Deeds Not Creeds: A Road of Despair Back to Rome

Four years ago back in 2005 at the Baptist World Alliance, Rick Warren presented his thesis of the dire need of the hour suggesting that “The first Reformation was about doctrine; the second one needs to be about behavior.” He said that what we need is “a reformation not of creeds but deeds.” Throughout the speech and seemingly the underlying creed of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church itself, he announced that a new movement is underway in the modern church, shifting emphasis from doctrinal issues to the service of the world. “It’s time to stop debating the Bible and start doing it . . . This is the new reformation I’m praying for.”

The question to be asked is this the reformation we need?

John MacArthur’s in The Truth War, he says:

With increasing frequency nowadays, I hear people say things like, “Come, now, let’s not bicker about what we believe. It’s only doctrine. Let’s focus instead on how we live. The way of Jesus is surely more important than our arguments over the words of Jesus. Let’s set aside our disagreements over creeds and dogmas and devote ourselves instead to showing the love of Christ by the way we conduct our lives.”¹

On the onset it may sound like a noble, generous and kindhearted thought, especially considering the fact that we Christians of all people do not delight in strife. But then more often than not, though it seems like a genuinely innocent thought, the underlying dangers it brings are terrifying.

There’s nothing wrong with giving emphasis to service, missions, evangelism, and every other Christian act, but the danger here is when the line has been so much breached that the deeds are coming to define the creeds. This is one of the evils of our pragmatic age.

Deeds Defining Creeds

Pastors and missionaries so on fire with service and the salvation of souls, in order to become successful in their endeavors they invent all sort of methods to achieve their goals. And if the particular method works, it must be true, it must be God inspired. This is the inspiration so called “ministries” have in continuing their operations, “Christian Gaming”, “Beer Night”, “Football Ministries”, “Yoga” and “Business ministries” for example boast that they are anointed by God because they are growing in number and they are yet to be shut down. They have so deluded themselves and redefined what God has sanctioned all because the deeds they accomplish are successful.

And all this, at the expense of truth. Because we have hated authority that subjects us to itself that’s why we trust not Scripture. We have since ceased to trust it and we have since ceased to love it.

Deeds Not Creeds, a Road of Despair Back to Rome

Another danger of this ill-advised emphasis is that it leads to a road back to Rome, leading the Christian person back to the Law. To suggest that Creeds are of little importance, that the teaching of Scripture can somehow be bypassed to give way for greater missionary efforts is to suggest that the Law trumps Gospel. As long as we can perform to the best of our abilities as Christian men and women, what we believe does not matter anymore?

See this is not an issue of little importance, rather the Gospel itself is at stake here. Many modern evangelical leaders suggest today that we must not have that much emphasis on doctrine and the teaching of Scripture anymore. Though they do not say such in plain terms, their actions speak well for them. Leaders concocting new methods and ways to reach the next generation, formulating the next discipleship technique to help Christians grow and be better people. Yes, it is a noble thing, but at the expense of Truth it is nothing but cruelty.

To do all the right things but not believe the right things is just every much as evil, if not more, than believing all the right things and not do the right things.

In other words, there is no help and no advantage at all to have all the best deeds in action and yet have all the creeds messed up. It is of no use to follow and accomplish the law yet insufficiently understand or misunderstand wholesale the Gospel.

The logical conclusion here is that if your Deeds does not come into par with the ideal Christian check-list then perhaps you aren’t Christian at all, perhaps you have lost your salvation, perhaps the favor of God has left you because of your failure to perform. The fundamental idea then is a works based Gospel and a works based salvation. This thinking is entirely unchristian and goes against the very essence of the Gospel, in that while we were yet helpless, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly (Rom 5:6 [show] [6]For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (ESV)
).

Law not Gospel

What happens? Self-righteousness. We give out an idea that we earn our standing as Christians by the work we do and the deeds we accomplish. It is a total misunderstanding of Matthew 7 [show] "Judge not, that you be not judged. [2]For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. [3]Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? [4]Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? [5]You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. [6]"Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. [7]"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. [8]For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. [9]Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? [10]Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? [11]If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! [12]"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. [13]"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. [14]For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. [15]"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. [16]You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? [17]So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. [18]A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. [19]Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. [20]Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. [21]"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22]On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' [23]And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' [24]"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. [25]And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. [26]And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. [27]And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." [28]And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, [29]for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. (ESV)
. We will be known by our fruit is an absolute reality but the fruit does not define the tree, rather, the tree defines the fruit.

