Kingdom Expression

Written by Trisha Khoo

It is not difficult to fall into the trap of thinking that salvation is the end all of Christianity; that when we say the sinner's prayer and we come into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, we are set. If that were the case, then the giants of the New Testament like Peter, Paul and John would not have had to do anything to spread the gospel. They could have sat back and relaxed; after all, they had already encountered the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet the Bible is clear that while we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we are saved for a multi-facetted purpose that is largely to glorify our Father in Heaven.

Perhaps one of the key goals as a Christian is that of good works so that God can be glorified. We see this term "good works" used often in the New Testament. In Ephesians 2:10 we are told that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works and in Titus 2:14, Paul teaches that Jesus redeemed us, His own special people who are zealous for good works.

In Singapore especially, we are very familiar with the term "work". The reality is that many of us work too much. But our 9 to 5 job is not the kind of good work God is asking us to do. Very often, the daily grind takes so much out of us that we have no more energy to do anything else.

What we need to know is that we do not manufacture good works. These are natural result of the work of God in our hearts (Phil 2:13). Further, these are also "prepared" (Eph 2:10) by God for us. God Himself has a plan for our lives that is a piece of His all-encompassing big picture. If we walk in the good works that God has prepared for us, we would be walking in His will.

Knowing this then, we can say that perhaps a mindset shift is necessary to see that good works is a natural outflow of our relationship with God. When we are in that relationship with Him and He is working in us, what we will see is an unexplainable zeal to do only what is pleasing and glorifying to Him. This may be simply sharing the gospel with a colleague or sharing your testimony with someone who really needs to hear a real life example that God exists. It may be lending a helping hand to a friend in need or praying with a family member who is down. If we were attentive to what God is doing around us, we would see opportunities along the way to shine the light of Jesus in our dark and corrupt world.

So let us then continue to be fruitful in every good work (Col 1:10) that these "spiritual sacrifices" will be found pleasing to Him (Heb 13:16).