How does doing good deeds profit a Christian? Do we gain any "Righteousness" from our good deeds?
To make my point, let's look at other religions methods of attaining "righteousness" (some of this exists in the Christian Church also). In all other religions, "righteousness" is attained by improving the "self" through some manner of "works". Yet, all of these are centered in selfishness. The Buddhist monk, while acting selflessly toward his fellow man, is only doing it as a means to a selfish ends...to attain "nirvana". So, the selfless acts are steeped in a selfish desire.
The same can be said for all of the other major religions. The Muslim and the Jew are "working" their way to heaven (or Messianic Age) by "pleasing" God. The Hindu is doing "good deeds" so he is not reincarnated as a dung beetle. Etc, etc.
The "world" sees these as noble and commendable because the outward manifestation is kindness and servitude. However, is a "good deed" performed for selfish gain truly good? If the desired outcome is "spiritual profitability" for the one doing the "good deed", is it really noble? Is keeping an accounting of one's good deeds to attain "righteousness" really "righteous" or simply being self righteous?
Sadly, this has also found it's way into Christianity through Catholicism and after the Reformation in Calvinism, Puritanism and the Methodism of John Wesley. It has seeped itself into just about every branch of American Christianity...we call it "moralism". It's basically the belief in living a moral life (in some perceived combination with Christ's Grace) to gain Salvation. It's an insidious lie of Satan that seeks to remove Christ from the Church. He has accomplished this in most Churches by the removal of Holy Communion as a regular practice in worship and reducing Baptism to simply a symbolic "washing" in many denominations.
However, let's examine the Gospel of Christ in it's purity and see how it differs from the other beliefs. So, if we acknowledge our unworthiness before God because of our defiant selfish will and the sinful condition that results from it and look solely to Christ as our propitiation...
Romans 3:22-26 ...the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
...the what does one profit from "good deeds"? The answer is nothing. There is no profit because Christ has removed the burden of having to achieve heaven and be "self-righteous".
So then, why do we do good deeds and acts of charity? For the Christian, "serving one's neighbor" is the result of our faith...they emanate from it. Because our faith is a gift from Christ through the Holy Spirit, we are then motivated by the Holy Spirit to live in accordance with God's will. It removes the "selfishness" and "burden" from doing good and makes it joyous and a way to extend the love that Christ has for us.
James 2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
or
Ephesians 2:8-10 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.
or as Martin Luther wrote:
We say, besides, that if good works do not follow, faith is false and not true. (Part III, Article XIII. How One is Justified before God, and of Good Works.)
That's not to say that our selfish vanity doesn't seep in and we don't crave the "credit" or "praise" others heap on us for doing these things. However, we should always give Christ the credit for any acts of kindness and charity we perform. It's only by drawing upon his love and grace through our Baptism that we are even capable of this.
I hope this explains the difference between Christianity (when understood properly) and other religions.
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