Audio Download

The Two Works of Scripture: Part 2, The Work of God and Works Wrought in God

[Study Aired April 29, 2026]

Recap and Orientation

In Part 1 we established that Scripture recognizes two categories of works that no natural effort can produce — the one proceeding from the old man, the other from the indwelling Spirit. The natural man, proceeding from the living soul rather than the quickening spirit, produces only “dead works” — a category broad enough to include moral evil, works of the flesh, religious activity, and even the commanded ordinances of the Mosaic law, all of which fail to justify the man who performs them. Romans 7 disclosed the personal crisis: the will is present but the power is absent, and the cry of the chapter is for deliverance, not improvement.

Part 2 now turns to the resolution. If the old man cannot work the works of God, can the works of God be worked at all? The answer Scripture gives is both simple and staggering: yes — but only when the Worker Himself is received. The work of God is believing on the One whom God has sent. From that single act of receiving the Son, a new order of works begins — no longer originated by the natural man, no longer offered as the basis of our acceptance before God, but wrought in God through the indwelling Spirit.

The Hinge: What Is the Work of God?

The decisive question is asked in the sixth chapter of John. A multitude, having eaten of the loaves and sought Christ across the sea, approached Him with a question every natural man eventually asks: What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? (John 6:28). The question presupposes that God has works He desires performed, that men are capable of performing them, and that earnest labor is the path to God’s approval. It is the native religion of the sons of Adam, offered sincerely.

Christ’s answer dismantles the premise entirely: This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent (John 6:29). The singular — work, not works — arrests us. And the content — believing, not laboring — overturns the question’s assumption. The work God requires is not something man originates and offers to God, but something God does in man when man receives the Son. It is the moment the laborer ceases striving and receives the One in whom all of God’s working dwells.

Paul develops this same truth in Romans 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness (Rom 4:4-5). Two mutually exclusive categories: the one who works and earns debt, and the one who believes and receives righteousness. Abraham is the exhibit: For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness (Rom 4:2-3). Paul’s argument is not against works as such but against the works of the old man offered to God apart from faith in the One whom He has sent.

The same principle appears in Romans 9:30-32: What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. Israel labored; the Gentiles believed. Israel sought by works; the Gentiles received by faith. The paradox exposes the nature of the natural order’s labor: the more it is pursued as the basis of standing before God, the more it confirms the flesh’s inability to attain the spiritual.

Titus 3:5 places the same truth under the gospel’s own heading: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The verse speaks twice — first to exclude what cannot save, then to name what does: not our righteous works, but the regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The natural excluded; the spiritual introduced. And what the spiritual introduces is not less activity but differently sourced activity — for Paul declares in the same letter the very purpose of Christ’s purifying work: Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14). Christ did not ransom a people from the natural order’s bondage in order to leave them in idleness; He ransomed them in order to purify them into a people whose very character is zeal for works wrought in God. The regenerated man does not labor less; he labors differently — not by his own strength but according to the working of the One who works in him mightily (Col 1:29)

Hebrews 4: Ceasing from One’s Own Works

Before we can consider the works wrought in God, we must consider the cessation Scripture says must come first. Hebrews 4 develops the Sabbath typology in a way that directly applies to works. For we which have believed do enter into rest… There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his (Heb 4:3, 9-10).

The Greek word for “rest” in verse 9 is sabbatismos — a sabbath-keeping. The rest is a cessation, not an inactivity. It is the deliberate laying down of one’s own labor in order that another’s work may proceed. The pattern is Genesis 2. God finished His works; God rested; God’s rest was entered by all who participated in His finished work. Under the old covenant the weekly Sabbath commemorated this pattern as external sign — a natural shadow; under the new covenant the believer enters the reality the sign declared — the spiritual substance. Colossians 2:16-17 confirms the typology explicitly: Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. The weekly day was shadow; the rest in Christ is substance.

