Colossians 3:17

Col. 3:17. "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." Question, Why must we do whatsoever we do in the name of Christ? Answer, Because nothing can be acceptable to God as from us, but in and through Christ, as Hebrews 13:21, and 1 Peter 2:5. Therefore when we come to God to do anything Godward we must always bring Christ with us, that what we do may be accepted - that is, we must have a sense of our unworthiness of acceptance in ourselves, and must hope for acceptance on His account. Question, But why can't what we do be accepted but by Christ? Answer (1.) We are infinitely ill-deserving creatures, and all our good is nothing when put in the scales with our unworthiness; and then (2.) we are condemned creatures, and it is against the Law that anything should be accepted from us as we are in ourselves. (3.) The third reason why nothing that we do can be accepted but by Christ is, because there is nothing that we do but what is in a sense corrupt, even the holy actions and gracious exercises of the godly are so. They are not merely attended with the exercises of corruption that precede and follow them and are nursed with them, but they are themselves corrupt. Take them as they are in their dimensions and manner of exerting them, even the exercises of grace in a godly man are manifestations and expressions of corruption; the act most simply and absolutely considered is good, but consider it in its measure and the manner of exertion, and it is an expression of corruption. All the godly man's acts of love are defectively corrupt or sinfully defective. There is that defect in them that may be called the corruption of them. That defect is properly sin, an expression of corruption, and what tends to provoke the just anger of God; not because the exercise of love is not proportionable or equal to God's loveliness or to His kindness, but because it is so very disproportionate to the occasion that is given for the exercise of love, considering God's loveliness and manifestation that is made of it, or the manifestation and exercise of His kindness and man's capacity, and the advantages to be sensible of it, and the like, together. A negative expression of corruption may be as truly sin, and as truly odious, and as just cause of provocation, as a positive. Thus, if a man, a worthy and excellent person, should, from mere generosity and goodness, exceedingly lay out himself, and should with great expense and suffering save another's life or redeem him from some extreme calamity, and when he had done all, that other persons should never thank him for it or express the least gratitude any way, this would be a negative expression of his ingratitude and baseness; but it is equivalent to an act of ingratitude or a base unworthy spirit, and is as truly an expression of it, and brings as much blame, as if he by some positive act had much injured another person, and as it would have been in a lesser degree if gratitude was but very small, bearing no proportion to the benefit and obligation, or if for so great and extraordinary a kindness he had expressed no more gratitude than would have been becoming towards a person that had only given him a sixpence, or had done him some such small kindness. If he had come to his benefactors to express his gratitude, and had done after this manner, he might truly be said to have acted basely, unworthily, and odiously; he would have shown a most ungrateful spirit, and his doing after such a manner would be just abhorred by all; and yet the gratitude in that little that there was of it, and, so far as it went, was good, and so it is with respect to our exercises of love and gratitude to God. They are defectively corrupt and sinful, and might justly be odious and provoking to Him, taken as they are, upon the like account, and would be so, were it not that the sin and corruption of them is hid by Christ. God, as it were, don't see the odiousness and iniquity of them, and so accepts them for Christ's sake, which out of Him would be worthy of His detestation. - Coroll. Hence the saints may be said to rewarded for their good works for Christ's sake, and not for the excellency of their works in themselves considered. For, as we have shown, as they are in themselves, they are odious, and might be just cause of provocation. They are not rewardable, therefore, as they are in themselves; they are accepted through Christ, and it is therefore for Christ's sake that they are rewarded. For God's rewarding them is a testimony of His acceptance. They are rewarded for Christ's sake in this sense - viz., that it is for His sake that God looks upon them as fit to be accepted and rewarded.