Good Deeds by Faith

I was listening to an older sermon by Alistair Begg on Hebrews 11 in his Portrait Gallery of Faith series. As many of you know, Hebrews is my favorite book of the Bible. Alistair made a point that really made me stop an think. Verse 4 says “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.”

So we stopped for a moment and looked at Cain and Able’s sacrifices that they offered to God in Genesis 4. Verse 4-5 says “The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.”

Hebrews 10 talks about how we are to encourage one another on towards love and good deeds. This raises the question, what is the difference between the good deeds of those who believe and those who don’t believe?

Going back to Hebrews 11, it says that by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice. Neither Hebrews nor Genesis mentions that Cain offered his sacrifice by faith. So… it is by faith and in obedience that we offer our good deeds to God. And it is by faith that God looks on them with favor. An unbeliever’s good deeds (or sacrifices) may look just as good as a believer’s good deeds – on the outside. Good deeds are in fact good. But it is by faith that they become acceptable to God.

For some reason this really made me stop and think. Possibly, because somehow the “good deeds” or “good works” that the Bible talks about often leads me to think of planned, specific things of good that I ought to be doing. When in reality, I really don’t feel all that sure about what I am doing. It makes me stop to think about why am I doing what I’m doing. First of all, am I doing good things. If I am doing something good, am I doing it just because it is something good? Or am I doing good in the faith that is required for it to be acceptable to God?

I don’t know if I can clarify the difference. Good for the sake of goodness is nice, but good in response to the faith I have in God’s mercy towards me and the justification of my sin and unworthiness is better. Doing good because I don’t want to look bad is not a good reason to do good. But doing good for the purpose of worship towards God is a good reason.

Not only that, but doing good in the faith of Hebrews 11 (the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen) is doing good…

without seeing the results,
without knowing the where you are going,
without worldly acknowledgment…

with the hope of being acceptable to God,
with reverence and in response to God’s mercy,
with obedience to what God has called me to do.

Now, for some reason, it is so much clearer to me. I know I have heard many a sermon on this before. But you know how for some reason, this time it really clicks? The light bulb has been turned on.

Hmm, this is kind of in line with my memorizing of Romans 8. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”… nor any condemnation of their good deeds.