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Faith by Works

by Jerry Ousley  
5/23/2014 / Christian Living



There was a woman who was miserable. Years ago she had fallen in love with her husband to be. He was the perfect man, or at least that's what she thought then. He was well organized, never missed a day's work and provided for her and their children as well as anyone could have asked.

But now she wondered. His sense of organization had put high demands on her. He wanted his clothing washed a certain way and it had to be neatly folded and placed in just the right spot or hung in his closet perfectly. He expected their home to be spotless and even though that is nearly an impossibility when you have three young children in the house, somehow she managed to adequately fulfill his wishes, although he never failed to remind her if he did find something out of order. She felt trapped and in her heart nearly hated him because of his rigidity in the matter. Still, she continued with her duties, although inside she did them reluctantly.

One day there was a knock at the door and on the other side stood a policeman. He had bad news. Her husband had been involved in an automobile accident on his way home from work and was instantly killed. Of course it was a loss to the family and despite his demands he would be sorely missed.

As time passed she met another man and fell deeply in love. They were soon married. This man was very different from her first husband. He had no demands and told her to keep the house the way she wanted. As long as there was food to eat and the bills were paid he had no problem with it.

On a certain day, while her kids were at school and her new husband was at work, she had done the laundry. She was neatly putting away her husband's clothes when it dawned on her that she was doing it exactly as she had done for her first husband. "How odd," she thought. The tasks that had been demanded of her by her first husband, those jobs and peculiarities she had despised, she had continued doing but not because she was expected to; now she did them because she wanted to. It made all the difference in the world.

Our faith is like that. Before Christ people were required to do things a certain way in order to please God. It wasn't that our Heavenly Father was so demanding, but it was because He was putting His people through a time of teaching, letting them know how much they needed a Savior. Good works were a requirement and severe punishment was issued if they were not performed.

Then came Jesus. He suffered, died and was resurrected so that we could be free from the bondage of sin and free from the Law. We now have the opportunity to be saved by grace, acknowledging that no works are good enough, or even come close to paying for our salvation. We are indeed free at last!

Paul taught grace. James comes along and tells us that our faith without works is dead. But the difference is found in the message of the story of the woman. God does want us to do good works. They should become natural expressions of our faith. They cannot possibly save us. They don't necessarily make us a better Christians, or more holy than another believer. They don't rack up brownie points with God. We are no longer required to do them in order to please God or earn a place in Heaven. But a true believer in Christ, because of the compassion now instilled in his or her heart, and because of Christ dwelling in us, if we are really letting Him live in us and being obedient to Him, they will become a natural characteristic of our faith. As we allow Christ to live through us, we will become a blessing to others because our faith is not dead. We know because of all the good acts of faith good works, flowing from us.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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