“It is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” John 14:10
I have a thought experiment for us to do. In our fallen world, what kind of good works would a perfect person, who has direct access to a holy God and his infinite power, do? A modern non-Christian might answer by saying he would be like Super Man, flying around and rescuing people in distress. But the problems with his mythical superman, of course, are that Superman is, well, mythical, and even as a myth he is unable to deal with our real problem: sin.
On the other hand, the wonderful Christian answer to that thought experiment is that we have a real, historical example of the kind of good works a perfect person who has access to a holy and infinitely powerful God, did in this fallen world. Indeed, that perfect person was Jesus Christ, God incarnate, “Immanuel,” God with us, the Second person of the Trinity. Everything he did in his lifetime was good. And everything he did, he did within the context of a sinful and depraved culture, all the while never compromising with that culture.
It will benefit believers, then, to pay close attention to Jesus’ earthly ministry and his good works, for we, too, as his followers, have direct access to the same holy and infinitely powerful God. And we, too, are called to do good works.
Jesus’ good works in the face of temptations
“We have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15
The first rule of doing good works is to not do evil works. Sadly, we often, but not always, do our evil works when we are under pressure. “I was tired when I said that.” “I was facing eviction when I stole that money.” “I deserted my fellow soldiers in battle because I was afraid to die.” “I was frustrated with someone when I slandered him.” “I was…” We excuse our evil works because we were under pressure and think that our true selves are who we are when we are not under pressure. “I’m actually a nice person,” we tell ourselves, “except when….”
But in reality, it is what we do and say while under pressure that reveals our true selves.
Picture two uninflated balloons lying limp on a table. They look identical in every way. But one of them has been pierced with a small needle, creating an invisible hole. How do we tell which one is the one with the tinny hole in it? You apply pressure. You can do this by simply filling them with water. As they fill up, the one with the hole in it will squirt water through its hole because it is under pressure.
Like the balloon with the hole in it, pressure reveals our true character…and its flaws.
The Bible tells us that Jesus, in his earthly humanity, was like us in every way. He looked just like any ordinary person might look (Isaiah 53:2). The only difference was that under the most extreme forms of pressure, he never sinned.
We may forget that Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness happened at the end of forty days of fasting. He was dying of starvation when he resisted Satan three times. But his temptations didn’t stop in the wilderness. Jesus was tempted throughout his ministry. In one example, Peter became a source of temptation, a “stumbling block,” to Jesus:
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Matthew 16:21-23)
Of course, the final temptation for Jesus was his death on the cross. We must remember that Satan did not want Jesus to die on the cross. He wanted Jesus to suffer and come down from the cross in rebellion against his Father. And yet, even under the most extreme circumstances possible, Jesus did not sin.
Jesus’ good works when announcing the Kingdom of Heaven
“From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17
Two questions: How far is Bethlehem from Jerusalem? Answer: 5.5 miles. How far is Babylon from Jerusalem? Answer: 1,314 miles. When the Magi, who had access to the great Head Magi Daniel’s prophetic writings (Daniel 5:11), trekked 1,314 miles from Babylon to Jerusalem and asked “Where is he who is born king of the Jews?” the religious leaders of Jesus’ day knew the exact answer to that question: Bethlehem, which was just a hop, skip, and jump from Jerusalem…and all downhill. Here is how the religious leaders of Jesus’ day answered that Bible quiz contest held by King Herod:
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”” (Matthew 2:1-6)
This passage tells us that when the Magi arrived, it was as if God had put up a giant billboard in Jerusalem that said, “Your Messiah and King is here! You can find him in Jerusalem! Go check it out!” All the chief priests and teachers of the law had to do to bring in the kingdom of God was to walk 5.5 miles to Bethlehem – about a two hour jaunt – and check out what Scripture and the Magi and God were telling them. But they didn’t do it. In fact, the only person who took the Magi seriously was Herod himself. And we know the disastrous consequences of that.
The indifferent response of the religious leaders in Jerusalem to the announcement of their messiah’s birth in Bethlehem foreshadowed the response of the entire nation to Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom thirty years later.
