God’s Work In Us Is Not By Our Own Power or Piety

In a previous post we considered how God not only works through us, but, as Paul wrote, God wills in us as well. If we have any good inclinations, decisions, or desires, God gets the praise, for he wills good in us (Philippians 2:13).

Reading my Bible this week, I came across something helpful we may add to clarify this.

In the first chapters of Acts the church is just beginning. In Acts 2, Peter stands up and declares the word of Christ, leading to many being “pricked to the heart” and saved. Following in Acts 3, to confirm the word, God grants Peter to heal a blind beggar (Acts 3:4-10).

Understandably, this leads the people to be “utterly astounded” (Acts 3:11). So what is Peter’s response to such astonishment? How does he initially react? Notice the first thing he says in Acts 3:12. We’ll begin in verse 11 for some context:

“While [the healed beggar] clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: ‘Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?’” (Acts 3:11-12)

What is Peter’s first response to the marveling at the healing? It isn’t just, “Well, believe in Jesus!” He goes deeper. He first wants to clarify what happened and how it occurred. A man who previously couldn’t walk now walks. But how? Not by “our own power or piety.”

Peter clarifies later that Jesus made it happened. Specifically, Peter, a little jumbled, explains, “And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whole you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:16).

Yet he only gets there after he makes clear that the healing was not by his “own power nor piety.”

And here’s where this strikes us even today: Most of us would agree if God so granted us to do something like heal someone, then it would be by God’s power alone. Moreover, most of us acknowledge that if God so allows us to do good works in his name, then it’s by his power working in us—even him willing in us (as we saw in the previous post on Philippians 3:12-13).

We acknowledge that God’s power works through us and wills in us.

But don’t we subtly think that perhaps our piety has some influence in this?

That’s where Peter’s careful choice of words is striking. It’s not our power (it’s God’s power through us), and it’s not our piety either.

The word “piety” that Peter uses can also be translated as “godliness.” It wasn’t because Peter had a certain level of godliness that the healing happened. Nor was it that he had some uniquely powerful prayer time of piety that God ultimately decided to work through him. It was not through his power or piety. Rather, it was Jesus—all grace, all Jesus.

And just like in our last post, we must agree to take what the Bible says and believe it, even if it is confusing. For, as you might be thinking, yet Peter says a few sentences later that it was “faith in his name” that led to the healing happening. So, on one hand, we acknowledge that faith is the conduit of the grace (as people like Charles Spurgeon have said). Yet on the other hand, we also remember that Peter just clarified it had nothing to do with his “piety.”

Combing the two, then, we see that 1) Peter had faith in Jesus, but 2) his faith in Jesus apparently was not some sort of piety or godliness that led to the healing happening. Rather, it was all Jesus.

Or to say it another way: Peter first and foremost understood that it was Jesus who did the healing (as all good works are Jesus working through us). So right away he said it isn’t his power nor his piety; it wasn’t by anything in him that Jesus worked—it was freely Jesus. Yet then the question becomes, “But where and when has Jesus decided to work? We know his reason for working isn’t because of anyone’s superior power or piety, but when and where has he decided to work?” And Peter’s answer is that Jesus works where there is faith (an answer he learned from Jesus himself). Why is this? Because faith is a trusting and receiving of Jesus himself (and his works).

All in all, then, Peter is right in saying that it isn’t any power or piety of his own. But he’s also right in saying that Christ worked through faith, for faith is merely the channel for Christ to work.

This all takes some careful thinking, doesn’t it? But it matters. For if we focus too much on our faith, we may start to think our piety merits (even to a small degree) God’s grace in us. Or we may become discouraged thinking we don’t have enough godliness for Christ to work through us. But on the other hand, if we only talk about it not being our piety, we can forget that Christ works through faith.

Perhaps this is why Peter is so jumbled when he tries to carefully explain what happened: “And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whole you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:16). He knows it is Jesus who is acting; but he also knows Jesus works through faith. So his best answer is that it is the faith that is through Jesus that has given the man health—but the emphasis isn’t on “the faith”; the important part is “through Jesus.”

So it us for us. Our faith does matter. For it is a conduit for Christ’s working and willing through us. But also, at the same time, we must believe what Peter believed: Neither our power nor our piety is why God works through us. We rather are vessels who merely receive him, and he can use us if he wills. In this way, if anything does happen, we can gladly declare with Peter that it is not by our power nor piety. 

Which all leads us to where we left in our last post on this issue. There we saw that God not only works but also wills in us—so, he gets all the glory. Here from Peter we see that when he does work through us, it’s not only not because of our power but it’s also not because of our superior piety—so, once again, he alone gets all the glory.

And we wouldn’t want it other way. For this means that in order for God to work through us, we don’t need to produce a superior might or godliness. Instead, we all simply rely upon the Almighty God himself.