ANNOUNCER: Does John 14:12 guarantee that all believers will do good works? And are good works the standard by which we measure if someone is a believer or not? And if so, how many good works? There’s a great discussion just ahead, so stay with us, friend. We’re glad you’re with us here on Grace and Focus today. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find us at faithalone.org. That is our website, which includes many things. One is a bookstore, and by the way, we’ve just released our Old Testament Commentary, Volume 1. It is available there in our store, as well as Bob Wilkin’s latest book, “The Gospel Is Still Under Siege.” Come have a look at faithalone.org 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob, we’ve got a question from Luke today. Not the Gospel writer, from what I can tell, but he is asking about John’s Gospel. So he’s asking about John 14:12. His question is essentially, does this verse mean that believers will produce good works? And can this verse be used to prove what some people would say that works aren’t required for salvation, but if you don’t have works, you don’t have true faith or genuine or saving faith or something. 

But yeah, let me read this verse real quick. John 14:12, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father.” In his email, he mentioned part of what you wrote in the Grace New Testament Commentary, where your focus in the commentary on this section is on more so the “greater works than these.” What does it mean for Jesus to say that believers are going to do greater works than He did? And you point out that it’s not greater in the power of the works, but the extent. So the apostles had a wider reaching ministry than Jesus did and then believers today have a wider reaching ministry than the apostles did. 

BOB: Yeah. So one thing I could say is they’re not greater in the types of works, because Jesus healed the sick, He raised the dead, He walked on water, He demonstrated omniscience, He did all kinds of things. But what the disciples could do would be greater in extent. For example, Jesus only ministered for three and a half years. If someone ministered for a lifetime, for 50, 60, 70 years, they can do more. 

Also, Jesus’s purpose wasn’t to lead tens of thousands of people to faith in Him. His ministry was designed to lead actually a small number of people to faith in Him and then disciple those people actively, so they would then go out and on the day of Pentecost, Peter led 3,000 to faith in Christ. That may be more in one sermon than Jesus led to faith in Himself in three and a half years. We’re not exactly sure how many Jesus led to faith in Himself. We know there were at least 500 according to 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus appeared to and these 500 were believers. Probably there were several thousand people that Jesus led to faith in Himself. 

But the disciples did more than that on the day of Pentecost and they continued to do things. We see in the Book of Acts that at least the apostles had miracle-working power. Don’t I have a brief comment in the Grace New Testament commentary that we don’t have that miracle-working power? 

SAM: Yeah, you said “This is a promise not just to the eleven, but also to teach one who believes in Jesus. Believers today do not have the miracle working power. The apostles had to back up their witness, but because the Holy Spirit indwells believers, they are able to do works that are greater in extent than what Jesus did in his three years of ministry.” But so that’s where the question comes in. Luke’s question is, you say they are able to do works that are greater in extent, but a critic of GES would say, no, this means if someone’s a believer they will do good works. 

BOB: Right. Well, of course there’s two questions. Number one, you’ve said several times and Luke seems to say in his question, we’ll do good works. We’ll do good works is far different than we’ll persevere in the life abundantly overflowing with good works until a person dies. You see, a person can do good works every day and yet not be walking in fellowship with God. In other words, a believer might do some good works every single day, but if he’s not walking in fellowship with God, he’s not pleasing God in his overall life. He may please God in a few things he does each day. 

You also have the issue of what about a person who, let’s say, is doing real well for a year, two years, five years, ten years, and then they fall away and die that way. What a lot of people would try to use this verse to do is to teach the reformed doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, or the Arminian doctrine that unless you persevere to the end of your life in good works, you lose your salvation. 

But either way, a lot of people would say it’s not just saying they’re going to do some good works, is that these are going to be abundant good works. The life is going to be characterized by good works and they’re going to persevere. None of that is stated in this verse. 

SAM: And it’s not the purpose of this passage. He’s not talking about assurance. He’s not trying to encourage we are saved because of the good works we’re going to do that we’re doing. He’s trying to instill confidence in the disciples to carry on the ministry, to have confidence that even once He’s gone, they’re going to do works greater than what He was able to do. 

BOB: What does it say, “he who believes in Me” and then how does it go on to say? 

SAM: “The works that I do, he will also do.” 

BOB: Okay. It doesn’t say that everyone who believes in Me will do these works and greater works. Obviously, most Christians in the course of their lifetime don’t do greater works than Jesus did, even in terms of extent. 