But unlike the Magi, Jesus’ proclamation that the kingdom of heaven was at hand wasn’t exactly a positive message. If he had just left things at “The kingdom of Heaven is here!” he may have gotten a better response. Instead, he preceded the good news of the coming kingdom with some bad news in the form of a command: “Repent!”
In the ancient Near East, when a king approached a city to visit, a herald would precede him, announce the coming of their king (which was called a “parousia“) and tell the citizens to get ready by repairing the roads leading into town. This practice is what John the Baptist was referring to when he announced the coming of the messiah, ““A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” (Luke 1:3)
Repairing roads for the coming king is also what Jesus was alluding to when he announced, “Repent! The kingdom of heaven is here.” Jesus and John were not referring to literal roads, but to moral propensities and sinful acts that made the reception of their coming king difficult, if not impossible.
Jesus was saying that the kingdom of heaven was first and foremost a moral kingdom, a kingdom where people were righteous and did righteous deeds. Hence the requirement that they repent of their unrighteous ways.
Of course, the problem wasn’t just their sinful acts that they needed to repent of, but their sinfulness, their sinful condition. They had to be born again. They needed a new spirit, a new heart, and a new mind to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven and only the cross could enable that kind of change.
Therefore, Jesus’ good work in announcing the coming of the kingdom of heaven was that he didn’t compromise the truth and mince words while doing so. He told his fellow Jews exactly what the kingdom required, knowing all the while that they wouldn’t – indeed couldn’t – fulfill that requirement.
Jesus’ good works through his teaching
“Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:7
There is a Christian saying that I first heard as a kid that I absolutely hate: “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good.” Nothing could be further from the truth. A believer who is heavenly minded is a believer who has been fully equipped to do heavenly good on earth.
In announcing the coming kingdom of heaven, Jesus was indeed “heavenly minded.” Therefore, it was only natural for him to follow up on his announcement with in-depth, explicit teaching about the nature of the coming heavenly kingdom and its implications for his people. To accomplish this task, Jesus used every opportunity he could to get his message across. He taught in synagogues, in homes, while walking from place to place, while sitting in a boat, while sitting at a well, and while visiting the temple in Jerusalem. He taught individuals, small groups, larger groups, and massive crowds. He used prose, commands, metaphors, similes, parables, and even curses – whatever it took to get his message of the coming kingdom across.
As a result, Jesus’ teaching upended the social and religious order of his day and reverberates through the centuries to this day. Jesus held his listeners spellbound and forced either a Yes! or a No! There was no middle ground. People either responded positively or negatively to him.
Just as radical as his teaching about the coming kingdom was his teaching about himself. Jesus called God his Father, referred to himself as the “I am” of the Old Testament, and claimed to be the fulfillment of messianic prophecy; the gate through which everyone must enter the kingdom of heaven: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, except through me,” he boldly proclaimed. (John 14:6)
Jesus never flinched. He called out sin wherever he found it and praised good wherever he found it as well. He knew what the consequences would be for speaking “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” but he did it anyway.
[Note: In this post I am only covering Jesus’ example of doing good works. I will cover Jesus’ explicit teaching on good works when I review the biblical teaching on good works as a whole.]
Jesus’ good works as expressed by his miracles and prophecies
““The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me [i.e., Moses] from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.” Deuteronomy 18:15
Jesus did the majority of his miracles to accomplish compassionate healing. He healed the possessed, the blind, the crippled, the sick, the lepers, and, as the ultimate healer, he raised the dead. One can imagine the constant joy and rejoicing in the crowds surrounding him as thousands of people experienced Jesus’ miraculous power to heal.
