Complete In Every Good Work

There are two ways we work for God. One way is born of faith in Christ, and the other is born of the need for recognition and acceptance. One way is with the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit, and the other is with our own strength. The first way surrenders to the righteous work of Christ in us. The second way works to prove its own righteousness. The first way is life. The second way is death.
 
“There is a way that seems right to a man,” Solomon said, “but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12).  
 
What appears right to our natural mind is what we think is right. What we think is carnal. And to be carnally-minded is death (Romans 8:6).
 
“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus said. “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
 
We don’t work our way to God on our own merit. We come to God on Christ’s merit. He is the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to experience God’s acceptance and approval is by understanding spiritually who we are in Christ. And to be spiritually-minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6).
 
Yet, don’t we sometimes work for God hoping that He will heal or bless us—not seeing that if we spiritually understood the right-standing we already have in Christ, we would experience His life and peace? If we would labor with His power working in us and not on our own strength, wouldn’t we live the truth of the new person He has made us?
 
“To this end I also labor,” Paul wrote, “striving according to His working which works in me mightily” (Colossians 1:29).
 
Paul strived with God’s guidance and power. He shared the Gospel out of His right-standing in Christ. He knew He had nothing to prove to God. Christ had already proved him righteous.
 

“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:4-6).
 
It is Christ’s mercy that saved us and His righteousness that works in us—not our own. The Holy Spirit draws and empowers us to work for Christ. We surrender to the righteousness that is ours in Him. We have God’s power but we must surrender our natural understanding—our ways—our ideas—our circumstances—our issues—our opinions—and everything to the new life we have received in Christ. Any work born of our need for acceptance and approval has no power. 

 

We are called to work for Christ. However, works born of our need instead of faith in Christ have no life (James 2:17). The difference lies in the motivation for our work. Is our work born of the incorruptible seed of God's Word in our heart or born of our own corruptible need to prove ourselves? 
 
When you know how much Christ values you, your life is no focused on self. It is focused on Him. You have no need to prove yourself. God’s Word transforms your understanding. You conform to your salvation by being renewed by His Word (Romans 12:1-2). Allow the incorruptible seed of God’s Word to take root and grow in your heart (1 Peter 1:23), and then you can labor out of the righteousness Christ has earned for you. Working without faith is death. Working out of the faith that is yours in Christ is life (James 2:20-22).
 
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
 
It is God’s power that energizes us (Colossians 1:29).  It is His work in and through us that brings life to our “yes.” 

“May the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21).