Yesterday we looked at lists of commands / challenges / demands from God on how to live. Isaiah 33’s answer to the question, “Who among us can dwell with everlasting burning?” That is, “Who can stand before the Lord.” The answer? He who…

• walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who
• despises the gain of oppressions, who
• shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who
• stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and
• shuts his eyes from looking on evil. (Isaiah 33.15, ESV)

I don’t think this is a hypothetical list designed to compel people to say, “Oh, God! I can’t do these things! Please be gracious and forgive me in advance.” Yet that’s how we who understand grace often treat these lists. “God knows you can’t do those things so let’s be grateful for grace.”

My friend Ray Bandi in New Hampshire and I discussed this very thing last week. He was reading a devotional book by an author we both respect, but Ray was bothered by sentences like these:

• Grace is never partnered with works.

But the author is wrong: grace partners with works all the time:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15.10, ESV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2.8 – 10, ESV)

The author continued:

• All our good works are shot through with sin.

Ray and I are wondering, “What’s the point of saying that?” What’s the fruit? Guilt? Paralysis? Should we conclude, “I can’t be perfect so why try?” NO!

People, maybe thundering preachers, like to quote Isaiah 64.6:

…all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags… (NKJV)

But that’s not a permanent condition! The passage continues:

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. Do not be furious, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look—we all are Your people! (Isaiah 64.8, 9, NKJV)

Back to our original discussion: neither my works nor I have to be perfect to be effective. As I’ve said in connection with people who are afraid to do anything because it might look like “works righteousness,” someone has to take the cinnamon rolls to the neighbor and shovel their driveway! Pastor Aaron Dorman in Estes Park says, “Not works righteousness; righteous works.”

After my conversation with Ray, I continuing processing with June. I’m not a great pianist, but people like to hear me play. I played piano recently for the men’s Christmas brunch at First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs, with part-time minister of discipleship and first class guitarist Jeff McCrory. The music Jeff and I did was GOOD. The men loved it. Perfect? Not even close. But more than “good enough.”

There’s a marvelous play called Two Pianos, Four Hands. (June and I saw it live in San Francisco in 1999, and I finally found the DVD of their last performance a couple of years ago.) It’s about two guys whose piano careers stalled at age 17. They weren’t good enough to play classical professionally. They weren’t good enough to play jazz professionally…or so their teachers said. But these guys can play the piano VERY WELL. And they went on to make a career out of telling their story in this play. You might be able to livestream it here. Spoiler alert: the two-person play ends with this exchange:

• “We are the best piano players in the country!” “No, we’re not.”
• “We are the best piano players in this city!” “No.”
• “We are the best piano players on this street!” “Yes, we are.” And they sit down to their pianos and knock out yet another difficult piece by Bach.

We’re not perfect, and that’s why salvation is by grace through faith. But God allows us to cooperate with him in his work. “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15.5), but with God, we can and should live well and work well.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! (Romans 6.1, 2, NKJV)

And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful. (Titus 3.14, NKJV)

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: (1 Peter 4.10, ESV)

Now may the God of peace…equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. (Hebrews 13.20, 21, ESV)

…we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he’s called you to be, pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. (2 Thessalonians 1.11, MSG)