But Jesus did other kinds of miracles as well, and these miracles, along with his miracles of healing, had one main purpose: to reveal who he was to his disciples, to the religious leaders of his day, and to the entire nation. Some of the miracles Jesus did, he did in order to show that he was the prophet that Moses had promised to his people. For example, Jesus calmed the water and walked on water while Moses divided the Red Sea and walked through it with his people. Jesus fed five thousand men in the wilderness, along with their wives and children, while the Children of Israel ate manna in the wilderness as they were led by Moses. And, in his first miracle, Jesus turned water in stone jars into wine, while, for Moses’ first miracle, which happened in the presence of Pharoah, he turned the Nile River into blood, including “even the water in stone vessels.”
Jesus was no magician. And he certainly was not a mere entertainer. He was God Incarnate who did his miracles through the power of the Father who dwelt in him and who was working through him. While many of his miracles resulted in healing, the main purpose of all of his miracles was to reveal who he was: the Second Moses and the promised Messiah.
But Jesus didn’t just do miracles, he was also a prophet. Prophets in the Old Testament often made two kinds of prophecies: near prophecies and distant prophecies. Near prophecies were predictions that would come true during the lifetimes of the prophet and his listeners. Distant prophecies were prophecies that would come true in the distant future, often after the prophet and his listeners had died. Hence, the purpose of the near prophecies was to confirm that the giver of the prophecies was a true prophet and that the distant prophecies would indeed come true..
In Jesus’ case, the near prophecies he gave were prophecies of his coming suffering, death, and resurrection on the third day. Among the distant prophecies he made were prophecies concerning God’s judgement on Israel for rejecting him, the trials that the world would go through until he comes again, his return in glory, and the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. His disciples (and us) would have and do have the fulfillment of his near prophecies as confirmation that his distant prophecies will indeed happen as well.
Jesus’ good works in the face of rejection
“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” John 1:10, 11
I have another pair of questions for you. Here’s the first one: Does it require faith to do a miracle? Answer: Yes. In fact, we have an entire chapter in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 11, that talks about the miracles that believers have done by faith: “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” By faith Abraham…. By faith Isaac…. And so on. So, yes, faith is required to do a miracle.
Now here is the second question: Does it require faith on the part of onlookers to conclude that a miracle has happened? Answer: No, it does not. We see this clearly when Peter healed the lame beggar. In response, the Sanhedrin concluded: “What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.” (Acts 4:16, emphasis mine) The Sanhedrin had no faith in Jesus but still could not deny that Peter had done an amazing miracle in his name. In fact, if someone claims to do a miracle in your presence and then insinuates that you need to have faith when you doubt that a real miracle has happened, then it wasn’t a miracle. Real miracles are obvious and undeniable by everyone who sees them, even skeptics.
Since genuine miracles are undeniable even by skeptics, this causes them extreme mental tension when they see one. On the one hand, they want to hold onto their unbelief. But on the other hand, the miracle they witness cannot be denied, resulting in a type of spiritual and mental schizophrenia.
This state of extreme tension is what happened to the religious leaders during Jesus’ ministry as they personally witnessed over and over again his miracles. For example, the healing of the lame man by the pool of Bethesda happened right in Jerusalem. The raising of Lazarus from the dead happened a mile and a half from Jerusalem. And then there are the thousands of people whom Jesus healed all over the country. No one could deny the reality of these miracles, including the spiritual and political leaders of the nation. But these leaders still held onto their unbelief and they still rejected Jesus as their messiah.
Nevertheless, Jesus pressed on. In spite of the unbelief of Israel’s religious leaders, in spite of their threats, in spite of their aspersions, he continued to do what God called him to do, knowing full well what awaited him in the end.
Jesus’ good works in making disciples
Jesus did not just do miracles and teach. One of the most consequential things Jesus did was to recruit, train, and deploy disciples. By doing so, he duplicated his ministry and planned for the future, a future that, even when he was physically gone, would always have his disciples in it…even for centuries and millennia.
This does not mean that Jesus’ discipleship ministry was easy. It was not, even for Jesus. Many times his disciples simply did not understand his teaching. As a result, it took a while for them to comprehend his true nature. They often misunderstood his agenda. Sometimes they were rude (to children) and harsh (wanting to call down fire on someone) and quarrelsome (they often competed with each other over who was going to be the boss). At the end of his earthly ministry, all of his disciples eventually abandoned him and one of them betrayed him. Because they didn’t believe his teaching about his resurrection, Jesus’ disciples lived in fear and bewilderment when he did die, and were shocked when He rose from the dead. One of them even continued to doubt after Jesus’ resurrection.
