Good Works: Walking in God’s Commandments

March 12, 2023 – Ephesians 2:10; 2 John 6 – Good Works: Walking in God’s Commandments

For those of you who have gone through driver’s training, you likely learned about the danger of overcorrection. It accounts for about 4% of all traffic accidents. A common example of overcorrection is when a driver notices that he has drifted off the right side of the road, so he jerks the steering wheel so far to the left that he ends up driving off the left side of the road.

Overcorrection happens in other areas of life, as well. A person might react so strongly to something they want to avoid that they end up going too far in the other direction. This will often end up in a situation that’s just as bad, if not worse, as the situation they were trying to avoid.

For example, a man might have grown up under an abusive father, so when he becomes a father, he refuses to discipline his children. Because he’s so intent on not treating his children the way his father treated him, he overcorrects; he just lets his children do whatever they want. So while he successfully avoided one set of problems, his overcorrection created a different set of problems. He’s not a father who abuses his children, but neither is he a father who lovingly trains and admonishes his children.

This morning, I want to call your attention to an overcorrection that happens in the church. Over the past century, the American church has done a pretty decent job alerting Christians to the error of legalism. This is not to say that legalism doesn’t still exist within the church. It does, but it’s had to go incognito.

This is the obvious form of legalism. This is the false gospel of salvation by works. When I say that the American church has done a pretty decent job of alerting Christians to the error of legalism, I’m talking about this most obvious form of legalism. The mug shot of salvation by works is hanging on the wall in most church’s foyers and most Christians are quick to spot this form of legalism. But legalism is sneaky. It still shows up in our churches, only is shows up in disguise. And the American church has not done a very good job of detecting legalism when it’s wearing its disguise.

The fact is, many local churches have let the disguised form of legalism preach from their pulpits and teach in their Bible studies and Sunday School classes. It’s not the easily detectable message of salvation by works that’s being taught, but it’s still a form of heaping heavy burdens that are hard to bear upon the people’s shoulders. It’s saying, “Yes, of course, salvation is by grace. But if you really want to receive the affirmation of God and our little community here, then you’ll be following our man-made rules.” Of course, they don’t say it that way, but that’s the essence of disguised legalism.

Disguised legalism says, “If you really desire to know the true word of God, then you’ll read and study from the KJV Bible.”

Disguised legalism says, “If you really want to worship the Lord, then you’ll go to church twice every Sunday; once in the morning and then again in the evening.”

Disguised legalism says, “If you really love the Lord, then you’ll begin each day with at least 20 minutes of personal quiet time with Him.”

Disguised legalism says, “If you’re really committed to holiness, then you won’t watch R-rated movies.”

Disguised legalism says, “If you’re really raising your children correctly, then you’ll be homeschooling them.”

Disguised legalism says, “If you’re really committed to purity, then you’ll follow this 101-step courtship model.”

Disguised legalism says, “If you really understand what biblical modesty is, then all the females in your family will be wearing denim jumpers.”

As I said, many Christians are good about detecting and rejecting the undisguised form of legalism—the obvious form that claims salvation is achieved by works of the law—but not nearly as many Christians are good at detecting and rejecting legalism when it’s wearing a disguise. Disguised legalism takes good things and makes them requirements for attaining approval from God or approval from the church.

Is it good to read the KJV Bible? Yes, but that’s not the only translation Christians can read. You’re not sinning, and you’re no less spiritual, if you read the ESV. Only the disguised legalist says that every Christian needs to read the KJV.

Is it good to worship twice on Sundays? Yes, beginning and ending the Lord’s Day in corporate worship with God’s people can be a blessing. And while it’s true that God does command us not to forsake assembling ourselves together, He doesn’t require that we do this two times every Sunday. To make this a requirement that’s imposed upon people is disguised legalism; it’s imposing man’s rules as if they were God’s rules.

