The story is told about a godly priest of the Church of England named Jeremy Taylor. One day Taylor and another clergyman were walking along a street in London when they saw a filthy, drunken man lying in his own vomit and filth. Taylor's companion remarked that it was shameful that one of God's creatures, created in His image, should sink so low as to lie unconscious in his own filth. Jeremy Taylor is reported to have said, "There, but for the grace of God, lies Jeremy Taylor." 

Jeremy Taylor was not speaking from his own nature. It is natural to be disgusted and scornful of such human weakness. Jeremy Taylor was speaking from the regenerated heart of one born from above. It was the Spirit of Christ speaking through him. We see here a total absence of self-righteousness in Taylor. He realized the truth that we all must come to in the end: "In me, that is, in fallen human nature apart from Christ, is no good things." 

It is only human to want to get credit for what we accomplish; it is only natural for human pride to take credit for anything good that happens to us. And a certain amount of pride is not sinful. For example, we can be justly proud when we do a good job, or when our children are strong, healthy and athletic. We need enough self-respect to inspire us to do our best, and it is good when accomplishments are rewarded. A normal healthy pride in a job well done is a good thing. And we can identify with Bishop Taylor's companion that he felt a certain satisfaction that he was not the one lying there in the street. 

But Jeremy Taylor felt something else. He felt deep compassion for the man, a compassion born of the Life of Jesus in him, and he felt a humble gratitude that God had preserved him from such a condition. He was, of course, like his friend, happy that he was blessed; but he was also profoundly aware that it was God's blessing, and nothing he could boast of, that had made the difference. His whole reaction to the failure of another human was compassion, humility, and GRATITUDE. 

I. The fact is that we cannot please God in our natural state. The natural state of everyone born as sons and daughters of Adam is called in the Bible, "the flesh."

Paul says, in Romans 8:7, "For the carnal mind [he means the mind we are all born with] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."   

He means that we humans, by our very nature, want to go our own way, be our own gods; and we do not want anyone, even God, telling us what to do. And we want to save ourselves, give ourselves credit for everything good.  When God commands us to sacrifice our will for His, He becomes our enemy. So even when we are good and moral, it is always on our own terms, always to make us look and feel good. 

But God declares all our works to be "dead works" (Heb. 6:1; cf. James 2:17 "dead faith"), and declares the "All have sinned and regularly come short of God's standard" (Rom. 3:23 paraphrase). Even our most noble deeds are motivated by self and count for nothing in our justification. "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight" (Rom. 3:20). 

Read Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that is not from yourselves; it is a gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast.   

So the fact that our salvation is of grace, and not our own doing, excludes all boasting and pride. It is not based on some worth in us, or on something we have done; it is God's free gift based on our trusting in Jesus Christ. 

II. Where do good works come in, then? If our salvation is not based on what we do, then what makes us want to do good works. In a word, GRATITUDE: the same kind of gratitude that Jeremy Taylor felt when he compared his life of joyous Christian service to that wasted life of the drunken man lying in the street. 

Someone has said, "The whole religion of the New Testament is grace; and its ethics is gratitude." Over and over Paul begins his epistles with a teaching on what God has done for us, then the latter part of the epistles show us what we are to do for God. (Romans 12:1ff.; Eph. 4:1ff.; Phil. 2:1ff.;  Col. 3:1ff.) 

The tension  between faith and works has filled many books and has been the subject of many sermons and lessons. Some argue for works and others argue for faith.  But if we substitute for works the word OBEDIENCE, the problem becomes clearer. Those who teach that we can be saved without obedience do so in clear contradiction of Scripture.

Satan is a liar and he has spread two particular lies about faith and works:  1) What you believe is not important as long as you live right; and 2) What you do is not important as long as you believe right.         

But, of course, we are to trust and obey.  We must repent [turn from sin] and believe. 

Faith and obedience (works) are both necessary, for "faith without works is dead" (James 2:17). No one can be saved by a dead faith anymore than by dead works. Faith is the root of good works; obedience is the fruit of faith; faith and works go together and each without the other is dead, ineffectual. Although it is strange to say, it true that "Good works do not save us; yet we cannot be saved without good works." Who would preach that we can be saved without obeying God? Some come very close to preaching that. but they do so against a mass of Scripture evidence. No. The faith that lays hold of God for eternal life is a faith that commits itself to God's will. Saving faith involves two acts of the will: It trusts in God for salvation. That is, the soul depends on God to save it, knowing that it cannot be good enough to save itself. And it entrusts (gives over) to God its right to chose for itself. The believer's life is no longer his own: he trusts Christ for salvation and entrusts to Christ his very life.

Let's put it this way: We are not saved initially by works, but by faith alone. But the faith that saves WILL OBEY GOD. Indeed, the very purpose of salvation is good works, and not the other way around. In other words, we are saved by faith so that we will do good works; we are not saved by good works.

Eph. 2:8-10: ""For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that is not from yourselves; it is a gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

Titus 2:11-14:  "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of  the great God and Savior Jesus Christ; who gave himself to for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people of His own, zealous for good works."  

 We are saved for good works, not by good works; saved for obedience, not by obedience.  And yet it is easy to see that saving faith is incomplete without that for which it is given. The whole Christian life can be summed up like this:

 "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Gal. 5:6). Amen. God bless you.