But Jesus had confidence in his disciples. After he rose from the grave, he gave them the Great Commission to make disciples all over the world, and then he gave them the Holy Spirit to accomplish it.
And world-wide discipleship is in fact what has happened, and is happening, to this very day. For example, it is estimated that the number of Christians in China is growing by 7% to 10% annually.
Jesus’ good works by speaking truth to power
“At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.’ He replied, ‘Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people.'” Luke 13:31, 32
One thing that becomes clear when reading the gospels is that no one intimidated Jesus. For example, as early as the age of twelve Jesus felt comfortable engaging in discussions in the temple with the religious leaders of his day. “After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” (Luke 12:46)
When, as an adult, Jesus entered into ministry, he never changed his message in order to avoid conflict, often resulting in dire consequences: “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” (Luke 4:28-30)
Sometimes Jesus’ disciples worried about him offending the Pharisees. For example, Jesus had been teaching that it isn’t what people eat that defiles them, but what people say. “Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” (Matthew 15:12).
Jesus never flinched. He never held back. He never modified his message. And, most infuriating of all, he never lost an argument (i.e., see Mark 11:27 to 12:37). Jesus left his detractors, namely, the Pharisees and Sadducees, speechless, befuddled, and embarrassed when they tried to corner him.
The same applies to the political rulers of Jesus’ day. When the Pharisees tried to scare Jesus to leave the area by telling him that Herod wanted to kill him, Jesus dared to publicly call Herod a “fox.” And when he stood on trial before Pilate, Jesus boldly spoke about his kingdom (John 18:33-38).
Jesus’ good works that exemplify humility
“Here comes your king, riding on a young donkey.” John 12:15
“Jesus made himself nothing.” the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians (Philippians 2:7). This “emptying,” this kenosis, as theologians call it, began in heaven even before Jesus was born. It was there that he chose to lay aside the trappings of his deity and become a human being. The kenosis continued when Jesus was born into the human race of a virgin in a barn and lay in a feeding trough, wrapped in rags. His kenosis became even more evident when he and his parents had to flee as refugees into Egypt.
Then, at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus’ kenosis motivated him to be baptized in the same way sinful human beings are at their conversion. The kenosis continued when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days of intense temptation. Throughout his ministry Jesus’ kenosis continued to manifest itself in many different ways. He often slept outside as a homeless person. He felt more comfortable with ostracized sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes than he did with the religious leaders of his day. He berated the rich and sided with the poor time and again. Even at the height of his popularity, at the Triumphal Entry, when Jesus entered Jerusalem as a conquering king, he muted the whole event by riding through Jerusalem’s gates on a young donkey.
Jesus’ kenosis knew no limits. He continued to empty himself before his disciples by washing their filthy feet. And then he did the unspeakable, he died on a cross for the sins of the world. He emptied himself until there was nothing left to empty.
Jesus’ good work of gifting his disciples the Holy Spirit
“Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:20, 21
No one doubts the transformation that occurred in Jesus’ disciples after he was gone. Eleven previously weak, doubting, struggling, and contentious men suddenly, following Jesus’ Ascension, turned into bold, confident, fearless, and effective apostles who spread the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus throughout the Roman Empire. As a result, the church grew, and grew, and grew.
What happened? What caused this change in these men? What caused it was Jesus’ gift to them of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who permanently indwelled them. The Holy Spirit, these men would learn, convicts and regenerates us sinners, places us in the church, the body of Christ, empowers us with gifts, and comforts us through trials and temptations. It was the presence of the Holy Spirit in the apostles and in their converts that made them so effective. And it is still the presence of the Holy Spirit in believers today that makes us effective as well.