Is it good to spend personal quiet time with God? Absolutely! But it doesn’t have to be the first thing you do in the morning. There might be good reasons why you choose to make it the first thing you do in the morning, but this can’t be imposed as a requirement on other people. There’s nothing wrong with waiting until noon or evening to spend devotional time with God. Nor does our devotional time need to be private. A husband and wife might do their devotions together, or parents might do their devotions with their children. God does command us to meditate upon His word, so it’s not legalism to say that every Christian needs to have regular and routine times of study and devotions. What’s legalism is to say how and when and where each Christian needs to study and meditate upon God’s word. To demand that everybody begin each day with personal quiet time is disguised legalism.

Is it good to avoid R-rated movies? Yes, most R-rated movies contain content that Christians shouldn’t be entertaining themselves with, but the reason we should choose to not watch a certain movie is not because of what the Motion Picture Association of America says, but because of what God says. God sets the standard, not the MPAA. If we’re looking to the MPAA’s rating for our guidance, then we’re substituting God’s standard with man’s standard by letting a secular organization with an anti-biblical worldview tell us which movies we can watch. That’s disguised legalism. And let me remind you that there are some G-rated and PG-rated films that are more harmful to Christians than some R-rated films are. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please bring it up during our questions and comments time after the service is over.

Is it good to homeschool your children? For some families it is. It’s one of the ways some families bring up their children in the training and admonition of the Lord. But homeschooling is not the only way to provide children with a Christian education. It’s a disguised form of legalism to heap the heavy burden of homeschooling on all Christian parents. And it’s the disguised form of legalism to think your more holy than somebody else because you homeschooled your children while they sent theirs to a Christian day school.

Is it good for females to wear denim jumpers? I think jumpers have a place in this world, but what I hope you can see is that to insist jumpers are the best or the only way to dress modestly is disguised legalism. God does care about how we dress. He cares about how we think of our bodies, how we display our bodies, and how the display of our bodies affects other people. So we need to incorporate modesty into our clothing choices. But God doesn’t require women to wear denim jumpers. Making jumpers the standard of morality is disguised legalism.

The point I want you to see in all these examples is that a subtle form of legalism exists when man establishes standards and requirements that God has not specified in His word. It’s disguised legalism when people say that you need to do this or that to receive God’s approval, or the church’s approval, or the approval of whatever tribe or community somebody happens to belong to, when in fact, God never established that as His standard.

Sometimes, when people begin to see behind the disguise and realize that subtle forms of legalism have been operating in their lives, they overcorrect. For example, in recent years, God has brought to light some of the disguised forms of legalism that had made inroads among homeschoolers. In a couple of cases, God exposed the sins of some prominent men and brought their ministries to a grinding halt. This caused many homeschoolers who had been following these men to see the disguised legalism that these men were teaching. Having their eyes opened to this truth, some homeschoolers overcorrected. In turning away from legalism, they jerked the steering wheel so aggressively in the other direction that they crashed into the ditch of hyper-grace.

What is hyper-grace? Hyper-grace is a subtle, but serious theological error. I say it’s subtle because much of it sounds like the truth. For example, hyper-grace affirms that salvation is entirely by grace and not of works. And hyper-grace affirms that Jesus lived the perfect life of righteous obedience that was well pleasing to God. And hyper-grace affirms that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to believers and there’s nothing we can do to improve upon what Jesus has already done. All of this is true, right? It’s all spelled out very clearly in the Scriptures.

But then hyper-grace goes on to make some very dangerous and highly disturbing applications of the truths. In a nutshell, they conclude that because God does all these things for us by His grace, then (1) personal repentance, (2) personal obedience, and (3) personal holiness have no place in the Christian’s life. Hyper-grace says that we must not concern ourselves with good works, that we have everything we need in the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

As I said, hyper-grace does affirm that we’re saved by grace and not of works. That’s exactly what Ephesians 2:8-9 states so clearly. Paul didn’t want anybody to miss this point, so he stated it four times, twice in the positive sense, and twice in the negative sense.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith.” That’s stating it in positive sense.

“And that not of yourselves.” That’s stating it in the negative sense.

“It is the gift of God.” That’s stating it in the positive sense.

