GOOD WORKS AND REWARDS
By Mark Jones
Christian Focus. 103 pages. £4.99
ISBN 978 1 527 100 442
There can be a tendency among the churches that the good news of grace is so much stressed that any mention of obedience is met with suspicions of legalism, moralism and deadly religion. We don’t take obedience as seriously as we might.
But Paul introduces the gospel in Romans by referring to it as ’the obedience of faith.’ This book, by Mark Jones, of Faith Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, encourages us to think again about the need for obedience.
Threats and rewards
Some preachers threaten us into obedience by stressing that if we don’t show any signs of obedience whatsoever then perhaps we have never really been born again and are not Christians at all. That is a note that needs to be struck some of the time. But Jones takes us to the passages of Scripture which promise rewards – both earthly now and heavenly to come – to those who walk the path of obedience and are concerned to do good works for the glory of Christ. It really is a terrific encouragement.
Saved for good works
He explains that Christ has died in order to have for himself ‘a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good’ (Titus 2.14). He has saved us not by good works but for good works, ‘which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (Ephesians 2.10). We can never truly merit anything from God, not only because of our sin but because of our creatureliness, yet God does reward faithful Christians in honour of the work of Christ. Not to pursue good deeds is to sell ourselves short. We need some spurring on in these millennial days in which ‘me’ time means more to many of us than end times.