Observe the precise parallel in Hebrews 4:10: he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. The believer’s cessation is like God’s cessation. God did not cease working because He was tired; He ceased because His work was finished. Likewise the believer ceases not from all activity but from his own works — the self-originating labor of the old man offered as the basis of his standing before God.” What remains when that ceases is not idleness but a different order of labor — the works of Christ wrought through the believer by the Spirit.

This is why the writer issues the solemn exhortation: Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief (Heb 4:11). The only labor now appropriate is the labor of entering the rest. Every other labor, however sincere, returns the believer to the condition of the natural order from which Christ has delivered him. The Sabbath shadow ceased; the rest it signified remains, and the believer enters it by the cessation of his own works in order that the Worker may proceed unhindered.

This is the missing link between Part 1 and the spiritual works about to be considered. The works of the spiritual do not add themselves to the works of the natural; they proceed out of the cessation of the natural man’s labors. The old man must stop before the new Man can be seen. The burden of self-effort must be laid down before the yoke of Christ can be received, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt 11:28-30). The invitation to rest is the invitation to cease our dead works and receive the Worker whose labor is life.

Works Wrought in God

Our Lord draws the contrast in the third chapter of John with a single statement: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God (John 3:21). The determining question concerning any deed is not what it looks like but where it was wrought. Two men may perform identical outward acts — one wrought in the flesh, the other wrought in God — and the first is dead while the second is living. Works wrought in God proceed from the quickening spirit rather than the living soul, manifesting the operation of the One who dwells within.

Jesus Himself, in the days of His flesh, modeled the pattern perfectly: The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (John 14:10). Christ did not labor as the first Adam labored; He labored as the Last Adam, a quickening spirit, in whom the Father’s working was perfectly manifest. And He declared that the same pattern would extend to all who believe: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father (John 14:12).

The purpose of these works is not the believer’s own credit but the Father’s glory. Our Lord declared plainly: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matt 5:16). Works wrought in God are not performed for standing before God — that is already settled by faith. They are performed, or rather borne, so that the watching world sees not the believer’s effort but the Father’s life shining through him. The source of the work determines its direction: what proceeds from the old man points to the old man; what proceeds from the indwelling Worker points to the Father who sent Him.

The phrase “greater works” has stumbled many readers. The key is to let Christ interpret His own word. In Luke 7:28 He uses the same Greek term — meizon (G3187) — to declare that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist, the greatest prophet born of women. This is not a comparison of individual ability; it is a declaration of order. The least of the spiritual surpasses the greatest of the natural, because the spiritual order is categorically greater than the natural. That same word governs John 14:12. The works believers do are greater not because they exceed Christ’s miracles in individual power — none has raised a Lazarus or stilled a sea — but because they belong to a higher order entirely. They are works wrought in God, proceeding from the indwelling Spirit rather than from the natural man, and what the Spirit produces belongs to the spiritual order. Christ’s ascension inaugurated the sending of the Spirit, who now works from within countless members of His body across every nation and age. The scope is greater; the order is greater; the source is the same indwelling Worker whose presence Pentecost multiplied into the members of His body. The “greater” is the greatness of the spiritual over the natural — the same greatness by which the least in the kingdom exceeds the greatest born of women.

God Working Within

Paul develops the indwelling Worker doctrine with a specific Greek verb that rewards careful attention. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13). The believer’s working out flows entirely from God’s working in. The verb rendered “worketh” is energeo (Strong’s G1754) — to operate effectively, to be at work within, to produce energy from within.

The same verb converges across the apostolic letters to establish the doctrine. God worketh all things after the counsel of his own will (Eph 1:11). The power that worketh in us (Eph 3:20) is the measure of what God can accomplish beyond what we ask or think. Paul labors according to his working, which worketh in me mightily (Col 1:29). The word of God effectually worketh also in you that believe (1 Thess 2:13). And the writer to the Hebrews brings it to its fullest statement: Now the God of peace…make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ (Heb 13:20-21). Six witnesses to the same operative reality: God at work within, producing through His people every good work that is wellpleasing in His sight. The consistent picture is not human effort directed toward God but God’s own energy operating within the vessel He has made.

