Dr Paul Allen

What is good work? and, What role do good works play in the Christian life? The Apostle Paul often explains that good works do not—in any sense whatsoever—play into a person’s right standing before God (Rom. 4:1–8; Eph. 2:8–9; Phil. 3:7–9; Titus 3:4–7). Isaiah unequivocally said, “All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isa. 64:6).  However, Scripture also explains that believers have been “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph. 2:10), that we are to be “zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14; 3:1), and that Jesus commends the righteous for what they do for His sake (Matt. 25:31–36). So, how do we reconcile the fact that we are not accepted on the basis of our good works and yet that God accepts our good works though they are imperfect and tainted by sin? It is impossible that we who were all born “dead in sins and trespasses” can fulfil the legal conditions of the covenant by rendering to God perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience to His law. Nothing less tha...

What was the primary battle cry of the sixteenth-century Reformation? It is the unifying point of classic, historic evangelicalism: justification by faith alone, sola fide. Anyone who calls himself an evangelical, historically speaking, is saying by that title, “I believe in the doctrine of justification by faith alone.” Justification has to do with repairing the damage that sin creates in our relationship with God. It describes how we are declared just in the sight of God because God is holy and requires righteousness from His people. Since we fail to meet that requirement, we either stand under God’s judgment or we are justified in His sight. We are justified through the imputation of the merits of Christ so that the basis of our justification is the righteousness of Jesus alone. I want to call our attention to what I think is a great distortion of justification by faith alone. Incidentally, this is the very thing the Roman Catholic Church feared from the teaching of Martin Luther. T...

Human character is clearly tainted by sin, but the debate is about the extent of that taint. The Roman Catholic Church holds the position that man’s character is not completely tainted, but that he retains a little island of righteousness. However, the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century affirmed that the sinful pollution and corruption of fallen man is complete, rendering us totally corrupt. There’s a lot of misunderstanding about just what the Reformers meant by that affirmation. The term that is often used for the human predicament in classical Reformed theology is total depravity.  People have a tendency to wince whenever we use that term because there’s very widespread confusion between the concept of total depravity and the concept of utter depravity.  Utter depravity would mean that man is as bad, as corrupt, as he possibly could be. I don’t think that there’s a human being in this world who is utterly corrupt, but that’s only by the grace of God and by th...

Human good works play a tremendously important role. There can be no salvation whatsoever without good works, and your good works are crucial to your salvation. Now, how can a Protestant make a statement like that? First of all, good works are absolutely crucial and are, indeed, necessary for salvation because God requires good works to save anybody. Those good works are supplied and provided by Christ , who in His perfect humanity earned the infinite merit of God—the reward of which is the very basis of my salvation. Without Christ’s righteousness , I am in very big trouble. So my salvation, initially, is grounded upon good works— Jesus' good works. What about my own good works? Do they have a role? Most Protestants would say no. Justification is only one part of salvation. Salvation is the big word. Salvation is the word that covers all of the process by which God fully brings us to total redemption. Justification is that point in the process when God declares me a per...

Wesley understood entire sanctification, or perfection in love, then, as a continuum of grace and response that leads persons from the guilt and despair of their sin to the knowledge of God and, by faith in His grace in Jesus Christ , to the crisis moment of the justification and the new birth. The life of sanctification springs from the regenerated life created by the new birth and continues as the Holy Spirit through His gracious ministry calls them to moment-by-moment obedience to the will of God, which is the expression of His holiness and love. In this part of the Christian’s progress in obeying the will of God and conforming to the mind of Christ, the remains of the rebellion and fallenness create conflict and often depression.  The nature is still corrupted by a systemic illness that makes a free and ready response to the love of God a source of contention in the inner volitional being. The volitional powers have to be cleansed from the effects of the Fall, which ...

Along with the great theologian and philosopher Anselm of Canterbury we ask the question, Cur deus homo ? Why the God-man ?  When we look at the biblical answer to that question, we see that the purpose behind the incarnation of Christ is to fulfill His work as God’s appointed Mediator.  It is said in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus , who gave Himself.…” Now, the Bible speaks of many mediators with a small or lower case “m.” A mediator is an agent who stands between two parties who are estranged and in need of reconciliation.  But when Paul writes to Timothy of a solitary Mediator, a single Mediator, with a capital “M,” he’s referring to that Mediator who is the supreme Intercessor between God and fallen humanity. This Mediator, Jesus Christ, is indeed the God-man. In the early centuries of the church, with the office of mediator and the ministry of reconciliation in view, the church had to deal ...

Wisdom does not come automatically with age. You’ll find plenty of foolish old fogies out there. For many aged saints, gray hair and a good head go hand in hand. But for others, far too many others, length of life only entrenches stubbornness, irritability, and careless ways of thinking and living. Life experience may increase inevitably with age, but without some long-term pattern of receptivity and intentionality, multiplied experiences will only create more confusion than clarity. For Christians in particular, the stakes are even higher for cultivating holy curiosity and the mindset of a lifelong learner. Teaching and learning are at the very heart of our faith. To be a “disciple” means to be a “learner.” Our Master is the consummate teacher, and the central task of his undershepherds in the local church is teaching (Titus 1:9; 1 Timothy 3:2; 5:17; Hebrews 13:7; Matthew 28:20 ). God designed the church to be a community of lifelong learners under the earthly guidance of leaders ...

How do we distinguish the promptings of the Spirit of grace in His guiding and governing of our lives from the delusions of the spirit of the world and of our own sinful heart? This is a hugely important question if we are to be calm and confident that the spirit with whom we are communing really is the  Holy  Spirit. John Owen suggests four ways in which the Spirit and the serpent are to be distinguished: The leading of the Spirit, he says, is regular, that is, according to the  regulum : the rule of Scripture . The Spirit does not work in us to give us a new rule of life, but to help us understand and apply the rule contained in Scripture. Thus, the fundamental question to ask about any guidance will be: Is this course of action consistent with the Word of God ?  The commands of the Spirit are not grievous . They are in harmony with the Word, and the Word is in harmony with the believer as new creation. The Christian believer consciously submitted to the ...

English: Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The object of Christianity is not to sin less, but to glorify God more. It is not to somehow stop ourselves from doing the bad things we really want to do, but to find ourselves craving to do what pleases God. Titus 2:13, 14 — … our great God and Savior Jesus Christ … gave Himself for us, that He might … purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. The way of the cross is the way of potent tenderness. Jesus had all power, yet He came to serve, not to be served. Paul says that “in lowliness of mind” one should “esteem others better than himself” ( Phil. 2:3). Titus 3:2 — … to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. Titus 3:8 — … those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works .… “ Good works ” become bad only when we try to use them to earn the favor of God. In their proper place, however—as evidence of the salvation God provided...

“[ Christ ] gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people , zealous of good works .” ( Titus2:14 ) If one were to ask why Jesus died, the average evangelical would usually say that He died to save us from our sins. It is true that “Christ died for our sins ” ( 1 Corinthians 15:3 ), but this is not the whole answer, by any means. Too many Christians think of the death of Christ only in terms of what it means for them—not what it meant to Him. Our text says that He died for us and redeemed us from iniquity, not just to keep us from going to hell, but to “purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Paul says: “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living” ( Romans 14:9 ). He wants a people who will have Him as Lord of their lives. “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; . . . That he might present it to himself a glorious ch...