For hundreds of years people traveled in vehicles that automatically avoided collisions. If a person was too tired to drive, they could simply say, “Let’s go home” and their vehicle would take them safely home while they slept. Then, in the name of progress, we replaced horses with combustion engines and travel became much more dangerous.
Whenever I think about the part good works play in the Christian life, I can almost hear my grandmother saying, “Don’t put the cart before the horse.” Here’s a brief explanation for those who’ve never seen a horse-drawn vehicle. In order for the cart to move, the horse must be hooked up in front pulling it. If the horse is tied to the back of the cart, it is going nowhere. St. Augustine wrote about good works, “Grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.” We can’t earn mercy and grace with good works, but when we accept mercy and grace as a gift from God, good works will be a result.
Imagine with me for a moment that our life is the cart; the Holy Spirit within us is the horse (our source of power) and the forward movement of the cart represents our love and good works. Before we experience spiritual rebirth and receive the Holy Spirit within us, the only way our life can move forward is when we strain to push it slowly forward ourselves. We may think we are making progress, doing good works and earning God’s approval as a result, but that is not God’s plan for us. The scariest words in the Bible are directed at those who thought they could earn eternal life through their own efforts and good works. “I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.” (Matthew 7:23) No, we must have the power of the Holy Spirit within us first in order to do good works that are pleasing to God. He must know us as His own.
Sadly, some people who profess faith still don’t have things in the right order. James writes, “How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?” and “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.” (James 2:20&26) Those people either have not received new birth and the Holy Spirit, or they have tried to tie Him to the back of their cart and their cart is not moving.
The Holy Spirit is our guide to keep us on the road God wants us to travel. He can’t do that unless we hitch our cart to Him and let Him power and direct our life. He knows the way to our eternal home even when we are too tired to get there on our own. Let’s keep the horse before our cart and move forward confidently; loving and doing good works for those we encounter along the way.
There may be better analogies of our Christian life, but this one reminds me of my loving Christian grandmother, so I’ll stick with it.