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the other loose. Strictly speaking, a meritorious work is one to which, on account of its intrinsic
value and dignity, the reward is justly due from commutative justice. Loosely speaking,
however, a work that is deserving of approval and to which a reward is somehow attached (by
promise, agreement, or otherwise) is also sometimes called meritorious. Such works are
praiseworthy and are rewarded by God. But, however this may be, they are surely not
meritorious in the strict sense of the word. They do not, by their own intrinsic moral value,
make God a debtor to him who performs them. In strict justice the good works of believers
merit nothing. Some of the most conclusive passages of Scripture to prove the point under
consideration are the following: Luke 17:9,10; Rom. 5:15-18; 6:23; Eph. 2:8-10; II Tim. 1:9; Tit.
3:5. These passages clearly show that believers do not receive the inheritance of salvation
because it is due to them in virtue of their good works, but only as a free gift of God. It stands
to reason also that such works cannot be meritorious, for: (1) Believers owe their whole life to
God and therefore cannot merit anything by giving God simply what is His due, Luke 17:9,10. (2)
They cannot perform good works in their own strength, but only in the strength which God
imparts to them from day to day; and in view of that fact they cannot expect the credit for
these works, I Cor. 15:10; Phil. 2:13. (3) Even the best works of believers remain imperfect in
this life, and all good works together represent only a partial obedience, while the law demands
perfect obedience and can be satisfied with nothing less, Isa. 64:6; Jas. 3:2. (4) Moreover, the
good works of believers are out of all proportion to the eternal reward of glory. A temporal and
imperfect obedience can never merit an eternal and perfect reward.
3. THE NECESSITY OF GOOD WORKS.
There can be no doubt about the necessity of good works
properly understood. They cannot be regarded as necessary to merit salvation, nor as a means
to retain a hold on salvation, nor even as the only way along which to proceed to eternal glory,
for children enter salvation without having done any good works. The Bible does not teach that
no one can be saved apart from good works. At the same time good works necessarily follow
from the union of believers with Christ. “He that abideth in me and I in him, the same beareth
much fruit,” John 15:5. They are also necessary as required by God, Rom. 7:4; 8:12,13; Gal. 6:2,
as the fruits of faith, Jas. 2:14,17,20-22, as expressions of gratitude, I Cor. 6:20, unto the
assurance of faith, II Peter 1:5-10, and to the glory of God, John 15:8; I Cor. 10:31. The necessity
of good works must be maintained over against the Antinomians, who claim that, since Christ
not only bore the penalty of sin, but also met the positive demands of the law, the believer is
free from the obligation to observe it, an error that is still with us to-day in some of the forms of
dispensationalism. This is a thoroughly false position, for it is only the law as a system of
penalty and as a method of salvation that is abolished in the death of Christ. The law as the
standard of our moral life is a transcript of the holiness of God and is therefore of permanent
validity also for the believer, though his attitude to the law has undergone a radical change. He
has received the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of obedience, so that, without any constraint,