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By
the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Bridgewater,
Massachusetts, May 27, 2001
Ezekiel
18:1-4, 21-32 The soul that sins will
die
The
word of the Lord came to me: "What
do you people mean by quoting this
proverb about the land of Israel: 'The
fathers eat sour grapes, and the
children's teeth are set on edge'? As
surely as I live, declares the Sovereign
Lord, you will no longer quote this
proverb in Israel. For every living soul
belongs to me, the father as well as the
son--both alike belong to me. The soul
who sins is the one who will die. . . .
"If
a wicked person turns away from all the
sins he has committed and keeps all my
decrees and does what is just and right,
he will surely live; he will not die.
None of the offences he has committed
will be remembered against him. Because
of the righteous things he has done, he
will live. Do I take any pleasure in the
death of the wicked? declares the
Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased
when they turn from their ways and live?
"But
if a righteous person turns from his
righteousness and commits sin and does
the same detestable things the wicked
person does, will he live? None of the
righteous things he has done will be
remembered. Because of the
unfaithfulness he is guilty of and
because of the sins he has committed, he
will die.
"Yet
you say, 'The way of the Lord is not
just.' Hear, O house of Israel: Is my
way unjust? Is it not your ways that are
unjust? If a righteous person turns from
his righteousness and commits sin, he
will die for it; because of the sin he
has committed he will die. But if a
wicked person turns away from the
wickedness he has committed and does
what is just and right, he will save his
life. Because he considers all the
offences he has committed and turns away
from them, he will surely live; he will
not die. Yet the house of Israel says,
'The way of the Lord is not just.' Are
my ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it
not your ways that are unjust?
"Therefore,
O house of Israel, I will judge you,
each one according to his ways, declares
the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away
from all your offences; then sin will
not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of
all the offences you have committed, and
get a new heart and a new spirit. Why
will you die, O house of Israel? For I
take no pleasure in the death of anyone,
declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and
live!"
Revelation 20:11-15; 21:1-4 The New
Jerusalem
Then
I saw a great white throne and the one
who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled
from his presence, and there was no
place for them. And I saw the dead,
great and small, standing before the
throne, and books were opened. Another
book was opened, which is the book of
life. And the dead were judged according
to what they had done as recorded in the
books. The sea gave up the dead that
were in it, and death and Hades gave up
the dead that were in them, and all were
judged according to what they had done.
Then death and Hades were thrown into
the lake of fire. The lake of fire is
the second death. Anyone whose name was
not found written in the book of life
was thrown into the lake of fire.
Then
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for
the first heaven and the first earth had
passed away, and there was no longer any
sea. I saw the Holy City, the new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God, prepared as a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband. And
I heard a loud voice from the throne
saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with people, and he will live
with them. They will be his people, and
God himself will be with them and be
their God. He will wipe every tear from
their eyes. There will be no more death
or mourning or crying or pain, for the
old order of things has passed
away."
And
I saw the dead, great and small,
standing before the throne, and books
were opened. Another book was opened,
which is the book of life. And the dead
were judged according to what they had
done as recorded in the books.
(Revelation 20:12)
This
morning, on our last regular service
before Children's Sunday and our summer
informal services, we will conclude our
three part series on The New Jerusalem
with a somewhat briefer look at
spiritual living, and how we are
"saved." And as we have done
for the last two weeks, we will put the
teachings of our church on this subject
in contrast to the teachings of
traditional Christianity--especially
those of the Evangelical wing of
Protestantism. In this area, the
teachings of the Catholic Church are
actually closer to ours than Protestant
teachings, since the Catholic Church has
always taught that it is not only
necessary to have faith in the Lord in
order to be saved, but also to live a
good life.
Unfortunately,
for several centuries before the
Protestant Reformation, the Catholic
Church had a somewhat mechanical view of
what it means to do the good works that
are part of living a life that leads to
heaven. They began to act as if we could
"buy" our way into heaven
through certain ritualistic "good
works" prescribed by a priest--and
by making large monetary contributions
to the church in return for a priestly
forgiveness of sins.
It
was largely in response to this kind of
corruption in the Roman Catholic Church
of the Middle Ages that Protestant
Reformers such as Luther and Calvin came
up with the idea that faith alone saves.
As I mentioned in my sermon two weeks
ago, this idea is specifically denied in
the Bible. However, the Reformers needed
a distinct doctrinal break with Rome.
The doctrine of faith alone provided
that doctrinal break, while tearing down
the false idea that we can buy our way
into heaven.
The
doctrinal term for buying our way into
heaven is "meriting" heaven.
You see, the idea had grown up in the
Christian Church that if we just did
enough of the good works that the church
teaches us to do, those good works would
counterbalance our sins. It was very
much like piling more weights one side
of a balance beam type scale than on the
other. If we had committed, say, a dozen
sins, then we needed to do at least a
baker's dozen of good works in order to
tip the balance toward heaven instead of
toward hell.
However,
though the Bible does reject faith
alone, it also teaches us very clearly
that salvation is a pure gift of God,
and is not given to us in return for
anything we have done. For example, Paul
says:
For
it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith--and this not from
yourselves; it is the gift of God.
