The truth is that we’re saved unto obedience: the two, salvation and obedience, going hand in hand. We cannot have one without the other. In Galatians, Romans, Philippians, and elsewhere Paul consistently objected to and condemned works of the law as worthless, the idea that an external show of holiness actually equated to holiness. This is why Jesus told the Pharisees in Matt 23 that they must be clean on the inside first of all in order for the outside to be authentically clean. And He told them to clean the inside, just as Rev 22 tells us to wash our robes. At the same time Paul also condemns deeds of the flesh, sin, i.e. lawlessness as the cause of death. How is this reconciled? How do we accomplish this cleansing? By the Spirit, who gives life, not by the letter, which kills. Grace, through the Holy Spirit, gives us that ability, to do good: Rom 2:7, to overcome sin: Rom 8:12-13, to be holy: Heb 12:14, to do those works prepared for us in advance: Eph 2:10. These are specifically not works of the law but works of grace given us by God as we turn to Him in faith, gifts that we’re to express, just as we accept and express that gift of faith to begin with. That’s how God works in man, and that’s how we invest the talents given us, as we cooperate with His work. Alternatively, we can also fail to invest, like the wicked and lazy servant.
Fruit is the result of justification as righteousness is the result of justification. Due to that state of justice, we are saved. If we walk unjustly, we are no longer in that state. And, in fact, again, this statement of Micah’s written some 700 years before Christ hasn’t changed a bit under the new covenant.
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
