Can You See Works-Righteousness?

A few weeks ago in Bible class, we were on John 15 and talking about "bearing fruit." Nancy asked how/if works-righteousness looked different from good fruit. Pastor waited. Nobody answered. Finally I ventured that they looked the same... at precisely the same time Pastor got tired of waiting for an answer and told us that they don't look the same.

I figured that I don't know the motivation behind the person who brings me chicken soup when I'm sick. (Unless she happens to be paying me off just so she can laugh at the garlic taped to my neck. But that's not the normal circumstance.) I don't know the motivation behind the person who's running the fund-raiser at church, or the person who rakes leaves for an elderly neighbor. I don't know what's in their hearts.

And yet, the more I think of it, Pastor's right. We cannot tell from a kind act -- in and of itself -- about the motivation behind the act. But we can often, over a period of time, begin to tell from the person's words what he thinks about his good works. When a person is perpetually full of advice as to how I can be a better Christian (like he is), it gives evidence that he doesn't exactly think "all his righteousness is as filthy rags." When a person says, "Of course I don't think my good works merit me anything before God, but..." and then goes on to talk and talk and talk about behavior and acts that need to be done more, that gives testimony to what's in the heart too. Around some people, you get the impression that they're not even aware of the good works they do, and you're comfortable around them. Around others, you always get the impression that you should be "better" like they are, and there's always a sense of guilt. But not a sense of honest guilt; rather, a sense that the way out of the guilt is by trying harder and focusing more on my efforts to be good. And really, that's just being "turned inward" and using the law to justify oneself instead of fleeing to the gospel in the face of guilt.