When Work Feels Like Salvation by Works

The Westminster Larger Catechism says, through Christ’s intercession, God accepts both our persons and our services. That is, the totality of our lives, including our day-to-day grind, but we haven’t embraced this liberty across its whole spectrum. While we revel in our salvation from works and know God accepts on Sundays. We often become slaves to our work and worry about him accepting us on weekdays. 

The Reformation’s recovery of our freedom in Christ unleashed a Christian ethic of integrity and excellence which is the so-called Protestant work ethic. Christians should strive for excellence in our work, and God honors hard work done in faith, but we live in a transactional society, where we often celebrate the visible fruits of our labor. Such as raises, promotions, raising successful children, and things like that. Also, we fear to lose what we have gained so we tend to get our emotions distracted. As a result, we’re fretful. Admitting we don’t “deserve” salvation or success compels us to strive even harder for it. Fretfulness takes hold, and we mask our uncertainty in confidence, our inabilities in busyness, our failures in criticisms, and our worries in distractions.

The Lord does not judge us by our daily work ledgers. No doubt as these verses state there are houses to build, cities to oversee and work to do. But there is a vain way of working that only leads to fretting. Instead of believing God accepts us as we are, we often think we can put him in our debt, forcing him to reward us for our labors. We’ve turned the Creator of the universe into senior management always on the lookout for the next Employee of the Week. We wear our successes on our sleeves to overcome our unworthiness, even though we know our successes are paltry in any eternal sense. So, driven by our goal-oriented efforts and putting our hope in ourselves, we’re crushed and exhausted.

He wants us to know we can’t impress him in any ultimate sense—even if our work earns an A+ from others (a closed deal, a promotion, a pat on the back). The good news of the gospel is not only that we don’t work for our salvation, but also that we don’t strive for God’s acceptance in our daily work. All of it has been accomplished in Christ. Our anxious toil will not satisfy us and God doesn’t want it to. He wants our creativity and work to blossom as we rest in his power and work on our behalf. A watchman who successfully protects the city will inevitably take credit for its safety. The Lord has no more promotions left to give you, you are now his child. He has no more raises to give you, you now have an eternal inheritance awaiting you. So, rest as you work, and enjoy the salvation the Lord achieved for you.