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Selected Messages Book 1
Good Works the Fruit of Faith
Genuine faith will be manifested in good works; for good works
are the fruits of faith. As God works in the heart, and man surrenders
his will to God, and cooperates with God, he works out in the life what
God works in by the Holy Spirit, and there is harmony between the
purpose of the heart and the practice of the life. Every sin must be
renounced as the hateful thing that crucified the Lord of life and glory,
and the believer must have a progressive experience by continually
doing the works of Christ. It is by continual surrender of the will, by
continual obedience, that the blessing of justification is retained.
Those who are justified by faith must have a heart to keep the way
of the Lord. It is an evidence that a man is not justified by faith when
his works do not correspond to his profession. James says, “Seest thou
how faith wrought with his works, and by works was his faith made
perfect?” (
James 2:22
).
The faith that does not produce good works does not justify the
soul. “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by
faith only” (
James 2:24
). “Abraham believed God, and it was counted
unto him for righteousness” (
Romans 4:3
).
Imputation of the righteousness of Christ comes through justifying
faith, and is the justification for which Paul so earnestly contends.
He says: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of
God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short
of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God....
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we
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establish the law” (
Romans 3:20-31
).
Grace is unmerited favor, and the believer is justified without any
merit of his own, without any claim to offer to God. He is justified
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who stands in the courts
of heaven as the sinner’s substitute and surety. But while he is justified