This final episode sums up what constitutes a good work. Good works fundamentally seek the glory of God and aim to honor God as God and give Him thanks. All good works build on the finished work of Christ, which is the application of Christ's work of redemption to all who believe in Him. Christians don't work to be saved, but do in fact work since they are "God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works." (Ephesians 2:10) The latter part of the episode focuses on the response of the two faithful servants in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-29). Both live for the pleasure of their Master and invest the gifts and talents that God gave them to bring Him a return on His investment. The text indicates that they delighted in bringing pleasure to God. This core desire to honor and please our Lord, Who has given us everything, is the driving motivation behind all good works.
Pardoned and Gainfully Employed: Your New Life in Christ
This episode spells out the appropriate reaction of Christians who realize the enormity of mercy extended to them in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. All Christians are acquitted from a gigantic debt that they could not pay. "The wages of sin is death," and Christ paid those wages. As we progressively understand the severity of the debt and the eternal death in hell that we all justly deserve, we gain proper perspective on how to live our remaining days. Paul says in Romans 6:13 that "we are alive from the dead." Gratitude over being the recipients of God's indescribable gift motivates us to re-present our members as instruments of righteousness in honor of the God who graciously pardoned us and gave us life. So we gladly unite ourselves with Christ in the likeness of His death, putting to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:13), so that we may also walk in the newness of His life, His resurrected life. We live for the will and pleasure of God as grateful servants in the army of the Lord.