B, Pentecost 15 Proper 18 - James 2:8-10, 12-14, 17 "The Good Works of God"

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you are doing well.  But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.  So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.  For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?  So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:8-10, 12-14, 17 ESV)

What good works have your done lately? 

What goes through my head on hearing this question makes me squirm with anxious uneasiness.  I am trapped somewhere between overweening pride and crushing desperation as waves within toss to and fro between the poles of self-righteous goodness and woe-is-me-ism. 

“Good works hey!  I’m looking pretty sweet today!  How good am I?  It’s so hard to be this good but I’m doin’ it!”

“I wish I could be as good as you!  I am such a failure!  I’m going to have to work much harder if I am ever going to that good”

Exposed is a narcissism that seeks attention because I am so so good, or the opposite, because I am so so bad!

Now in this temptation to strut or wallow, I thank God he has made me aware of this narcissistic Old Adam; the old man within.  Although both fill me with sickly dread, I am appreciative that God has given me this knowledge of my sin and sinful nature.  

Yet I ask the question, “how does one do good works freely?”  My Old Adam is such a sly old coot; a silly stubborn fool that’s had years of practice getting his own way.

Faith and good works go together.  We all know that from God’s word.  Yet I find myself striving to do works that glorify me.  Or I hang my head in shame for the dodgy deeds I’ve done.  The result is I’m led by the Old Adam to downgrade my faith in God as no more than a good or bad feeling. A feeling measured on the scale of my perceived popularity!

And then I hear texts like James telling me that faith without works is dead.  A voice inside says to me, “You must be dead! You’re not good enough!  Is there any point doing good works anyway?”

James does confront us with stern language!  He doesn’t mince his words in the slightest!  He says, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself,’ you are doing well.  But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” (James 8:8-10 ESV)

How can I not show partiality and love my neighbour as myself when I’m not even sure how to love myself?  I only seem to glorify myself because of my goodness or seek attention because I’m such a failure!

Yep!  The Old Adam within is a wily old pig of a person!  He’s like a dog that returns to its vomit!

Despite feeling the sting of the Law in light of my impotent lovelessness, the word of God teaches this old dog a new trick.  God calls me not to trust my feelings but to trust him and his word of liberty and freedom. 

How do I do good works freely?  The freedom of God reveals to the Old Adam, the old dog, that there is no new trick to learn.  The Lord Jesus says to my heart, “come behind, stay, abide, remain!” In fact, it’s God who sorts out the sheep from the goats while the dog sits.  But even more, God doesn’t just let a sleeping dog lie, he wants it to die.

It’s at this point I realise the devil’s taunt within that, “my faith is dead”, is the Holy Spirit revealing that “my works are dead” and I will never be able to do good works by myself.  But instead, it’s the Holy Spirit who is doing good works within, without my having to feel a certain way or do the things prescribed by my Old Adam.

What I have been struggling in is a return to the knowledge of good and evil. A familiar trick from the old dog, the Devil, himself.  It’s not a new trick, however, he’s been up to this old game since the Garden of Eden!

But thanks be to God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit wills within us knowledge of sin and grace.  The sin of our being and the deeds that come from it, once revealed in us frighten us and show us we need a Saviour, namely Jesus Christ, to whom we flee.  And once we are there, we realise it’s he who has been sorting the sheep from goats within each of us the whole time.

Like a farmer sending out his dog to muster the mob, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit into your heart to heard and separate the sheep from the goats.

God works good works!  He first works mercy, and he continues to work mercy for us.  He needs to while the Old Adam continues to daily seek to resurrect himself back into his persuasive position of good and evil deception. The Old Adam wants us to be like the father of lies, Satan, doing works of judgement and accusation that lead me and others to eternal death.  So, God needs to work mercy!  God works good works of mercy! 

King David confesses in Psalm 51, “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.” (Psalm 51:6 ESV)

What are these truths and wisdom in the inward being, the secret heart?  Earlier in the psalm David refers to knowing his sin and God’s knowledge of it, the truth and justification of his word, and the blamelessness of his judgement.

How amazing it is to know that exposure of our struggle with sin is a good work.  It shows us what God deems as good is that which we would rather hide just like Adam and Eve sought to do in the Garden.  This good work leads into other good works of faith beginning with confession of sin, justifying why God sent Jesus to die on the cross in place of our eternal judgement of death.

Finally, Jesus tells us in Matthew’s Gospel that we are not aware of our good works.  Like sheep and goats, he sorts out the motives deep within us.  And it’s good that he does this now while we are living because at the resurrection, he will sort the sheep from the goats.  

He says, in Matthew 25, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.  Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.”  Matthew 25:31–33 (ESV)

Jesus goes on to say to those on the right and the left, the works they did or did not do, did or did not serve him.  Even if we do seemingly good works to justify ourselves, they are not good works at all. 

Alternatively, the works that seem to be ones that condemn us and kill us in the eyes of the world, like confessing sin, confessing Jesus, being real about our inabilities, being completely sincere and transparent that appears to be foolishness, weakness, and shows vulnerability are not all that bad for those who trust Jesus’ good work at the cross, the Father’s good work of providing for us, and the Holy Spirit’s good work of encouraging within us faith.

So, what good works have you done lately?

I have done the good works of God!  Because God works good works in me! Amen.