Why Do Good?

 

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV).

 

Yesterday I wrote about our “adoption.” The reading was taken from the previous chapter to that which I have selected for today. I have often been asked what the motivation was to do good if our behavior has nothing to do with God’s choice to adopt us. Well, let’s see if I can adequately answer that question in the brief space afforded me in this format. The short version is simply that we do good because we have made the children of God. We do good because we are good.

 

This is certainly the way of creation. Dogs act like dogs because they are dogs. You don’t start acting good to try to be good; you are made good by the adoption of God into His family and that makes you good and that allows you to behave with good. If we follow Christ, we have a relationship with God that is bound to be expressed in our relationships with other people. But we often forget that. We can easily create barriers in the name of race, religion, gender, churches, communities, families, friend groups, and more. While these differences can help us think about who we are, our sinful nature distorts them in such a way that we put up walls that divide us. We should celebrate diversity, but it should not lead to division.

 

Through Christ’s work on the cross, we are united as his peo­ple once and for all. Unless this is the case, there is no good news. Unless this is the case, we are lost in our sin — excluded from the kingdom and separate from Christ. Unless this is so, we are powerless to do good. It is not compensation to God, it is the declaration of who we are. God has already prepared each act… go ahead, just be who you were chosen to be!