only a result of our love for Jesus, and it doesn’t save us. Here’s more good news. Our love for Jesus is only a result of something else and doesn’t save us either. We love God because He first loved us. See? Love is also incidental. How did God love us? Well, through what Jesus did on the cross. There is no greater love than Jesus laying down His life for His friends. So God loved us through Jesus. When we believe this story, we love God. And from this love comes our obedience. Keep it in this order. Realize that the only thing we must do is believe in the cross and resurrection. Everything else flows out from that.
Comment by Joe La Bianca — December 2, 2010 @ 4:59 pm
Steve,
I have been listening to your music since I was a young child. My first solo I ever did in church was “He Holds The keys”. This journal gives me hope. I was raised up in a Christian home, and know enough to know what is ‘right” and “proper”.
it is hard to live out in my home. I married a man who claims to believe, but his life contradicts, and his heart is hard whenever I try to talk to him about the things of the Lord. I know that I have not always lived my testimony like I should. I have compromised, and outright disobeyed. I try very hard to do the right thing. I often fail. When I do, I cam called a hypocrite, and confirm his expectations that I am not a “true Christian”.
I find what you shared encouraging, as I try to press forward.. towards the calling that God has placed in my life. I know that none of us is righteous in our own selves. All I can do today is call on the blood of the One who sets the captives free, and pray that he opens the eyes of those who choose NOT to see too.
Thank you.
Comment by Mary — December 3, 2010 @ 9:43 am
I think that is why I love the verse, Phillipians 1:6.
God began the work and He is the One who works in us to complete the work.
Just like any Master Artist would do…He knows what He has in mind.
What a Creator. Thanks for the gentle reminder.
Sure wish SGM was in Chicago for a Christmas concert…Praying for your ministry this holiday season.
Natalie
Comment by Natalie Kleefisch — December 5, 2010 @ 12:46 pm
Steve, as always thank you for your prayerful reflections AND your transparency.
I have been listening to your music now since 1992 and have seen you in many worship concerts. I call them worship concerts as compared to what today is called ‘Christian’ concerts. So much of the latter is not honoring to God and man centered.
THANK you for your faithfulness (by His grace) to Him and your desire to please Him.
I have all of your music but have worn out the track “For God and God alone.” All these years God keeps bringing me back to that song that you recorded early in your ministry.
All of what I do, honor, desire must be for “God and God alone.” All else is frail and turns to dust. And it is only be His grace and precious blood that I can dare to come before His throne. And yes, all the works, in fact any works that I do to honor HIm, I give back to Him for He is the Owner and Author of anything that is good in me.
He has give me the gift of faith that has never waivered, though I have been rocked and torn asunder many times. And that gift of faith is an awesome present that has sustained me and supported me “through the ‘whelming flood.”
How can I claim any of that good as my own? No, I fall before Him as a helpless child in constant need of His grace and love. And He never fails me-how awesome and merciful is He-to me a Pharisee and a worm were it not for His grace!
Thank you for your gift of song that has carried me often into His throne room and continues to bless me.
Keep pressing on my friend. I look forward to singing with you someday before His throne!
Blessings and peace be with you always.
Comment by John Jacob — December 12, 2010 @ 12:08 am
WHERE IS YOUR NEXT SERMON OR CONCERT
Comment by JOSE CINTRON — December 17, 2010 @ 12:22 pm
Hi Steve: Thanks for a wonderful 2 concerts at Pleasant Grove Community Church. My wife, Ester, is the one that spoke to you in Spanish.
I wanted to let you know Phil Blair is in the hospital and is having surgery tonight (hopefully). He has a Incarcerated Hernia.
We were just there and he also received that almost all of his cancer spots in his liver is gone. The Lord is still on the throne.
Thanks again,
Stan Pierce
Comment by Stan Pierce — December 23, 2010 @ 10:06 pm
Steve
I want to purchase your new album, “Love Will Find A Way”!
God Bless Again!
Kenrick Buduan
Comment by Kenrick — December 28, 2010 @ 6:25 am
Steve,
Thank you for your comments. It’s funny about people’s attitudes about John Calvin without really reading or understanding what he had to say. It wasn’t until reading about what grace really is, that it really only can come from God and not from any isolated action of yours, do you understand the whole spectrum of grace and the gift of salvation. Once you understand this, you are humbled because you know that nothing you are or will become is because of yourself but only through the power of the Holy Spirit in following the purpose of God. Thanks to God for the music and life He has given you to uplift the rest of us.
Comment by Mel — December 31, 2010 @ 1:22 pm
Steve,
I ran across this post and want to thank you for it. Several years ago I was reading Ephesians 2. I had reference that chapter so much in my Bible that it was all marked up and the only removable page in my bound Bible.
