This year, the overarching theme for St Mary’s News is “How to be a More Loving Community”. In the previous edition, the focus was on youth. For this edition, we are looking at how the Gospel leads to good works.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

We are saved from our sin by God’s grace through faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace, not by works. Unlike many other religions in this world which document a long list of good works that need to be done to achieve the necessary amount of merits to attain a favourable state, Christianity is different. Apart from God’s grace, the good works that we do are as worthless as filthy rags. Perfection is unattainable through our efforts and charity. The natural inclination of the human heart s evil as motivations for good works are often tainted with selfish desires and self-glorification. We are sinners and we cannot save ourselves.

Whilst there is a danger of resorting to legalism and good works as a means of salvation, there is also a danger of swinging to the other extreme of hyper-grace, which is not true grace at all. Hyper-grace gives the illusion of being saved despite an unrepentant heart that still clings on to sinful habits and behaviours. For those who believe in hyper-grace, they welcome Jesus as their Saviour but not their Lord. The irony is that they do not realise that Jesus died to set us free from slavery to sin, so indulging unrepentantly in sin is literally embracing the very evil that He has died to save us from.

As believers of Jesus Christ, we are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. Good works are not a means of salvation but the fruit of salvation. They are the evidence of the Spirit’s ongoing work in our hearts to transform us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. We are not perfect and we will stumble into sin now and again. But that does not mean that we can freely indulge in sin. We are work-in progress through the conviction of God’s Spirit in our hearts.

God’s Spirit enables us to obey God from the heart. He causes us to grow in our love for Him and for our neighbours. The good works that we do should be motivated by God’s love for others and not by our selfish desires. Let us abound in good works and charity as we primarily seek to bring the Gospel to a lost and dying world.

Yours truly in Christ,
The Editorial Team

In the Editorial Team: Joanne Liaw, Anthony Hughes, Melissa Raj, Jennifer Cowling, and Andrew Cheah.