Looking Good, Dying on the Inside

In between faith and works there lies a tension — a point of integration between what we know and what we do. It’s that space between right belief and right action. The tension has to exist, it has to pull in both directions, to remind us of the positive bind that exists in the Christian journey. One has to have the other. Faith and works, together, bring life. Faith without works, well, it’s dead. Works without faith are shallow, actions that lack significance, a living by just going through the motions.

This integration point is grace. Faith that lives out in works discovers the grace of Christ at the tension point. Faith that lives out in action awakens in us our need for and reception of grace.