Quote of the Day

The Bible assuredly knows nothing of those qualms about good works, by which we only try to excuse ourselves and justify our evil works.  The Bible never draws the antithesis between faith and good works so sharply as to maintain that good works undermine faith.  No, it is evil works rather than good works which hinder and destroy faith.  Grace and active obedience are complementary.  There is no faith without good works, and no good works apart from faith….But all our good works are the works of God himself, the works for which he has prepared for us beforehand.  Good works then are ordained for the sake of salvation, but they are in the end those which God himself works within us.  They are his gift, but it is our task to walk in them at every moment of our lives, knowing all the time that any good works of our own could never help  us to abide before the judgment of God.  We cling in faith to Christ and his works alone.  For we have the promise that those who are in Christ Jesus will be enabled to do good works, which will testify for them in the day of judgment.  They will be preserved and sanctified until the last day…From this it follows that we can never be conscious of our good works.  Our sanctification is veiled from our eyes until the last day, when all secrets will be disclosed.  IF we want to see some results here and assess our own spiritual state, and have not the patience to wait, we have our reward.  The moment we begin to feel satisfied that we are making some progress on the road of sanctification, it is all the more necessary to repent and confess that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.  Yet the Christian life is not one of gloom, but of ever increasing joy in the Lord.   God alone knows our good works, all we know is His good work……The believer will be justified, the justified will be sanctified and the sanctified will be saved in the day of judgment…The fruit of their liberation from sin through the death of Christ is that whereas they once surrendered their members as servants to iniquity, they may now use them in the service of righteousness unto sanctification (Rom.6:19-22)  ……How does this come to pass?...How can the sinner become righteous without impairing the righteousness of God?  The answer is that God justified himself by appearing as his own advocate in defense of his own righteousness……The justification of the sinner therefore consists in the sole righteousness of God, wheirin the sinner is utterly and completely unrighteous, and has no righteousness whatever of his own, side by side with the righteousness of God.  Whenever we desire an independent righteousness of our own we are forfeiting our only chance of justification, which is through God and his righteousness, God alone is righteous….The ground  for our justifcation is the justification of God.  "That thou [i.e. God] mightest be justified in thy words, and mightest prevail when thou comest to judgement" (Rom. 3:4).  All that matters is that God's righteousness should prevail over ours, that God's righteousness should be maintained in His own eyes, and that he alone should be righteous.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer