Pastor’s Thoughts – 08/09/2026

One of Christianity’s greatest historic tensions has been opinions on the role of faith in relationship to works. There are those who take a position that God requires good works and thereby good works earn or produce salvation. These take a view that works are necessary for God’s favor to be saved. Those who follow this path in the name of Christian, are often called legalist. Then there are those who say that works and faith in salvation cannot coexist because salvation is by grace and therefore means that any form of works is an attempt to add to the redemption by Christ, and thereby it ceases to be salvation by grace. Those who give no regard to the Bible’s commands are called antinomians and there is a current movement called “Free Grace Theology.” This theology focuses entirely on man’s acceptance of God’s grace in Christ and places no emphasis on a transformed life.

We know, for example, what the Scripture says of man’s natural condition, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Is. 64:6). What man naturally considers as meritorious, the Lord instead, as Samuel says, “Looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). The issue is not our efforts at being good, but the heart producing what are called our works (Eph. 2:10). Another way of describing Samuel’s words is that God looks at the motives and intentions of our hearts. Our hearts in Scripture address who we really are in relation to God. Heart in Scripture has to do with our inner self, our motives, and our nature.

There are many texts in Scripture that address the relationship of our faith with our works. One of those found in the Old Testament is David’s Psalm 24. He says, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place?” (Ps. 24:3). Here is the central most important question asked regarding salvation. He is simply asking who among people can be in a right relationship with God so that they are accepted into His presence. This question is the most significant question of all time. It is personal. Either we are God’s friend, and can come into His presence, or we will be cast from Him into the eternal darkness of hell. Thankfully, David immediately answers this question, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart. Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully” (Ps. 24:4). This would seem on the surface to be a statement defining the basis of our relationship to God wholly on what we do. However, when we look at the particulars of David’s answer we see the serious reality of a necessary change from our natural sinful selves into another person of God’s standard. Clean hands is given as a picture of our activities or what we do. This is a person who does not live in the practice of sin. This is a person reflecting righteous activities in accordance with God’s design and nature.

Then he states God’s requirement, “A pure heart.” He is saying it is not only outward performance, but right inward motives. We know the Scripture says of our natural heart – “The heart is deceitful above all else and desperately sick, who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). A pure heart must therefore be a changed heart or new heart. Only God can make our wicked hearts pure. Our Lord Jesus said to the religious man, Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). Christ knew that Nicodemus, although the greatest religious teacher in Israel, did not understand the need he had for God’s work within him. Paul would later express, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things are passed away behold are things are new” (2 Cor. 5:17). The Bible demands a standard that only God Himself can produce through His Spirit. David also says of God’s requirements, “Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood” (Ps. 24:4). We see from this a key requirement of God is in relation to truth. God is truth! This is therefore a person who has not set their life’s direction in vanity and false thinking, but in the truth of God. The truth of God can only come by the Spirit’s enlightenment as a person embraces God’s Word. So we find that it is faith in Christ alone, not in works, that saves; but the faith that does save also transforms the life resulting in good works.

Anyone looking at Psalm 24 can see that indeed what a person does is incorporated into their relationship with the Lord. We know that salvation is a work of God in the person consisting not only of justification by what Christ did on the cross, but also sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which those who have placed their faith in Christ are set apart for God’s purposes and are progressively transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Both justification and sanctification come through the channel of faith. Faith is essential to bring about our change of life’s direction. Sanctification is our change. It is both an immediate change when we initially exercise faith, and it is a growing change (2 Cor. 3:18). We see then that faith producing works are both essential components of salvation. It is not our works that save us, but our faith is the channel, and that faith is seen by God’s working in us to produce what is defined in Psalm 24 and many other passages in Scripture. The miracle of salvation is a glorious work of God whereby He gives us a new heart that desires foremost to please Him (2 Cor. 5:9). Yes, we must have faith, and that faith will be seen in the production of good works. Father, thank you for so great a salvation!