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A Gift that Moves Us

Are you shepherding your flock for good works?

The Work of Shepherds (7)

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2.10

Christianity and Liberalism
J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937)
“Faith, then, according to the Christian view, means simply receiving a gift. To have faith in Christ means to cease trying to win God’s favor by one’s own character; the man who believes in Christ simply accepts the sacrifice which Christ offered on Calvary. The result of such faith is a new life and all good works; but the salvation itself is an absolutely free gift of God.”

Where true faith has been exercised, and the glorious gift of forgiveness and eternal life genuinely received, there a life of good works will follow. That our preaching these days does not urge this upon believers is obvious by the absence of abundant good works within the Christian community. We cannot truly know ourselves – wretched, blind, rebellious enemies of God – to have been saved by grace through faith, and not be overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude and a desire to please, motivated by gratitude. Good works issue from salvation; they do not eventuate in it. But if good works are not issuing, then how can we know for certain that we have been saved (Heb. 6.1-9)? Liberals had it wrong by suggesting we could be saved by good works. Evangelicals have it wrong by suggesting we can be saved without them. Faithful shepherds know better.

Where do you point the people you serve in order to help them discover those “good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”?

T. M. Moore

The Law of God
The righteous person meditates in the holy and righteous and good Law of God by day and by night (Ps. 1; Rom. 7.12). This is how the consciousness of sin is restored. But which parts of the Law? And how can we do this? Order a copy of our compilation, The Law of God, and there you’ll find the commandments of the Law arranged with their supporting statutes for daily meditation (click here). Still not convinced the Law is all that important? Order a copy of The Ground for Christian Ethicsfrom our online store (click here).

The Fellowship of Ailbe is supported through the generous and faithful gifts of those who benefit from and believe in our work. Does the Lord want to use you in this way? Please look to Him in prayer over this question. You can contribute to The Fellowship of Ailbe by using the Contribute button at our website, or by sending your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Drive, Essex Junction, VT 05452. Thank you.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.All quotations from J. Gresham Machen,
Christianity and Liberalism(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1923, 1974).

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore

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