Blogging through the Articles of Religion: OF GOOD WORKS, featuring guest blogger: Tony Ares

Article X - Of Good Works

Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit.

I have no better words to explain good works than those of my long-distance brother from another mother, Tony Ares.  

The following is an article in it's entirety from Tony's afreshword.org 

Rich Son, Poor Son

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭8-9‬ KJV)

One of the hardest spiritual obstacles that Christians have to overcome is the “works based” mindset. Today many so called Christians are going to church, volunteering and giving money in order to get to heaven. They work to get to heaven, instead of working gratefully because of what Jesus did to get them to heaven.

An analogy or metaphor that I have embraced is that of the rich son and the poor son.

A poor son is taught to “grind” because he has to if he wants to be successful. The poor son is defined by his works. If the poor son doesn’t work, he is assigned a room in his private version of hell on Earth. The poor son is dependent on himself and his labor to make it on this planet.

The rich son is born successful. He is taught to work hard not to be successful but to be thankful! He is thankful for the family that he was born into. The rich son is not defined by his works but his family name. (Think Rockefeller, DuPont or Kennedy.) If the rich son doesn’t work, he will disappoint his Father and besmirch the family name, but he will still be in the family and he will still be loved. The rich son works hard because excellence is his identity. The rich son works because of who his daddy is.

We should go to what we call ‘church.’ We should help in the community. We should witness the Gospel. We should give. We should do all of that! We should do that because it’s what a true Child of God does. It is our identity. We should never do those things in order to “make it”.

I was raised in a poor neighborhood. I identify every day with the working class or the poor man. Physically Jesus wants us to be empathetic to the needy. From a soteriological and spiritual perspective though, I am retraining my brain to think of myself as a rich son. Why?

-Cause my daddy in heaven is RICH!

-I am going to heaven, not because of my works but for the family name….Jesus!

I work hard for the family business not to be saved but for the love and appreciation that I have for my daddy!

(paraphrase of Galatians 4:1-7)

Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they own everything their father had. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

- See more at: http://afreshword.org/search/rich#sthash.iD5bPjaC.dpuf

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 29: 13

Proverbs 29: 13     The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The Lord gives light to the eyes of both.

Proverbs 29: 13.  This scripture highlights a contrast and a connection between two socioeconomic classes.  The classes here are the poor and the people who keep them poor in order to profit from their poverty. 

Now, immediately something rises up in some  of you that says, “Wait a minute now.  Poverty isn’t somebody else’s fault.  Some people are poor because they are lazy or because they make bad decisions.” 

Granted.  And the Bible speaks to those situations, but the Bible also speaks to the very real situations in which poverty is the product of oppression, not laziness, not stupidity, not sin. 

The whole counsel of God demands that we see the poor in a more nuanced light.  They aren’t all simply the lazy dregs of the far-right or the innocent invalids of the far-left.  The Bible points out poverty is a bit of both.

The poor and their oppressors are contrasted in Proverbs 29: 13 as the robbed are contrasted to the robbers.  But they are also connected by the common work of God. 

God’s light shines on the poor and oppressed just as brightly as it shines upon the rich and corrupt. And, vice versa.

God’s mercy, God’s grace, God’s longsuffering offer of another chance to do things right are always available to the bottom rungs of society.  That same mercy, grace, and another chance are equally available (and needed) at the top of ladder.

When the opposing classes meet in the course of business they assume positions of spiritual superiority.  The tenant thinks, “God will definitely let me into Heaven because I’ve suffered so much , and He will definitely send my landlord to Hell because he’s made me suffer.”

The slumlord thinks, “God doesn’t care about these people or why would they suffer?  Surely God loves me more because He’s kept me from being like them.”

Both are wrong.

God shows the same light and Truth to slumlord and to tenant, to disenfranchised citizen and to corrupt politician, to middle-classed drug dealer and to homeless addict.  The light of God’s Word shines on the Truth that: ALL are sinners.  ALL  have come short of God’s standard (Romans 3: 23).  ALL need to repent and be saved in through Jesus Christ because God loves ALL of us (2 Peter 3: 9).

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

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