Today, the hosts talk amongst themselves about a topic that brings with it many common misunderstandings: the topic of good works.\u00a0 Some religious groups, such as Mormons and Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, teach that good works are a means by which a person can try to earn salvation.\u00a0 At the same time, it is all too common for Christians to embrace either legalism or antinomianism, placing either too much or not enough importance on good works.\u00a0 Thinking well about good works as a Christian requires keeping two theological categories in mind: justification and sanctification.\u00a0 When a person becomes a Christian, that person is declared \u201cnot guilty\u201d before God once and for all; God saves the person monergistically, by grace through faith.\u00a0 However, the person is saved into the process of sanctification, the synergistic process by which one grows to be more like Jesus.\u00a0 As this process goes on, the Christian is able to do good works, and should be zealous to do so out of gratitude and a sense of the fittingness of doing good.\u00a0 As branches on the Vine (Jesus!), Christians will naturally produce grapes (good works!), and they will be driven by the worthiness of God to do the good works He has prepared for them.<\/p>\n
These two categories of justification and sanctification must be linked, but not confused with one another.\u00a0 Otherwise, we lose sight of the glorious truth of the gospel!\u00a0 Not only that, but we lose a great tool in the work of evangelism.\u00a0 After all, as the hosts\u2019 stories testify, Christians doing good works (especially not out of any need to earn something) has an effect on recipients.\u00a0 It silences the foolish talk of evildoers, and even draws people to glorify God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So often our salvation and our sanctification are confused with one another. We are saved by grace alone, but we are also called to “do good works.” In this episode, the guys discuss the important distinction between the two. They also talk about why so many say the Sinner’s Prayer, but never show signs of “good works.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":281384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","tags":[],"post_series":[],"podcast_series":[11202],"speaker":[11188,11189,11190,11187],"podcast_topics":[11219,11211,11217,11218,11220],"class_list":["post-282163","episode","type-episode","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","podcast_series-season-1","speaker-emeal-zwayne","speaker-mark-spence","speaker-oscar-navarro","speaker-ray-comfort","podcast_topics-debtors-grace","podcast_topics-good-works","podcast_topics-justification","podcast_topics-sanctification","podcast_topics-sinners-prayer","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n