STT| Even Your Best Works Aren’t Part of Your Righteousness (HC LD 24, QA 62-64)

Christians do good works by God’s grace and Spirit, but do good works count toward their righteous standing before God? Is Christ our righteousness or are Christ and our good works our righteousness? Tune in for comfort for the soul.

CLARIFICATION: When I say at the end of the podcast, “will reward us with grace when our race is finished” I am not talking about us meriting the grace of God in any way. What I mean is that the reward we receive for our good works will be all grace and no merit. Our reward is pure grace (HC 64).

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR FAMILY WORSHIP: (1) What difference would it make if we believed that Christ was 99.9% of our righteousness and our good works were only 0.1% of our righteousness? (2) Do you believe God demands 100% purity and perfection to be considered righteous under the law? Discuss. (3) If we obey 99.9% of the law, but fail in only 0.1%, are we considered obedient or righteous (James 2:10)? (4) Considering HC 64 and the associated Scriptures, why is it a straw man to say that justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone encourages people to sin?