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BOB: Jesus in three and a half years accomplished more than what most believers will accomplish in sixty. So this isn’t some blanket promise. If it does refer to believers throughout the church age, it’s selected believers in the church age. It’s just not saying 100% of the believers all the time. 

SAM: And I don’t think that means that every individual believer is going to do works to a greater extent than what Jesus did. Again, I just don’t think that’s the purpose of what He’s saying here. He’s not giving an exhaustive, “here’s exactly what’s going to happen to every person.” It’s an encouragement. Because then we also see in verse 13, He says, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” And this is another verse and there’s other verses like it where people will say some people use it as a “name it, claim it” verse. You know, anything I pray is going to happen, but that’s not really what He’s talking about here. He’s not saying I wish for the Bugatti and then it falls down from heaven. That’s not the purpose. So it’s an inaccurate application of the verse. 

And verse 14, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Again, this is about the ministry. Anything that you pray for and that you ask for Christ’s help in, in ministr,y in sharing the Word and making disciples, He’s going to help you that you might ask for the wrong things sometime and Jesus isn’t a fool. He’s not going to give you the wrong thing just because you ask for it, but that’s not the point of the verse. The point is, even though He’s leaving them, He’s still going to be with them. 

BOB: Keep in mind, there’s a verse like Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” It seems to me that that verse is talking about miracle-working power that the people He was talking to received, the apostles. We don’t have that miracle-working power and I say that in my John commentary. So they had special abilities that we don’t have. 

As apostles, they evidently could exercise all of the gifts, including all of the sign gifts. We can’t exercise any of the sign gifts because they don’t operate today and we don’t have all of the other gifts. But we can do works and maybe we can do greater works, but clearly the apostles were the ultimate fulfillment of this verse. They were the ones who did greater works in the course of their ministry because it was greater in the extent, not in terms of the intensity. Jesus’ miracles, as far as we can tell, after Jesus rose from the dead, none of the disciples walked on water. None of the disciples fed 5,000 men plus another 15,000 women and children. 

They didn’t do all the things He did, but if you do read the Book of Acts, you see two men basically emphasized in Acts, right? You get Peter and Paul, Peter with the ministry to the Jews, Paul with the ministry to the Gentiles. Both men raised people from the dead. In fact, when the shadow of Peter would pass over people, they could be healed or they could be raised from the dead. It was an amazing thing. Both of these men had the kind of power that was manifested in the ministry of Jesus. And they both led untold thousands of people to faith in Christ and disciples, large numbers of people. Jesus didn’t plant churches, the Church didn’t exist, but Peter and Paul planted churches. 

So I would say that’s what that verse is saying, but it has nothing, Luke, to do with the promise that every believer is going to persevere in good works. Or every believer is going to do greater works than Jesus did. This verse doesn’t teach it, but I do agree that every believer produces good works, not because there’s some guarantee that we’re going to walk in fellowship with God, just because I believe every human being does good works, including unbelievers. And certainly believers are going to do more good works on the whole than unbelievers. 

However, there are some very moral unbelievers, right? If you look at some of the Buddhists or Hindus or you look at some Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses, they can be wonderful people. And they’re doing lots of things that are good works. But if they don’t believe in the free gift of eternal life, they’re not yet born again. 

SAM: And on the other end of it, the people that would use this verse to critique Free Grace theology, they wouldn’t be satisfied with, okay, you know, I’ll concede every believer will do good works, sure. But I don’t want to quantify that. I don’t think there is a way to quantify it. They wouldn’t be satisfied with that. They would say, okay, they will do good works. And that means it’ll be good works a lot of the time, most of the time, can’t be anything too bad. It has to be constantly going up. You can have one or two fallings away, but then you’ve got to bounce back pretty… 

BOB: They can’t last for long. 

SAM: Yeah, exactly. They have to finish strong. So they aren’t satisfied with just some good works. They need…because this is where they derive assurance from, what they call assurance. It’s not really assurance because it’s…you’re not assured. But I mean, to them, it has to be constant and improving good works because that’s what shows you whether you’re saved or not. We would say no. Yes, a believer is going to do good works, but if you look to those good works to determine whether you’re a believer or not, then you’re never going to be sure because you’re relying on yourself, not Christ’s promise. 

BOB: Absolutely. Well, good question, Luke. As we always close, let’s remember to keep grace in focus. Amen. 

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