The Bible tells us that the relationship between God the Creator and us, His creation, has broken down. The problem is that we have gone our own way and have rebelled against Him and His right to rule over us. Unfortunately this is very evident from the way the world around us staggers from one crisis to another. All is not well with our world. The problem is that we have declared ourselves independent from God. Why is this?

According to the Bible, the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, lived in perfect harmony with God in the Garden of Eden. This harmony is described in Genesis 3 where God ‘walked in the garden in the cool of the day’. The Bible refers to perfect living as ‘righteousness’. Adam and Eve were righteous. If we could live perfect lives there would be no problem about God’s relationship with is; He would be able to accept us.

But Adam and Eve turned away from God by disobeying His command not to eat the fruit of a tree that would give them the knowledge only God should have. So God shut them out of the Garden, signifying that the harmony between Him and them was now finished. This disobedience by Adam and Eve was the first sin and we have all been committing it ever since: we do not live in complete obedience to how God has told us live. We want to live the way we want to. We don’t want God interfering. We ought to live our lives with God our Creator as our Ruler, but we don’t. God has even given us the Ten Commandments to show us what He expects, but all they do is show us how far short we fall from God’s standard.

God has consistently reminded us of this when in Leviticus 19:2 He declares ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am Holy.’ In other words His standard is for us to be as holy (morally perfect) as He is! Jesus emphasised exactly the same point in Matthew 5: 48 when He said ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

God requires ‘righteousness’ - perfect living.

And in case we haven’t yet got the point, when asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replied (in Matt. 22:37-39)

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ and ‘Love you neighbour as your self.’

Now none us has come anywhere near that standard, because actually we don’t want to. We are rebellious. So we are guilty before God. So what can we do? Answer - nothing for ourselves. Only God can help us. The Good News of the Gospel is that through His Son Jesus Christ God has provided a way back for us into harmony with Him. So how has He done it?

Remember, our problem is that we have no righteousness; we do not live perfectly. So how are we going to gain righteousness? Paul gives us the answer in Romans 3: 21- listen to what he says ..…

In the following verses Paul drives it home ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified [put right with God] freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’

In one of his other letters Paul explains where this gift of righteousness comes from. In 2 Cor. 5:20,21 he writes ‘We implore you on Christ’s behalf; be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’

This last verse is often called ‘The Great Exchange’ because it explains that Christ takes our sin and in exchange we are credited with his righteousness - which is the perfect life of obedience that He actually lived. This total obedience included His willingness to die for us. His perfect life is credited to our account just as if we had lived it!

Christ did two things -

He died a sacrificial death so that we can be forgiven for our rebellion against God,

He provided a perfect life that could be credited to us so that we are morally acceptable to God!

So in reckoning our sin to Christ and reckoning his righteousness to us, God puts us right with Himself. That’s why 2 Cor.5 :19 says ‘God was reconciling the world [anyone who believes] to Himself in Christ.’

In Phil.3:9 Paul says ‘[I want to] be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from [keeping] the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

Now to answer the question everyone asks - ‘So don’t my good deeds matter at all?’ Answer: No! and Yes!

No! they do not count towards our justification - as we have seen. (If we ever thought they did, then we have a very poor view of God’s perfection. A hundred good deeds every day for a thousand years would never reach God‘s standard of holiness.)

And moreover! the good deeds we do after we have become justified cannot make us more justified. How could we add to what Christ did so perfectly? Trying to add to what Christ did would mean we believe His sacrifice was in some way insufficient or defective. God forbid!

But Yes! our good deeds do matter because we are saved in order to do them..

In other words, God did all the work for our salvation, so that then we could work for Him!

Our good deeds do not contribute to our salvation, but they should certainly follow it. Salvation is not by our good deeds but by faith; but saving faith results in good deeds. See the difference? We are saved by faith alone without good works, but saving faith results in good works.

The Apostle James is very concerned that we should understand this. He asks how God or any other person will believe that the faith we have put in our justification is genuine if there are no good deeds to show for it? He says ‘ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.’ Someone who claims to have been justified but shows no fruit of good deeds or purity of life is fooling themselves.

There are two very good reasons why we should be doing good deeds of every kind in the service of God….

(1) out of gratitude that Christ has reconciled us to God, forgiven our sins, and credited us with Christ’s perfect righteousness.

‘For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in who we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’ Col.1:13,14.

(2) because when God justifies us He gives us his Holy Spirit to live within us. The Spirit’s work is continually to remind us of what Christ has done, and to empower us to live a life that pleases God in service, purity and goodness.

‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ Gal.5:22

‘Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Gal.5:25

‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.’ Eph.4:30.

So you see, we are saved - put right with God - given eternal life - or justified (whichever way you like to put it) solely on the grounds of what Jesus Christ did for us - living and dying on our behalf. What we do is to put our trust in it: to entrust ourselves to Christ; to believe and live on the basis that it is all true: to believe and live and trust on the basis that when we face God on Judgement Day He will welcome us, not because of anything we have done, but only because of what Jesus Christ did for us.

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