“Not of works, lest anyone should boast.” That’s stating it in the negative sense.

So we can agree with hyper-grace theology on the point that salvation is entirely of grace and not of works. And we can agree with their declaration that believers are imputed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Where hyper-grace gets themselves into serious error, however, is their failure to make some necessary theological distinctions, such as the biblical distinction between justification and sanctification.

Justification is God’s legal declaration that a sinner has been made “just” by the atoning work of Jesus and the imputation of His righteousness. So we have no disagreement with hyper-grace on that. Our disagreement has to do with sanctification.

Biblically speaking, sanctification is the ongoing process where God works through the power of the Holy Spirit to make Christians more holy. It’s what Romans 8:29 is describing when it says that God predestined us to be conformed into the image of His Son.

We need to make a distinction between justification and sanctification because the Bible makes this distinction. The distinction is between the Christian’s position in Christ and practice in Christ. Justification is God’s legal pronouncement that the sinner is righteous. This is our position in Christ. We’re forensically declared righteous. But in our daily practice, we’re not righteous. So long as we’re in these mortal bodies, we’re going to continue to sin. Hence, the truth of 1 John 1:8…

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Hyper-grace doesn’t make the distinction between justification and sanctification, which is just another way of saying they don’t make the distinction between the Christian’s position in Christ and practice in Christ. Instead, hyper-grace tries to blend it all together so that the entire Christian experience is treated according to what the Bible says about justification. This leads to some serious errors.

For example, because hyper-grace places the entire Christian experience under the umbrella of justification, they conclude that good works are not necessary in the Christian’s life. Why not? Because we’re saved by grace, not works, so works are unnecessary. And if you disagree with this by saying that a Christian does have the responsibility to walk in good works, then you’ll be called a legalist. They’ll say you’re trying to earn your salvation by your good works.

Do you see how that works? There’s some serious faulty logic going on in the hyper-grace camp and I want to make sure you understand how and why it’s faulty because it’s the same faulty logic that they use across the board, so let me repeat what I just said in case a few of you didn’t catch it the first time.

Because hyper-grace places the entire Christian experience under the umbrella of justification, they say that good works are not needed in the Christian’s life. Because we’re saved by grace and not works, works are unnecessary. And if you disagree with this by saying that a Christian does have the responsibility to walk in good works, then you’ll be called a legalist. They’ll say you’re trying to earn your salvation by your good works.

As this faulty logic continues to be applied, it spirals down into deeper and deeper into more serious errors. Because the entire Christian experience is being treated under the umbrella of justification, hyper-grace says that Christians cannot be held accountable for sin. Why not? Because God has already declared Christians to be righteous! If God said the Christian is righteous, then who are you to say otherwise?

And hyper-grace goes on to say that the only time a Christian needs to repent is at his conversion. Once he’s been saved, he never needs to repent again. Why not? Because he can’t be charged with sin! God declared that he’s righteous, so sin can no longer be charged against him.

Let me share a personal experience I had with somebody who had come under the influence of hyper-grace theology. This man was a professing Christians and he was going on overnight trips with his girlfriend, who was also a professing Christian. When they would go on these overnight trips, they’d stay in the same hotel room. When I expressed my concern about this, I was told that they couldn’t be charged with sin because it was impossible for them to sin. When I asked how it was impossible for them to sin, I was quoted three Scriptures.

The first Scripture was Romans 6:14 which says that Christians are not under the law, but under grace. I was told that this means the moral law of God has no authority over the Christian.

The second Scripture was Romans 4:15 which says that where there is no law, there is no transgression. Since the moral law has no authority over the Christian, there’s nothing by which transgressions can be charged against the Christian.

And the third Scripture was Romans 8:1 which says that there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ. So I was told, “You can’t condemn us because we're in Christ.”

