Back |  |  |  |  |  | Contents |  |  |  |  |  | Next

##### Carry on Heavenly Work

{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…

Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity

Carry on Heavenly Work}

Another part of the heavenly trade is to carry on heavenly work and labor daily in the great business of godliness. Just as the world has its work, so Christianity has its work. Every trade has things that must be done, and so has godliness. Christianity is not a notion or opinion; it is not a name to take to oneself and no more. It is a miserable vanity and cheat for a person to think that a lamp alone will let him see the way to Heaven or that a few lazy wishes will bring him to glory, even if he does not travel on the way to it. Alas, to approve of the principles of piety without practicing it, to arrogate to oneself the privileges of Christianity and be strangers to purity, to profess faith and have no good works, to have affection [a feeling of love] without labors of love—these are no signs of salvation at all. Will mere opinion make a person an artist? Will mere imagination enrich a person? Will merely being hungry fill the stomach? Will only reading a map to a place get a person there? Neither will affection, knowledge, or profession of faith help people to Heaven unless they work out their salvation and carry on the duties of Christianity that lead to it (Philippians 2:12).739

739“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12 ESV). Those who have that kind of saving faith that trusts Christ to save them from Hell will have a kind of faith that makes them trust Christ enough to willingly obey Him according to all of Scripture’s commands. Let no one fall into the deadly pit of trying to earn God’s favor by works—it will not work. Let no one fall into the deadly pit of thinking that good works according to Scripture commands are not urgently necessary; such thinking does not come from saving faith, but from Hell.

Back |  |  |  |  |  | Contents |  |  |  |  |  | Next