Most anyone who has read Ephesians 2 are familiar with verses 8-9, but as I read that day I got to the 4th verse and could go no further. Paul begins the chapter saying that we were dead in our trespasses and sin, and then those words in verse 4, “But God, ……………………….” then talking about the great love with which God loved and loves us.
I pray God’s continued blessing on you and the ministry He has given you.
Blessings,
Darrell
Comment by Darrell Hodge — January 1, 2011 @ 8:29 pm
Steve, is there a mightier word than grace? It doesn’t have to be shouted from the rooftops, or dropped on our heads…it’s just is, mighty in it’s magnificent is, only GOD, and through GOD. So enjoy your journal entries, and other’s comments.
Comment by Debbie — January 8, 2011 @ 11:23 pm
Hi Steve
I am a Christian school teacher - second grade…I play your CD’s for my students and they are learning God’s Word… thank you for making the Bible come alive. This truly will have eternal consequences as they trust Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Thank you for serving God with your wonderful gifts.
Sincerely
Dawn Krahn
Comment by Dawn Krahn — January 9, 2011 @ 11:56 pm
Grace…an old testament picture of redemption…imagine a man choosing to buy a woman out of slavery, and pledges to cherish her, protect her and give her all that is his , freely out of pure love. She in turn, does not trust his grace and endeavors to make herself worthy of his love,status, possessions and honor by working her hardest , doing her best, striving constantly to become his ” equal” so as to deserve what he has given her….when all he wants is for her to see his heart, and respond to it with her own love, building a relationship of wonder, depth and joy….yet she continues to cheat herself and him by the need to prove and earn what he so freely gives, creating a spirit of pride, self-achievement and competition which in fact quenches the love that they both desire….God’s grace is so profound in its love and inheritance, that I can do nothing to make myself ” equal” to deserving it…so it’s His love that draws me, that I trust, allowing me to love Him back, which is what He wanted all along, and gives us such mutual peace and joy — and then his grace towards me can be passed on to others…..
Comment by Anonymous — January 21, 2011 @ 10:23 am
I think that one important point about Calvinism is worth talking about, and that is that Calvin came to believe “WE” mortals were predestined by God to be saved or not. This would mean Satan’s version of the “Battle between God and Satan” would be true and that is we do not have “Free Choice.” That God forces obedience or he condemns you to the second death. This was Satan’s Lie to Adam and Eve to start with. God is not about force, He is about free will. He wants your worship freely.
To the ones where the piety is giving way to your patience. I would submit that all churches are in succession of Revelation 1-3. We all are in the Laodicin Church. We all have to be worried about our condition, or He will spew us out and say He never knew us. Let us all be Hot and counted worthy is my prayer.
Comment by Jean — January 30, 2011 @ 5:01 pm
Thanks for being at SWBTS. “Zion” is about the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. I was transfixed. While you were singing it live, I had my iPhone purchasing the album right there from my seat! Steve Green and Steve Jobs working together to make a great evening for me!
Thanks for the discussion on soteriology and sanctification, but last night still has me too stuck in aesthetics to make my way over to the topic of your post. Sorry.
Comment by Bart Barber — February 25, 2011 @ 9:17 pm
Steve, there’s always that fellowship ministry, when some are gathered to lift each other up. Your journal arena allows us to see each other, and to share God’s greatness in scripture and through personal experiences. Journal on. Be blessed.
Comment by Deb O'Brien — February 27, 2011 @ 8:35 pm
thank you, Steve, for an opportunity for many to fellowship with you, and to lift each other up in great love for GOD. Through personal experiences, and sharing thoughts, your journal has given such a platform sweet voice to praise HIM! Be blessed, and journal on.
Comment by Deb O'Brien — February 27, 2011 @ 8:39 pm
Bro. Steve; Always enjoy listening to your songs. I pray for you and the ministry. You hit the nail right on the head when it comes to our righteousness . WE ain’t got none as they say here in Pennsylvania. But thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift Jesus Christ the righteous one
Comment by Frank Rogers — March 9, 2011 @ 10:44 am
Steve,
The Psalmist says he is righteous because he is first perfectly righteous in Christ by faith alone. Second, the Psalms most properly belong on Christ’s lips. He quoted from them and the words of the Psalms are attributed to him in Hebrews. So when we sing a Psalm that says “I am righteous, like a tree planted by the water I will not be moved,” we are singing words that can belong to us because they first belonged to Christ in whom the words are fulfilled.
Blessings in Christ to all.
Comment by Mike G. — March 10, 2011 @ 6:16 pm
I like your reference to Ephesians 2:10, and would suggest Eph. 2:8 be included in the thought. If God’s purpose is to show the incomparable riches of His grace through us, there is no room for works for that would be in opposition to His purpose, and take away from His glory.
Comment by Don Johnson — September 10, 2011 @ 10:47 am