Do you see the faulty logic at work here? It’s the same faulty logic I explained earlier. When the entire Christian experience is placed under the umbrella of justification, sanctification becomes part of justification, which means, the distinction between the Christian’s position in Christ and practice in Christ is erased. The whole “practice” part is swept under the run and all that’s acknowledged is the “position” part. And because God says the Christian is positionally righteous in Christ, hyper-grace applies this declaration to every aspect of the Christian’s life. Which means, the moral law of God is discarded, personal accountability for sin is discarded, the need for personal repentance is discarded, and the hyper-grace person begins to consider himself incapable of sinning because God has declared him to be righteous in Christ. And if you disagree with any of this, the hyper-grace person will call you a legalist. You’ll be called a legalist because you’re trying to apply the law of God to their life. You’ll be called a legalist because you’re saying their behavior is sinful. You’ll be called a legalist because you’re calling them to repentance.

What we really need to be concerned about, however, is not what hyper-grace has to say about these things, but what God has to say about all of this. In this regard, let me begin by sharing two passages that speak warnings of destruction upon people who believe and teach the hyper-grace error. Jude writes about people in the first century who were teaching something very similar to hyper-grace. He says in verse 4 that certain people have crept into the church unnoticed and they “pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality.” That’s an excellent description of what people are doing with hyper-grace. They pervert the grace of God into a license for immorality. Isn’t that what the boyfriend and girlfriend were doing? Weren’t they perverting the grace of God into a license for immorality when they dismissed the sinfulness of their immorality by claiming God’s grace has freed them from all moral accountability to His law?

The second passage is from 2 Peter 3. In verse 15, Peter admits that some of the things the apostle Paul has written in his epistles are hard to understand. I think many of us can relate to this statement, right? When we read these challenging passages in Paul’s epistles, we’re not always sure what to make of them. If we’re going to understand these passages correctly, then we need to do some studying. We need to read them over several times. We need to compare Scripture with Scripture. And we may need to consult with somebody who has a greater level of biblical knowledge than what we have; somebody who can teach us what the difficult passages mean. Well, 2 Peter 3:16 says that there are untaught and unstable people who twist these difficult passages to their own destruction, just as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. Then Peter adds a caution to his readers in the next verse…

You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked

The reason I’m preaching about legalism and hyper-grace today is because these errors are prominent in the American church. Untaught and unstable people are twisting the Scriptures to their own destruction. But it’s not merely their own destruction that I’m concerned about; I’m also concerned that you, dear friends, might be deceived by these errors and fall from your own steadfastness. I’m concerned about this for you because Peter was concerned about this for the Christians he was ministering to. It’s not unthinkable, therefore, that somebody from this congregation would be led astray with the error of the wicked. It’s not unthinkable that somebody would come to the realization that some subtle forms of legalism have crept into their life, so they overcorrect and plunge themselves into the ditch of hyper-grace.

This happens, brothers and sisters! You probably know people this has happened to. You probably know people who used to take pride in their modest denim jumpers, and who used to boast that they don’t watch R-rated movies, and who used to look down on other parents who didn’t homeschool their children, and who thought they knew all the rules and proper techniques that would make a courtship flourish into a beautiful marriage. And when they eventually recognized the ugliness of this disguised legalism, they overcorrected into the ditch of hyper-grace. You look at their social media pages now and you wonder whether it’s really the same person. Everything has changed. The pendulum has swung to the other side.

Their language is rough.

Many of their new friends are rough.

There doesn’t appear to be any effort to filter what they consume through media.

They’ve thrown courtship out the window and embraced our culture’s model of dating.

The denim jumper has been exchanged for the kind of clothing that only prostitutes wore a generation ago.

And they’re quick to insist that everybody who has not adopted their new-found hyper-grace doctrines are legalists.

My appeal to you, dear friends, is that if you discover some disguised forms of legalism in your life, don’t overcorrect. Don’t jerk the steering wheel so far to the other side that you drive into the hyper-grace ditch. Rather, recognize what the real problem is. The real problem is that you’ve raised good things to a level that God never intended for them to be raised to. But the good things are still good things, they just need to be put in their proper place. So don’t throw the good things out while you’re throwing out the bathwater of legalism. Listen again to Peter’s warning from 2 Peter 3:17…

17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked.

