[quote:97a111b32f]Tom,
I think that all this is exactly proper as long as three important clarifications are made (clarifications that are sadly lacking in NPP):
1. It is God who works in us, creating in us those good works that He has prepared for us beforehand.
2. Good works are not meritorious in and of themselves. We will not be acquitted at the judgment because of our good works. We will be acquitted because of the works of Christ, having His reighteousness imputed to us, His complete fulfillment of the covenant opf works. But at the same time, our good works are an evidence to us of our union with Christ, and hence our appropriation of the merit of Christ. In that sense they are necessary but they are consequent.
3. One of the graces that God grants to the believer along with justification is the grace of perseverance. The justified believer can thus have assurance of salvation (viz. the Confession's treatment of the linkage between the evidence of good works, perseverance and assurance)
To say as N.T. Wright and Shepherd do, that there are two judgments, one eschatological and one temporal, is foolishness. There is but one criteria for judgment, and it is the perfect and complete fulfillment of the covenant of works. So our good works are not (and cannot be) the ground of our justification, but they are the necessary means by which we come to see that ground and be assured. They are not our clothes, but perhaps better described as the glasses we put on to help us see that we are not naked. [/quote:97a111b32f]
I completely agree with every word you wrote.
I think that all this is exactly proper as long as three important clarifications are made (clarifications that are sadly lacking in NPP):
1. It is God who works in us, creating in us those good works that He has prepared for us beforehand.
2. Good works are not meritorious in and of themselves. We will not be acquitted at the judgment because of our good works. We will be acquitted because of the works of Christ, having His reighteousness imputed to us, His complete fulfillment of the covenant opf works. But at the same time, our good works are an evidence to us of our union with Christ, and hence our appropriation of the merit of Christ. In that sense they are necessary but they are consequent.
3. One of the graces that God grants to the believer along with justification is the grace of perseverance. The justified believer can thus have assurance of salvation (viz. the Confession's treatment of the linkage between the evidence of good works, perseverance and assurance)
To say as N.T. Wright and Shepherd do, that there are two judgments, one eschatological and one temporal, is foolishness. There is but one criteria for judgment, and it is the perfect and complete fulfillment of the covenant of works. So our good works are not (and cannot be) the ground of our justification, but they are the necessary means by which we come to see that ground and be assured. They are not our clothes, but perhaps better described as the glasses we put on to help us see that we are not naked. [/quote:97a111b32f]
I completely agree with every word you wrote.