It is disturbing to come across evangelicals whose default position when they hear the expression "good works" is to go into a somewhat aggressive attack on them. This is by no means unknown in Sydney evangelicalism, and Stephen Westerholm tells a joke — perhaps rather inadvisably — about the Lutheran who wondered why he had been condemned, until he remembered that he had once done a good deed.

Some clarity of thought is surely in order. We will start with the negative, that "by works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20), Sometimes the illustration is given that a ladder will not get us to heaven. That is true, but in the case of good works the problem is not with the ladder but the climber,

It is because of our fallen sinful nature that God's demand for us to be holy is not a proclamation of salvation but of judgment.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph. 2:8-9

Good works would have kept Adam in a state of grace they cannot enable us to regain a state of grace,

To turn to the positives Ephesians 2:10 goes on to tell us: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." We are not saved by works done by us in righteousness (Tit. 3:5), but we are to devote ourselves to good works (Tit.3:8). Good works show that our faith in Christ is a true and living faith (James 2:26). When Christians meet together, we are meant not just to be taught from the Word but to stir up one another to love and good works (Heb. 10:24). We are to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour (Tit. 2:10), so, says Paul, "let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful" (Tit. 3:14).

We know that we know Christ — meaning, we have assurance — if we keep His commandments and walk as He walked (1 John 2:1-6). Assurance without good works is presumption, a counterfeit assurance. Good works also provide a kind of window to the world, that it may see our good works and give glory not to us but our Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16). When we bear fruit by abiding in the vine, who is Christ, we glorify the Father (John 15:1-10. The Scriptures are not given just to help us make an informed decision, but to equip us for every good work (2 Tim. 3:17). In short, it takes a determined misreading of the Bible to think that God has not commanded us to abound in good works.

Furthermore, any downplaying of good works is a distortion of the message of the Reformation, which proclaimed its colas of grace alone, faith alone, the Scriptures alone, Christ alone, and to the glory of God alone. In his 1520 treatise, The Freedom of a Christian, Martin Luther wrote of good works; "we cherish and teach them as much as possible". In Luther's view, as in the Bibles (Gal. 5:6), love was to flow from faith;

being justified beforehand by faith, we ought to do all things freely and joyfully for the sake of others," His message was that "Our faith in Christ does not free us from works but from false opinions concerning works.

It is not evangelical to trust in good works, but neither is it evangelical to despise good works. Standing nowhere else save on the firm foundation of the free unmerited grace of God in Christ Jesus, we are to delight in good works for our own assurance, to help other Christians, to be a witness to the world, and to glorify God in heaven.