Jesus’ last good work before dying for our sins
“Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby.” John 19:26
One of Jesus’ good works, one that is near and dear to my heart, is his very last before dying for our sins. There is Jesus, suffering in extreme pain on the cross, yet he still summons the strength to guarantee the wellbeing of a widow and single mother — his own mother, Mary — standing there beneath him.
“When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” (John 19:25-37)
We sometimes forget when we read this story in John 19 that Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters (Mark 6:3). We even know his brothers names: James, Joses, Judas, and Simon. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, his brothers came to saving faith in him (Acts 1:14). His brother James became the head of the church in Jerusalem and his brother Jude wrote the book of Jude.
So the natural question is, why didn’t Jesus entrust Mary to one of his brothers instead of to John?
One reason may be because John was the only apostle not to be martyred and it would be more difficult for the authorities to find and kill Mary if she were not cared for by her own family. While that may be true, I believe there was another reason Jesus asked John to care for his mother: he wanted to show all of his followers how widows and single moms in the church should be treated, namely as if they are our own mothers and our own sisters.
Jesus explicitly taught this truth to his disciples: “Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’ …Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, ‘Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.’ ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does Gods will is my brother and sister and mother.’ (Mark 3:20,21; 31-35, emphasis mine)
As a result of Jesus’ teaching and example, the early church took him quite literally, as we see in 1 Timothy 5:1, 2, “Treat … older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” And then, immediately following this exhortation, Paul gives us an example of what it means to treat older women as if they are our mothers in a long passage about qualifications for the “widows list.” (1 Timothy 5:3-16) In other words, when Jesus said to John “Behold, your mother,” he was not just concerned about his mother, Mary, but also giving us a powerful example of how all believers are to guarantee the wellbeing of our fellow believing widows and single moms.
What God’s good works in Jesus’ earthly ministry teach us about the good works he has for us to do today
“ Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12
There is so much to say about Jesus’ life of good works that I will try to summarize this material by saying that Jesus is our perfect paradigm for good works. In everything we do for the glory of God, we should look to Jesus as our example. Here are some key takeaways:
We must be born again and filled with the Holy Spirit to do the kind of good works Jesus did
Jesus did not do his own good works. He did the Father’s good works through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our good works are also to be an expression of the Triune God working through us: being born again through faith in Jesus, and then Jesus interceding for us, the Father blessing our work, and the Holy Spirit leading and empowering us. Walking in fellowship with the Triune God while doing his good works makes us unstoppable.
Jesus’ attitude of humility is everything when doing God’s good works
We cannot do God’s good works when we are full of ourselves. The good works God calls us to do always involve emptying ourselves of ourselves, only to discover a greater fullness than we could ever have imagined, the fullness of God himself.
Discipleship is the goal of good works
Proper discipleship is helping believers become more and more obedient to Jesus’ teaching and more and more like Jesus himself. The only legitimate legacy for a Christian is a legacy of obedient, Christ-like disciples.
Our good works should focus on the poor and sick, especially in the church
Jesus eschewed the rich and powerful and focused on the lower classes and the sick. But, oddly, Jesus also taught that “the poor will always be with you.” He said this because the world in general, and his own people in particular, had rejected him and poverty would be one result of that rejection.
But among his followers, Jesus taught that we are to love each other and sacrifice our lives for each other so that his church can say, “There is no needy person among us.” While poverty is a characteristic of a Christ-rejecting world, the absence of poverty is a characteristic of a Christ-accepting church. (Titus 3:14)
Our good works should aim to heal relationships
Jesus’ humility in washing his disciples’ feet was a good work done for the purpose of reconciling himself to his disciples. At the same time, he gave us his New Commandment: “Love each other as I have loved you.” Humbly seeking reconciliation with any we are estranged from is a critical good work.
I have only scratched the surface when it comes to analyzing Jesus’ good works and applying them to our own lives. I haven’t even discussed Jesus’ explicit teaching on good works, which I will do later in this series. But I hope this discussion has motivated the reader to look to Jesus in prayer and seek his guidance in relation to the good works he has for us to do.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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