Undue emphasis on deeds binds the conscience to works rather than faith in the truth and promises of Scripture.

John MacArthur continues in The Truth War:

Many people these days evidently find that suggestion appealing. On the surface, it may sound generous, kindhearted, modest, and altruistic. But the view itself is a serious violation of “the way of Jesus,” who taught that salvation hinges on hearing and believing His Word (John 5:24 [show] [24]Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (ESV)
). He said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63 [show] [63]It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (ESV)
).

To those who doubted His truth claims, He said, “If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24 [show] [24]I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins." (ESV)
). He never left any room for someone to imagine that the propositional content of His teaching is optional as long as we mimic His behavior.²

Salvation in Believing Not Doing

The entire theme of salvation does not lie in deeds or the doing of Christian activity rather it comes as was the main theme of the 16th century Protestant Reformation “justification by faith alone.” It is not the doing of the Word that makes Christian Ministry effective, per se, but rather it is the believing of the Word. It is being convinced of the Truth of the text of Scripture, the Testimony of Holy Writ about the person and work of Jesus Christ that pleases God to save.(1 Cor 1:21 [show] [21]For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. (ESV)
)

The main issue is not our deeds and our doing in practical Christianity but rather the main emphasis must be placed on the reality and exposition of what has already been done 2000 years ago, and each and every Christian work is but a reaction to that. The preaching and the believing of the Word is the main duty of the Christian person, to put deeds above belief is to put the cart before the horse, it is in essence salvation by works.

In an issue in Modern Reformation, Michael Horton writes:

It might seem controversial to identify doctrine with “gospel” and deeds with “law,” especially since these days we often hear calls to “live the gospel.” However, the gospel is not an imperative, but an indicative; not a program to follow, but an announcement to welcome for our own salvation and to herald for the salvation of the world.

Does that mean that we do not have imperatives or that we do not follow Christ? As Paul would say, “May it never be!” It simply means that we have to distinguish indicatives and imperatives. The law gives us something to do, and the gospel gives us something to believe. Christians are no less obligated to obey God’s commands in the New Testament than they were in the Old Testament, but they are commands, not promises.

The imperatives drive us to despair of self-righteousness, the indicatives hold up Christ as our only Savior, and then the imperatives become the “reasonable service” of believers “in view of God’s mercies.” There is a lot of wisdom to the order of the Heidelberg Catechism: Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude.

The commands tell us what we are to do; the gospel tells us what God has done. “Deeds, not creeds” leaves the sinner with the tattered garment of fig leaves rather than robed in the righteousness of Christ.³

John MacArthur states that “one vital principle about our redemption from sin destroys the whole argument: faith, not works, is the sole instrument of justification (Galatians 2:16 [show] [16]yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (ESV)
; Ephesians 2:8-9 [show] [8]For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9]not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (ESV)
). In other words, what we believe rather than what we do is what secures us a righteous standing before God—because we lay hold of justifying righteousness by faith alone, and not by our works (Romans 4:5 [show] [5]And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, (ESV)
).”⁴

Paul says in Romans 9:31 [show] [31]but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. (ESV)
–32 that “Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.” In other words, regardless of how meticulous they may have been in their external observance of God’s law, their unbelief was sufficient to exclude them from the kingdom.

“They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:3 [show] [3]For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. (ESV)
–4). They doubted the truth of Christ, and that proved spiritually fatal in spite of how well they had perfected an external display of piety.

Notice: Paul expressly says they were pursuing righteousness. But they were looking for it in all the wrong places. Because they clung to wrong beliefs about the righteousness God requires and rejected the righteousness Christ would have provided for them, they were eternally condemned. Their failure was first of all an error about a vital article of faith, not merely a flaw in their practice. Their whole belief system (not merely their behavior) was wrong. Unbelief was enough to condemn them, regardless of how they acted.

It is not kindness at all, but the worst form of cruelty, to suggest that what people believe doesn’t really matter much if they feel spiritual and do good. In fact, on the face of it, that claim is a blatant contradiction of the gospel message.

