Should we teach that good works come with saving faith?

From Gospel Translations

The following is an edited transcript of the audio. 

Should we teach that good works come with saving faith?

I don't think that question will ever be settled at the experiential level. You may settle it in a group with some sentences that are biblically grounded, but the reason it won't be settled experientially is because human beings are wired to be legalists. We are wired to trust in what we do as the ground of our assurance.

Now along comes a gospel preacher who says, "Christ died for your sins and he provided a righteousness, so that all of your guilt can be taken away and all the righteousness that God requires of you can be provided totally by another. And this forgiveness and righteousness is received totally by faith alone." Then he follows it up in a subsequent message, saying, "The faith that justifies justifies by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone. It will always be accompanied by graces like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control."

And as soon as you say that this faith is going to bear fruit, people shift back into their legalistic mode of "Oh, I see. We're really justified by our works." And it takes a lifetime of fighting that battle.

Let me give you an illustration. Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, is really good at preaching the gospel to legalists and lechers. (Lechers are people who just give way to their appetites.) He said something recently that was so helpful when I heard it. He said that in New York you have to preach the gospel to lawless people (lechers), and that in your preaching to lawless people you have to defend the gospel against legalism. Now people will say, "Why? This is not their problem! These people are not legalists. They're doing what feels good to them everyday. They're totally sold out to their own immediate satisfaction, and you're saying that when you preach the gospel to them you need to preach against legalism?"

His response is, Yes. And the reason is that if you tell them that the way they're living is wrong, the only alternative in their head—as a natural person—is rules. That's the only thing they they're going to think of. They don't have a gracious life. They cannot bring the gospel out of their brain. The gospel is supernaturally given, it is supernaturally explained, and it is supernaturally experienced. If you don't tell them that the alternative to their life is not legalism, that's the only default mode they know to go to.

Therefore, to preach the gospel to legalists or to lechers, you have to distinguish it not only from a lawless life but also from a legalistic self-reliant life.

I'm saying all this to say that we'll never be done with the battle to teach that justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis of Christ's righteousness alone. This is the case because, when people hear the gospel, they are prone either towards lechery, saying "Let us sin that grace may abound," or to fastening on more rules that default back to their legalistic mode.

It is very difficult to help people grasp a life of faith. "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20). That's a mysterious way of life, and we want to try and help people understand it by distinguishing it from lawlessness on the one hand and legalism on the other.

We're going to be doing that until the day we die.