Ephesians 2:10 supplies the capstone: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. The Greek word for “workmanship” is poiema — that which is made, a crafted thing. We are not the craftsmen but the craft. We are not self-constructed moral agents; we are His workmanship. We are created in Christ Jesus — a new creation, not a rehabilitated old one. The good works are before ordained — prepared by God before we walk in them, like garments laid out in advance. We do not originate these works; we walk in them.

As we saw in the Hebrew Foundation, Isaiah already declared this centuries before Paul: LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us (Isa 26:12). What the Old Testament anticipated, the New Testament now confirms in full. The acceptable works of God’s people are works God Himself has wrought in them. The Worker and the works are both His.

This transforms our relationship to labor entirely. The old man labored to become something; the new man labors because he has been made something. The old man sought acceptance through his works; the new man has acceptance and expresses it in works. The old man’s works burdened and wearied; the new man’s works flow from the Spirit’s energy and fulfill the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2). I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20). The Worker has taken up residence; the works are His.

The Unity of Faith and Works: Two Kinds, One Doctrine

Once the works of the natural order and the works wrought in God are clearly distinguished, the supposed contradiction between Paul and James resolves completely. The apostles are not teaching competing doctrines about the same category of works; they are addressing two different kinds of works.

Paul writes to the Romans: Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law (Rom 3:28). The works Paul excludes from justification are the works of the natural order — the labor of the old man offered to God as the basis of standing before Him. Such works cannot justify because they cannot produce what God requires. This exclusion is absolute.

James writes to the twelve tribes scattered abroad: Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only (James 2:24). The works James requires for the vindication of faith are works wrought in God — the living activity of faith that has entered into operation, the fruit that proves the tree, the evidence that Christ has taken up residence. James is not adding something else to stand on alongside what Paul establishes; James is insisting that faith itself must be alive, and living faith necessarily produces living works. What Paul calls “works” in the justification debate is a different category from what James calls “works” in the vindication debate. Same vocabulary; different referents; no contradiction.

Both apostles appeal to Abraham, and together they reveal the harmony. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness (Gen 15:6, quoted both in Rom 4:3 and James 2:23). Yet James asks, Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? (James 2:21). The believing was Genesis 15; the offering was Genesis 22 — separated by years. The first was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness; the second vindicated it as genuine. Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? (James 2:22). The works did not create the faith; they completed it, manifested it, proved it real.

Paul himself affirms the identical reality from his own vocabulary: For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love (Gal 5:6). Faith that works by love — the very phrase joins what human theology so often separates. The same apostle who denies that works of the law justify affirms that faith, to be genuine, must work by love. The work is not an addition to faith; it is the activity of faith, wrought in God through the indwelling Spirit. Paul writes of the Thessalonians, Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 1:3). Paul has no quarrel with James; he uses James’s language.

So the apostolic witness is unified. Paul and James speak of two kinds of works — the works of the natural order (which cannot justify) and works wrought in God (which manifest the faith that already justifies). What we stand on before God is faith in Christ alone; the necessary evidence is works that faith produces through the Spirit. No one is justified by the first; no one who is justified remains without the second.

The Work is His

In Part 2 we have seen that the work of God is believing on the One whom God has sent, that faith enters the Sabbath rest by ceasing from one’s own works as God did from His, that the works which follow are wrought in God rather than in the flesh, that energeo reveals the indwelling operative power of God producing what no natural strength could, and that the apparent conflict between Paul and James dissolves when we see two kinds of works rather than two competing bases of salvation. The Worker has taken up residence in the believer; the works that now appear are His.

One final dimension remains. Scripture teaches a universal judgment of works — a day when every work will be manifested, tested by fire, and either rewarded or burned. In Part 3 we will consider that judgment, the testing of believers’ works according to 1 Corinthians 3, the devastating warning of Matthew 7 concerning religious works performed in Christ’s name, the sheep-and-goats scene of Matthew 25, and the final vindication of the apostolic pattern when the Worker is glorified in His works through His people.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Phil 2:13)