On Wednesday Night, December 30^th, we will start celebrating the New Year by discussing “New Year’s Resolutions.” New Year’s Resolutions have long been a part of American tradition. It is not clear when and how it started. It is probably associated with our Judeo-Christian worldview. In the Old Testament (Leviticus 23), the Jewish New Year began with the Feast of the Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah = Head of the Year). Ten days later was the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Part of the New Year ritual was asking God for forgiveness for one’s sins in the past year and “resolving” to DO better in the coming year. Somehow and somewhere along the way that tradition became part of our New Year tradition. But the question is – should Christians make Resolutions?

For hundreds of years, the Roman Catholic religion was very “works”, very “doing” based. In the 16^th Century, a Roman Catholic priest named Martin Luther discovered after studying the Scriptures that Salvation is Not by works that we can do. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. This understanding of God’s free gift of grace was so liberating that Luther rejoiced in the “grace” teachings of the Apostle Paul and once refered to the Book of James “a right strawy epistle” because it seems to infer that “works” are a necessary part of our salvation.

Since the time of Luther, the “Grace vs Works” debate has continued in the Church. Not long ago, someone gave me a copy of a book about Grace which describes how Christianity is about “being” instead of “doing.” The book offers quotes from the Bible like Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.” The book used the examples of Martha and Mary (Luke 10). Martha was fretting about doing her duty, working, and serving. But Jesus commended Mary because she wasn’t working but resting in her relationship with the Lord.

What do you think? Are Good Works a necessary part of our Salvation? Should we “resolve” to DO more, to SERVE the Lord better next year? Or should we relax and rest in the Grace relationship that we have in Christ? Should we emphasize “being” more than “doing?”

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