Good Work
How good are you? By “good,” I guess I mean, holy, sound, interiorly fit. I am not talking about skills in function. I am speaking about righteousness, wholeness, completeness. If I were answering, I would want to say, how I am relative to my mere guess of how good other people are. I would want to say, “I am not the best, but I am sure I am not the worst.” Having said that, I would then admit that I was saying very little.
If the point of reference is the holiness of God, I must sheepishly, accurately answer, “I possess no goodness worth mentioning.”. Even if the standard is what God declares in the creation account, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) I would consider myself to have slipped ever so many notches. I would give myself a low mark. Oh, wow, this is depressing.
It would have to stay only depressing, except for the little things we like to call, redemption and sanctification in the theology of the New Testament and Early Church writings. As Christians, we think of the healing and “holy-making” favor of Christ to be working within us and among us perpetually. We say that the coming of the Son of God, and all elements of the earthly life of Jesus from his birth through his ascension, constitutes his saving work. We claim that this work was effective. What Christ offers supplies what we need to be healed of sin. Christ also offers an ongoing effect, pulling us toward complete Christlikeness.
We are under the continual influence of the free gift, restorative favor, and energy called grace. Christ is credited for the righteousness he has worked upon our souls. When the Holy One looks upon us, what is visible is the holiness of the Son of God which envelops us. But there is more. We are concerned not only with the finished redemption God has accomplished for us. We are vitally concerned with the restoration God is working in us over time within our daily experiences. This part takes our cooperation and effort. It involves our human will. We have to decide to be good. We have to choose to reflect the love of God, indeed, to allow love to overflow in the actions of our lives.
On me, oh my! We have work to do. In the opening line of Ephesians chapter four, see how Paul begs Christians “to lead a life worthy of the calling to which [they] have been called.” There is a line matching that in the Postcommunion Prayer of the traditional rite in our prayer book (page 339): “And we humbly beseech thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in.”
Now, look at a few lines of our Epistle lesson for this Sunday. Notice Paul’s sense that Christ is working in us, and that we must work as well in concert with the Savior:
I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ…And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:6, 9-11)
Challenged with the question, “How good are you?” we need not sink into depression even though our mark based on our own earned status of righteousness is low. We lean on the good imbued in us from the Creator, the goodness Christ has worked into us by his life-saving work, and the ongoing grace of the Holy Spirit on our sanctity, to “bring it to completion” and to foster our “love to overflow more and more” and to produce “the harvest of righteousness”. This is amazing! Let me answer it for you: How good are you? You are very good, thank God. And as you willingly cooperate with the Spirit, you are better every day. Nice work!