Of Good Works (2LCF 16.4-6)

The second half of a two-part study on 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 16 (Of Good Works) examines paragraphs four through seven, working through the doctrines of supererogation, the nature of merit, the acceptance of believers' works before God, and the status of works performed by the unregenerate. Supererogation — the Roman Catholic teaching that the saints perform meritorious works beyond what God requires, which the church then dispenses as indulgences — is refuted from Romans 3 as incompatible with the universal sinfulness of mankind and the nature of divine law. The study then distinguishes between condign merit (which belongs to Christ alone) and any informal divine reward, while grounding the acceptance of believers' imperfect works solely in their union with Christ and God's free grace. The works of unregenerate men, however outwardly decent, are shown to be spiritually dead, incapable of pleasing God, though greater external wickedness remains more displeasing to him than lesser.