Martin Luther famously said, “Every week I preach justification by faith to my people because every week they forget it.” Even today, Christians easily drift into relying on their good works to make themselves acceptable before God.
A clear example of this occurred shortly after Billy Graham’s death in 2018. In a radio talk show, two people expressed that they wished they had the credentials Billy Graham had to get into heaven. Yet, throughout his entire ministry, Graham made it clear that his salvation rested on nothing he had done; it depended solely on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. All Christians have the same credentials to get to heaven: the blood of Jesus Christ received by faith.
Justification by faith alone (apart from works) was central to Paul’s teaching. In passages such as Romans 4, he demonstrates that this doctrine was not a novel invention but was firmly grounded in the Old Testament. Abraham was declared right with God based on his faith alone, long before he was willing to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice (Rom. 4:3–4; see also Gal. 2:16 and Eph. 2:8).
It is noteworthy that although Hebrews 11 records many good works among the heroes of the faith, their commendation is grounded not in those works themselves, but in the faith that produced them (v. 2).
Regeneration, which accompanies justification, naturally results in good works that become part of a Christian’s nature, just as a tree naturally bears fruit. While these works can never earn one’s salvation, they do fulfill many God-given purposes.
Good Works: How Believers Follow Jesus
Good works are the primary way believers follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Peter makes this clear when he urges Christians to follow Christ’s example: “Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Pet. 2:21). While believers cannot follow Jesus in atoning for the sins of the world, they can follow Him in the way He “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), living a life of active love and service toward God and others.
Importantly, following Jesus is not the path to salvation; that would be salvation by works. Salvation comes only by grace through faith, falling before the cross, receiving forgiveness of sins, and being reconciled to God through Jesus’s finished work.
A drowning person does not need a swimming lesson but rescue. Likewise, a person must first be saved by Christ before they can follow Him. Good works are the fruit of salvation, not its root; salvation always comes first and then produces good works.
Good Works Glorify God
The Westminster Catechism accurately pinpoints the purpose of man: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Good works glorify God by blessing His creation, especially human beings who are made in His image. When Christians perform good works in the name of Jesus, they put God’s glory on display and serve as a powerful witness to His transforming work in their lives. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). Jesus does not so much issue a command to produce good works as He assumes that His followers will naturally display them.
At first glance, a tension appears when Jesus also says, “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matt. 6:3). This might seem to suggest that believers should keep all good works entirely hidden. However, the context clarifies His intent: Jesus is addressing the heart and motive behind our actions. He’s warning against practicing righteousness for the purpose of receiving human applause and admiration.
Jesus’s consistent teaching is that good works should be visible so that people may see them and glorify the Father in heaven (Matt. 5), but they must never be done for self-promotion or self-glorification (Matt. 6).
Good Works Fulfill a Purpose for Which Jesus Died
Jesus died to accomplish many things. Among them, Christ died to absorb God’s wrath (1 John 4:10), to demonstrate His love (Eph. 5:25), to bring His people to God (1 Pet. 3:18), and to make them holy (Col. 1:22). As the title of Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper suggests, these are only a few of the many purposes behind His death.
One reason often overlooked is that Jesus died so His followers would have good works. Immediately after saying that believers are saved by grace through faith and not works (Eph. 2:8–9), Paul added, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (v. 10).
In Titus 2:14, Paul directly connects Christ’s atonement to the believer’s good works: “He (Jesus) gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to provide for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Jesus died for His people so that good works would become the defining pursuit of their lives — ensuring not only that Christians do good works, but that they do them with genuine zeal.
Good Works Offer Evidence that Faith Is Genuine
Jesus taught that genuine faith inevitably expresses itself in obedience and action. He declared, “Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do” (John 14:12).
James develops this teaching further in James 2:14-26, warning against a counterfeit faith that is recognizable precisely because it lacks works. He states plainly, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (v. 26).
James does not contradict Paul’s teaching that salvation comes through faith apart from works. Rather, James affirms that faith alone saves, while also insisting that genuine faith is never alone — it is always accompanied by works. Such works do not contribute to justification, but they do demonstrate and confirm the reality of one’s faith. In this sense, works give credibility to a person’s profession of belief.
While Christians are called to do good works for many reasons and will be rewarded for them, they must never forget that God is the ultimate source of those works. To guard against boasting, Paul emphasizes that it is God who works in believers, both to will and to act according to His good purpose (Phil. 2:13). In recognition of this truth, the 24 elders cast their crowns before the Lord (Rev. 4:10–11).
— Walter Johnson is a retired dean of the College of Christian Studies at North Greenville University, where he taught and served for 32 years.