Our sermon texts put all of this in its proper place. As we’ve already seen, Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it clear that our salvation is by grace through faith and not of works. But if we keep reading, verse 10 tells us that there is a place for good works in our lives. It says…

For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

This is describing our sanctification. We are “God’s workmanship,” we’re told. This means that God is working in us. To what end? To perform good works! God has regenerated us in Christ Jesus so we will walk in the good works He has prepared for us, and in doing so, we bring glory to God. Matthew 5:16 says…

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

What this and many other passages of Scripture are teaching us is that when we walk in the good works that God has prepared for us, this demonstrates that we’ve been saved by grace through faith. In other words, our sanctification demonstrates our justification.

This is an important point because when God justifies a sinner, He doesn’t give that person a “certificate of holiness” that can be framed and hung on the wall for everybody to see that he’s been justified. Rather, the way people can see that we’re justified is by our sanctification. As the Holy Spirit transforms our character so that we grow in holiness and obedience, this gives increasingly convincing testimony of our justification. And the converse is true, as well. When a professing Christian does not grow in personal holiness and obedience, this increasingly calls into question the validity of their claim to be justified. This is why James wrote about the faith that is dead. He wrote that the person who claims to have faith, but doesn’t have good works flowing out of that faith, has a dead faith that cannot save. James 2:14…

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? (ESV)

That’s a rhetorical question. The answer is no, that faith cannot save him because it’s a dead faith.

We cannot see another person’s justification, but we can see their sanctification. Nor can we see our own justification, but we can see our own sanctification. So if you want to know whether you’ve been justified, look at your sanctification, because sanctification demonstrates justification. Or to put it in the words of Ephesians 2:10, when you walk in the good works that God has prepared for you to walk in, you demonstrate that you’re His workmanship.

Now, knowing that Jude and Peter have warned us that certain people twist the Scriptures in destructive ways, we have to ask ourselves how the hyper-grace people twist Ephesians 2:10. They’ve obviously read this passage because so much of their rhetoric rests on Ephesians 2:8-9, so how do they still contend that good works have no place in the Christian’s life when verse 10 explicitly states that God has prepared good works for Christians to walk in?

They equivocate. The redefine what good works are. They say, “Since the Christian is declared righteous by God, everything he does after his conversion is counted as ‘good works.’” This makes sense to hyper-grace proponents because they don’t believe they can sin. Having dismissed the moral law of God, they don’t believe that sin can be accounted to them, so they explain Ephesians 2:10 by merely stating that the good works referenced here is anything they do after having received the grace of God. That would even include sharing a hotel room with your girlfriend. Hyper-grace says that’s just part of the good works God has prepared for them to walk in.

But as Jude wrote, that’s abusing the grace of God by turning it into a license to sin. When we look our secondary sermon text from 2 John 6, we see very clearly how we are to understand what the good works are that God has prepared for us to walk in…

This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.

It’s God’s commandments, brothers and sisters, that define what good works are. If you are walking contrary to the moral law of God, then you’re not walking in good works. Rather, you’re walking in sin. But if you walk according to His commandments, then you’re walking in the good the works He has prepared for you. This is not one of those difficult things to understand. There are some difficult concepts in the Bible, but this is not one of them. God’s moral commandments are what distinguish sin from good works, and anyone who twists the Scriptures to say otherwise does so to their own destruction.

Don’t fall into this Scripture-twisting ditch, dear friends. It’s not legalism to look to God’s commandments for direction on how we should walk. Nor is it legalism to help a brother or sister in Christ see their sin by pointing them to the moral law of God. That’s one of the ways the moral law of God functions in our lives. And it’s the only standard we should use to measuring our sanctification.

Psalm 119, verses 17 through 24…

17 Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.

18 Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.

19 I am a stranger in the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me.

20 My soul breaks with longing for Your judgments at all times.

21 You rebuke the proud—the cursed, who stray from Your commandments.

22 Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies.

23 Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes.

24 Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.

May this be the conviction in each of our hearts. To God be the glory. Amen.