Besides, real righteousness simply cannot exist in isolation from belief in the truth. To make the case for any concept of “practical good” that subsists apart from sound doctrine, one quickly has to remove just about everything that is truly righteous from the definition of good. Naturally, it doesn’t take very long for that kind of thinking to undermine the foundations of Christianity itself.⁵

It is through our believing that God saves, and not just any believing but believing the right things. Doing things with utmost zeal does not save, doing all the right things does not save either, much less edify the saints, rather it is the believing in something outside of ourselves that makes the difference. And in our believing it causes us to so move in a doxology of praise.

Doctrine Leads to Doxological Living

One of the objections against the emphasis to doctrinal accuracy and theology is that it would lead to an intellectual and dry Christianity, but this is not at all necessarily true. Paul himself went through all 11 chapters in the book of Romans full of doctrine. It was only in arriving at the end of the 11th chapter that he broke in praise because of the overwhelming truth that he set before his hearers. And when the 12th came only then was he able to command his audience:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (12:1-2).

Correct beliefs do not at all by necessity lead to dead orthodoxy, or a dry evangelicalism and dry faith. Rather every true zeal and passionate Christian piety is bolstered up and catapulted by a greater grasp and vision of the reality of Scriptural truth. True Christian holiness, true Christian zeal and piety can not be achieved in any other means but by simple faith in the propositional truth of Scripture. It is because of the indicatives of Scripture that makes the imperatives of Christian living possible.

All that is in the Christian life is nothing more but a mere reaction to the message of Scripture. We hear the announcement of the Gospel of grace of what God has did in the Lord Christ Jesus, all that is required of us is to believe and we shall be saved. But such believing and such faith will be that which James talks about in his letter.

James does not say that faith without works is incomplete or insufficient for justification, but that a faith that does not bear the fruit of good works is dead–in other words, it isn’t really faith at all. That being, true faith in believing the explicit and exclusive truths of Scripture can alone lead to a faith that bears much fruit in Christian service and sacrifice, taking up our crosses and following after Christ. Michael Horton continues in his article in surveying the themes in Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome:

It is not insignificant that Paul moves from doctrine to application through doxology. As G. C. Berkouwer has said in summarizing the order of the Heidelberg Catechism, “Grace is the essence of theology; gratitude is the essence of ethics.” There is a time to be a diligent student, to listen to the record of God’s great accomplishment of our redemption and its logical inter-relationships. Yet in doxology we are caught up in it all. We put down our notepad and raise our eyes to heaven in joyful gratitude and wonder.

Here is where the Spirit internalizes the message that we have heard and makes us to feel deeply that we are what the gospel announces: the ungodly who have been justified, the enemies now reconciled, the dead who have been made alive in Christ, the hopeless who now have a future. Doctrinal understanding, inflamed by wonder and praise, yields to ‘our reasonable service.’

That is why Paul’s transition is so key: It is in view of God’s mercies on display in the first eleven chapters that Paul makes his appeal. No longer being conformed to this world is not simply an act of the will. It is not the result of individual or collective effort, but the effect of sound doctrine that has been converted into thanksgiving. Apart from the renewing of the mind (i.e., the doctrine of the first eleven chapters), we will become like the world in our thinking and therefore also in our practice.⁶

1. MacArthur, J. (2007). The truth war : Fighting for certainty in an age of deception (32-33). Nashville, Tennessee.: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [↩]
2. MacArthur, J. (2007). The truth war : Fighting for certainty in an age of deception (33). Nashville, Tennessee.: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [↩]
3. Michael Horton, Creeds Not Deeds: How Doctrine Leads to Doxological Living, ModernReformation Issue: “In View Of God’s Mercies” Nov./Dec. Vol. 15 No. 6 2006 Pages 6-9 [↩]
4. MacArthur, J. (2007). The truth war : Fighting for certainty in an age of deception (33). Nashville, Tennessee.: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [↩]
5. MacArthur, J. (2007). The truth war : Fighting for certainty in an age of deception (33-34). Nashville, Tennessee.: Thomas Nelson Publishers. [↩]
6. Michael Horton, Creeds Not Deeds: How Doctrine Leads to Doxological Living, ModernReformation Issue: “In View Of God’s Mercies” Nov./Dec. Vol. 15 No. 6 2006 Pages 6-9 [↩]

FeebleSaint (JM Vergara) is an aspiring Christian blogger. A sinner saved by God's sovereign grace. An Engineer. A GFX afficionado. A lay-theologian. Nothing but a Feeble Saint. Find me on: Twitter - Facebook - Plurk - Multiply - Youtube - email