The great Lender

"The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man, but with God."
― Søren Kierkegaard

A good work wrongly done is a bad work.

There is no greater pride than doing a good work to demand God to recognise it as good.

By definition, a good work is any work that God would have done (had He been the actor). God only works for His own glory. Therefore any purportedly 'good' work that excludes Him or His glory can no longer be good.

Good works are only ever borrowed from God. They are works that He would do. He has the monopoly over good works. You cannot conceive of a good work apart from God. It is no more possible to ask a beach not to have the sea.

A good work apart from God, done so as to evade God's glory, does not exist. It might exist as a work. But it is no good work.

"There is only One who is good."

The Christian has the privilege of borrowing God's works from Him and then doing them in the world by way of returning them to the Lender.

At our very highest we only give back to God that which was already His own.