Month: July 2026

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Let’s Talk about Works

“For in Christ Jesus . . . The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” — Galatians 5:6 NIV

Amid our zealous defense of salvation by grace through faith alone—and specifically not by our good deeds1— we sometimes give short shrift to the divine call and command to Kingdom works. For when we are born of the Spirit through faith in Christ, we step into our purpose to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”2 Our earthly lives have heavenly purpose! Note our call is not to pursue our good ideas for God, but submit to His plan working through us. It is a matter of submission to Him, or what the apostle Paul calls, “the obedience that comes from faith;”3 and “the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ.”4 Faith and works are inseparable. As James rhetorically writes, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”5

But here’s the problem: Our flesh—our sin nature—is self-centered and disinclined to love selflessly. Paul writes to believers in Rome, “the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed it cannot.6 To the Galatians, he pens, “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”7 Something inside wants to do good, but our desire to be served trumps our desire to serve. And sometimes our desire to serve is born out of selfish motives, e.g., to earn God’s approval by our goodness instead of receiving His approval by His grace. How can we do the selfless work of love when our flesh is anything but selfless? Paul points out the way: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”8

Then how do we live by the Spirit and not our inwardly focused inclinations? We must be transformed from the inside out. Personally, I think transformation starts here: “We love because he first loved us.”9 Don’t read this in an obligatory “quid pro quo” sense, rather when we come to accept and humbly receive the eternal truth of God’s intense love for us—all of us together and each of us individually—our hearts change. We see things as they truly are and we orient ourselves accordingly. We “set our minds on the things of the Spirit.”10 And the renewal of our minds is in itself transformational, aligning our will with God’s.11 This is His work in us; He will do it.

Father, thank you for your intense love for us. It is beyond comprehension, though true. May your Spirit indwell us, conforming our desires to your own. Your will be done. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Ephesians 2:8-9
2 Ephesians 2:10 NIV
3 Romans 1:5 NIV
4 2 Corinthians 9:13 NIV
5 James 2:18 NIV
6 Romans 8:7 ESV, emphasis added
7 Galatians 5:17 ESV, emphasis added
8 Galatians 5:16 ESV
9 1 John 4:19 ESV
10 Romans 8:5 ESV
11 Romans 12:2

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We Must Be Changed and by God’s Grace We Are

It was about 30 years ago that I became an Ohio State football fan. Hailing from Michigan and a Wolverines devotee, this was hitherto unthinkable and completely unforeseen. But as our son Matthew grew up here in Columbus, his home team loyalties grew fast and deep. So I took him to a few OSU football practices, where some players signed autographs and engaged him in conversation; he even returned balls for the kickers on an occasion or two. Eventually, I found myself thinking, “How do I root against these guys? They’re treating my son like their kid brother.” My transformation was incremental: Initially, I’d root for Ohio State except when playing Michigan, but even this sole exception eventually changed. Over time, my Michigan regalia dwindled while my OSU garb grew.

Our spiritual transformation, likewise, moves us steadily from what we were to who we are. Paul reminds the Corinthian church of their own before-and-after: “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”1 Their sin had once defined these believers, but their inner change—from what they had been to who they were now—had begun through cleansing, purification, and a right standing before God in Christ. Note the passive voice: God was the changer; the believers were the changed. This grace would continue to them as it now does to us.

All mankind has this one purpose in life: to bring God glory.2 Yet on our own, every single one of us fails, in that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”3 And if our sin nature glorifies God at all, it is only in that it magnifies his holiness by contrast. We know God does not turn a blind eye to sin, so is it His heart to distance us for our falling short of His majesty? No, the Lord’s gracious response is to make us “more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”4 This is selfless love, a forgiving love, a love we must open ourselves to understand and humble ourselves to receive. For we must be changed, and by God’s grace we are.

Father, you have included in Christ all who believe in Him. Thank you for making us more and more like Him. Fill us to overflowing, that people would see Jesus in us and seek Him for themselves. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV, emphasis added
2 Isaiah 43:6-7
3 Romans 3:23 ESV
4 2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT

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Liking What We See in the Mirror

I’d never seen a man look so tortured as did this inmate on a Kairos Prison Ministry Weekend. Joseph1 was in his early 40s at the time, yet his back bent over and his shoulders hung low as though ladened with an impossible load only he could see. His contorted facial features betrayed relentless angst with no relief. I later learned he’d been so burdened by his crime that the only reason he did not take his own life was his insistence that he suffer. But when Joseph walked into the prison chapel the Sunday morning of that Kairos Weekend, his face glowed. I speak not of a visible light source as measured in lumens, rather the beacon of joy beaming as one forgiven in Christ Jesus and liberated by the Spirit of God. He said, “When I looked in the mirror this morning, for the first time in 19 years I liked what I saw.” I saw Joseph many times over the next several years, and his smile never waned.

In 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, Paul contrasts the glory of God’s old covenant of the Law given to us through Moses and the glory of God’s new covenant—His Spirit living in us through faith in Christ. The old came engraved on tablets of stone; the new is engraved in human hearts. The old brought condemnation, but the new gives us right standing before God. The covenant of law brought certain death, for we could not keep it, but the Spirit in us is life. And though the old covenant brought glory—for Moses had to veil his glowing face before the people—it was yet fading; the surpassing glory of the new covenant, however, shines forever. The apostle then asserts: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”2 From glory to glory: we are released from lockup under the Law3 and raised to freedom in the new covenant in Christ. This is true of all who believe in Him.

Yet “glory to glory” holds another promise for us in the sense that our transformation into the image of Christ yields in us ever-increasing glory, a refined splendor radiating from the inside out. As our old self perishes, our new self flourishes. Peer into your mirror. Has the Spirit of God been working in you what is pleasing to Him”?4 Isn’t He faithful in this way; can you now see it? If not, ask Him to show you. Then praise Him for His transforming work in your life. Enjoy what you see.

Father, you are at work in us, both to will and to work for your good pleasure.5 This is love and for this we thank you through lives submitted to you. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1, This name is changed for privacy purposes.
2 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NASB
3 See Romans 7:6
4 Hebrews 13:21
5 Philippians 2:13