“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” – Jesus
Christians worship the God who does things, not lifeless, immobile idols. Nor do we worship abstract ideas, immoral demigods, or whatever other gods we might make up in our minds. We worship the living God who “is always at his work to this very day.” And because God is good, the works that he does are good as well.
But not only does God do things, and not only are the things that he does good, God has called us as believers in his Son to do good works too. That is, just as Jesus said, “I too am working,” we should also be saying “I too am working.”
But what are these good works that God want’s us to do? To answer this question, the first thing we should look at are the good works that God himself has done, is doing, and will do as revealed in Scripture. The reason is because, while we will never do good works to the degree that God does his, we can learn important lessons about the nature and purpose our good works should have, and how they fit in with God’s overall good works.
Let us turn first of all to God’s good works in creation, for we live in them and experience the blessings from them to this very day.
God’s good works in creation
They began with speech, God’s speech
“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:3
God initiated his good works of creation through speech. “And God said…” occurs over and over again in the creation narrative. Creation is God’s speech as expressed in space and time and as such it contains information that God intends for us to understand.
This conviction that a rational God created a rational universe which can be comprehended by the human mind has formed the foundation of Western science for the last four hundred years. Science, a good work in itself, therefore simply susses out the rational expression of what God was thinking in those moments of creation.
Thus creation, as science demonstrates time and again, is made up of layers upon layers upon layers of information, that is, speech. We see this emphasis on creation as God’s speech again in John 1:1, where three times John calls the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the “Word” through whom “all things were made.”
The Psalmist eloquently describes creation as speech in Psalm 19.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)
They are self-evidently good
“And God saw that the light was good.” Genesis 1:4
God’s creative good works have a moral quality about them: they are self-evidently good. That is, creation does not just exist, it is good that it exists. When we see it, we think that it should exist. We are glad that it exists. We welcome its existence and want to learn everything we can about it. God’s creative good works automatically elicit from every person who observes them, including God himself, an irresistible “Yes!” Every time we stand in awe of creation, we are agreeing with God. Modern day conservation efforts are the logical conclusion of the self-evident reality that God’s creation is good and therefore should be protected from fallen humanity’s avarice.
They are powerful, orderly, brilliant, purposeful, cumulative, and regenerative
Besides expressing God’s goodness, God’s good works in creation reveal several other divine qualities. For example, they reveal his infinite power when he produces something out of nothing simply by calling creation into existence. Then, again simply by saying it, God brings order out of chaos. This order, as we learn daily through scientific exploration, displays infinite intelligence.
But there is more. God, in his creative good works, was not simply doing “random acts of kindness.” His creation has purpose, as we learn again and again throughout the Word of God. As such, God’s creative good works build on each other: out of darkness God creates light, then out of formlessness God creates heaven and earth, then out of the waters God creates dry land, and then in the land, sea, and sky God creates living things that reproduce.
And then God does something surprising with his good works: he employs free agency through covenant love to further them
We now come to the origin of human good works as God originally intended. God creates two unique animals who are also persons because they bear God’s image: Adam and Eve. God freely and lovingly makes a covenant with Adam and Eve because, as bearers of his image, Adam and Eve have free will.
The covenant God makes with Adam and Eve involves them procreating and filling the earth, as well as tending to the garden and enjoying its fruit, but also being sure to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that is in the midst of the Garden of Eden. If Adam and Eve keep this “agreement,” this covenant, they will prosper and live in their garden, but if they do not because they eat the forbidden fruit, God tells them they will die.
Therefore, keeping their covenant with their Creator-God encompasses all of Adam and Eve’s “good works” that God created them to do. Accomplishing God’s assigned good works for them is central to their existence. God’s good works are not something they do on the side while pursuing their own pleasure. Rather, doing God’s good works is their pleasure. Accomplishing them was the reason they exist, and they know it.
Thus, in a perfect earth prior to the fall, God employs free agency through covenant love to manage and expand on his good works.
And this is where we come in.
What we can learn from the creation account about the good works God has for us to do today
The good works God has for us to do today are based on his speech, which has now been expressed, not only in creation, but also in his inspired Word.
Like Adam and Eve, God has entered into a covenant with us, a New Covenant, with those of us who have put our faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, as our savior from our sin. (More on this later.) Like Adam and Eve’s covenant with God, our New Covenant encompasses all of the good works God has created us and saved us to do.
Our covenant with God involves an overall plan based on the gospel, the Great Commission, and the New Commandment, and includes some specific good works and some generalized good works.
When we do these good works, they are undeniably good to everyone who is watching, including unbelievers.
The good works God has for us to do are not just “random acts of kindness,” but purposeful, cumulative, regenerative, powerful, orderly and brilliant.
The good works God has for us to do fit in with, and expand on, God’s overall plan of good works.
The good works God has for us to do are the very reason for our existence.
And finally, like Adam and Eve, the good works God has for us to do produce life and joy and peace and beauty.
“We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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