Motivating Good Works by Desire to Please God Rather Earn Salvation
Motivating Good Works by Desire to Please God Rather Than Earn Salvation
The concept of motivating good works by a desire to please God rather than earn salvation is rooted in biblical teachings and has been developed across various Christian traditions. According to 1 Peter 3:17, believers are encouraged to suffer for doing good if it is God's will, indicating that good works are valued but not as a means to earn salvation [1].
The distinction between doing good works to earn salvation and doing them to please God is crucial. The Reformed tradition, as represented by John Calvin, emphasizes that good works are a response to God's grace, not a means to attain it. Calvin notes that God's acceptance of good works is not based on their inherent merit but on His gracious acceptance of believers in Christ [2]. Similarly, the Westminster Confession of Faith states that good works, though imperfect, are accepted by God because of Christ, and they necessarily follow from a true and lively faith [5].
In contrast, the Catholic tradition, as represented by Thomas Aquinas, understands good works as a necessary response to God's grace, but also emphasizes the role of human cooperation with that grace. According to Aquinas, human preparation for grace is both from God and from the free will of the individual, suggesting a synergistic view of salvation and good works [4].
The Protestant Reformation emphasized that salvation is by faith alone, not through good works. The Augsburg Confession, a Lutheran document, teaches that without the Holy Spirit, human will has no power to work spiritual righteousness. Good works are seen as a fruit of faith and the work of the Holy Spirit [6]. The Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles also affirm that good works follow justification and are pleasing to God in Christ, serving as evidence of a lively faith [7].
The early Church Fathers also addressed the issue. Augustine, for instance, is quoted as emphasizing that good works are a result of faith and that they are done to glorify God, not to earn salvation. one tradition notes that the righteous are those who, having received the gift of faith, live a life of good works [3].
Sources
- I Peter “I Peter 3:17 (LITV) — For it is better, if the will of God wills it , to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 72: agreement to the observance of his law. I admit, therefore, that the works of the faithful are rewarded with the promises which God gave in his law to the cultivators of righteousness and holiness; but in this reward we should always attend to the cause which procures favor to works. This cause, then, appears to be threefold. First, God turning his eye away from the works of his servants which merit reproach more than praise, embraces them in Christ, and by the intervention of faith alone reconciles them to himself without the aid ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 6: Augustine — Homilies on the Gospels — [LIV. BEN.] (part 4): may be the righteousness of God in Him."(3) Whence also he finds fault with the Jews in these words, "Being ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God"(4). Whosoever then wish their good works to be so seen of men, that He may be glorified from whom they have received those things which are seen in them, and that thereby those very persons who see them, may through the dutifulness(5) of faith be provoked to imitate the g”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part of the Second Part (Prima Secundae), Of the Cause of Grace, Art. 3: Article: Whether grace is necessarily given to whoever prepares himself for it, or to whoever does what he can? I answer that, As stated above (Article [2]), man's preparation for grace is from God, as Mover, and from the free-will, as moved. Hence the preparation may be looked at in two ways: first, as it is from free-will, and thus there is no necessity that it should obtain grace, since the gift of grace exceeds every preparation of human power. But it may be considered, secondly, as it”
- Westminster Confession of Faith (Reformed) “Westminster Confession of Faith (Reformed, 1646), CHAPTER 16 (part 2): in this life wholly unblamable and unreprovable in God’s sight; but that he, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections. 7. Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands; and of good use both to themselves and others: yet, because they proceed not from an heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word; nor to a right end, the glory of Go”
- Augsburg Confession (Lutheran) “Augsburg Confession (Lutheran, 1530), 1 Of Free Will they teach that man’s will has some liberty to: 1 Of Free Will they teach that man’s will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness, and to work 2 things subject to reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness; since the natural man 3 receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2:14; but this righteousness is wrought in the heart when the Holy Ghost is received 4 through the Word. These things are said in as many words by Augustine in his Hypognosticon,”
- Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (Anglican) “Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (Anglican, 1571), Section 231: Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's Judgement; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith; insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.”