(Ephesians 2:8 )
And
in another place:
God
has saved us and called us to a holy
life--not because of anything we have
done but because of his own purpose
and grace. (2 Timothy 1:9)
Jesus
also teaches us that we do not
"merit," or deserve heaven
because of the good things we do in
obedience to God. He says:
Suppose
one of you had a servant plowing or
looking after the sheep. Would you say
to the servant when he comes in from
the field, "Come along now and
sit down to eat"? Would you not
say instead, "Prepare my supper,
get yourself ready and wait on me
while I eat and drink; after that you
may eat and drink"? Would you
thank the servant because he did what
he was told to do? So you also, when
you have done everything you were told
to do, should say, "We are
unworthy servants; we have only done
our duty." (Luke 17:7-10)
We
are servants of the Lord. And when we
have done everything the Lord tells us
to do, we do not deserve heaven for what
we have done any more than anyone
deserves special recognition simply for
doing their job. Heaven is not anything
we can buy through our efforts. It is a
gift from the Lord, given to us simply
because the Lord loves us and wants us
to be happy.
This
leaves us with a bit of a conundrum. In
Revelation, where it describes the
judgment, doesn't it say, "The dead
were judged according to what they had
done"? Yes. In fact, the Apostle
Paul, who is so often misquoted as
teaching that faith alone saves, not
once but three times says the same
thing: that we are judged and justified
according to what we have done (Romans
2:8, 3:15; 2 Corinthians 5:10). So if
heaven and salvation are a pure gift of
God, how can we be judged for heaven or
hell according to what we have done?
To
get past this conundrum, it first helps
to know that there are at least three
reasons to do good works that have
nothing to do with deserving and wanting
to be rewarded with heaven:
-
Because
God commands us to do them (from
obedience)
-
Because
it is the right thing to do (from
understanding)
-
Because
through them, we show God's love to
others (from love)
If
we do good works--or good
actions--simply because God tells us to,
we're not thinking of reward; we are
thinking of doing what pleases God. If
we do what is good because we know it is
the right thing to do, and that life
goes better for everyone that way, we
also are not thinking of buying our way
into heaven. And especially if we do
good things for people because we love
the people around us and love to do the
Lord's work in serving them, we actually
become sad if people think we are doing
these things just to get something in
return.
The
fact is, as long as we are thinking
about getting a reward for the good
things we do, we can never truly enjoy
doing them. It is like getting a job
just for the money, when we really don't
like the kind of work we have to do in
that job. Oh, we'll struggle through the
week and do our duty, but it really will
be a struggle. The whole time, we'll be
counting the days and the hours until
Friday comes around so that we can get
our paycheck, go home, and not have to
work for a couple of days.
It
is the very same way if the "good
works" we do are motivated entirely
by a desire to get into heaven. If all
we're thinking about is all the heavenly
bliss we're going to have after we die,
then we're not enjoying ourselves right
now, as we do our good deeds for
others. And the irony is that this kind
of "good deeds" doesn't
get us into heaven. Why? Because when we
are doing them, we're not thinking about
how we can make others happy, but how we
can make ourselves happy. We're not
acting from love for our neighbor, but
from love for ourselves, because all
we're thinking about is how we can get
ourselves into heaven so that we'll be
eternally happy sitting on those clouds
and strumming those harps!
Perhaps
when we first start out as Christians,
we may be motivated to do good things
for others because we hope to get into
heaven. But before long, we need to move
past that "baby Christian"
stage and start doing good things for
others simply because the Lord commands
us to, because we know it is the right
thing to do, and more and more because
we truly love the people around
us, and want to do whatever we can to
make them happy.
When
we get to that stage, we hardly even
think about whether we'll get into
heaven or not. More and more, we are
experiencing heaven right here and
right now. We no longer drag through
our daily tasks. Instead, we find a joy
even in simple, repetitive tasks,
because we are thinking of the people
whose lives will be made a little
happier and a little more comfortable
because we have done them. Yes, the
paycheck is nice--and we do need it to
get along in this world. But if we are
doing "good works" in the true
spirit of heaven, we would continue to
do our daily tasks even if we were
independently wealthy and did not have
to worry about money for food, clothes,
housing, and so on. In fact, if we were
prevented from doing things to serve
others, we would feel that life was not
worth living.
It
may seem as if we've gone off on a side
track from the original question about
how good works could be necessary to
salvation when heaven and salvation are
a pure gift from the Lord, given to us
out of love. But really, we have stayed
right on track. Because our good deeds
are not something we do so that we will
deserve heaven. Instead, our good deeds
are an integral part of being in
heaven.
The
greatest reality in heaven is also the
central reality of God: love. And love,
as Swedenborg says, is wanting to make
others happy, and feeling their joy as
joy in ourselves (Divine Love and
Wisdom #47). Serving others by doing
good things for them is a necessary part
of heaven because that is the only way
we can truly feel heaven's joy. If we do
not show our faith in the Lord through
doing good deeds for others as the Lord
commands us to do, we cannot be saved
because we have rejected from our lives
what makes heaven and salvation within
us. We have rejected God's love because
we have refused to show that love to
others.
Do
we need faith to be saved? Yes! It is
only by turning to God and recognizing
that everything good and true comes from
God that we open ourselves up to the
source of all goodness, truth, and joy.
Do we need to do good works to be saved?
Yes! Not only does God command us to do
good works, but it is when we are
serving others because we love them that
the love of heaven truly takes up
residence in our souls.
Are
we saved by our faith and works? No! We
are saved by the love of the Lord.
Then why do we need to have faith and do
good works? Because the Lord is standing
at the door of our lives and knocking,
and it is only when we believe in the
Lord and follow his commandments that we
open that door so that he can come in,
and dwell in our souls. Amen.
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