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Chapter 17
5. Increasing Faith
—You have to talk faith, you have to live
faith, you have to act faith, that you may have an increase of faith;
and thus exercising that living faith you will grow to strong men and
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women in Christ Jesus (
Manuscript 1, 1889
).
10 (
Ephesians 1:6
;
2:8-10
;
2 Timothy 1:9
;
Titus 2:14
;
3:5
;
James 2:22
). Good Works No Plea for Salvation
—Our accep-
tance with God is sure only through His beloved Son, and good
works are but the result of the working of His sin-pardoning love.
They are no credit to us, and we have nothing accorded to us for our
good works by which we may claim a part in the salvation of our
souls. Salvation is God’s free gift to the believer, given to him for
Christ’s sake alone. The troubled soul may find peace through faith
in Christ, and his peace will be in proportion to his faith and trust.
He cannot present his good works as a plea for the salvation of his
soul.
But are good works of no real value? Is the sinner who commits
sin every day with impunity, regarded of God with the same favor as
the one who through faith in Christ tries to work in his integrity? The
Scripture answers, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them.” In His divine arrangement, through His unmerited
favor, the Lord has ordained that good works shall be rewarded. We
are accepted through Christ’s merit alone; and the acts of mercy, the
deeds of charity, which we perform, are the fruits of faith; and they
become a blessing to us; for men are to be rewarded according to
their works. It is the fragrance of the merit of Christ that makes our
good works acceptable to God, and it is grace that enables us to do
the works for which He rewards us. Our works in and of themselves
have no merit. When we have done all that it is possible for us to
do, we are to count ourselves as unprofitable servants. We deserve
no thanks from God. We have only done what it was our duty to do,
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