Hi everyone, and welcome to the board lion.
I enjoyed reading your answers, and I did not disagree with one of them. From catechism, to yard work, to Jeff's point about such things being the gospel, all the way down to unred's unique way of describing God's provision. (Big Macs :-D ) I will take from all of them today. My answers...
Why are we called to good works?
I think there are probably countless little reasons due to the fact that our works touch others, and are utilized by God to spread the Gospel.
I think God also provides us with many opportunities to do good works, even in the midst of hard trials, as a test, refining, encouraging of our faith in Him...He is able to be glorified in these situations, and bless our obedience, as a testimony of His faithfulness to us.
We are called to be set apart, and Holy.
We love doing them because God's love is in us bursting at the seams!
They aid us in maturity, and sanctification...a way for God to water us unto good growth that produces fruit.
They are evidence of the Love in us, and part of what it is to be saved, and justified. By faith, Tina... Consider Noah, "Thus did Noah all that God commanded Him, thus did He." Our works, or obedience, is a vehicle God utilizes to move us forward in His plan. It is our willingness to obey Him that shows our love towards Him...to Him, to us, and to others looking on, and to the angels, and to the deceiver.
By grace, through faith, we are saved, but that faith brings us to action so that God's work may be completed in us.
How do they relate to God's everlasting covenant, the redemption of man, and the protection and sanctification of believers?
Christ's example to willingly submit to the Father for the purpose of atonement, fulfilled God's everlasting covenant, and his covenant with His children for redemption. Christ is the example of what God expects (obedience, willing submission, loving works, sharer of Truth), and what God will do for us as sons, and daughters. (co-heirs)
Obedience is better than sacrifice, because it keeps us under God's protection, and walking in the Way...as Paul would describe us. It teaches us to be sensitive to our conscience so that we may love more...have abounding love that causes no one to stumble, but knows that God desires that all would come to the knowledge of the Truth. By this, He provides a way to abide in Him, and to not be deceived by, or love, the world. (It keeps us from adultery)
AND, God commands us to obey Him...that Law that HE has written on our hearts which is part of the calling of the believer, and specifically those two main laws on which the others hang that example the love abiding in us.
We will also be judged according to every deed. Even those who are atoned for will be judged according to their works, and will be rewarded accordingly...these are the treasures we are laying up in Heaven, and a testimony of our faith in God. Faith without works is dead...and leads to death.
How do they (good works, obedience) relate to the Gospel, the Truth, and God's mysteries in terms of the lost, the individual believer, and the church as a whole?
I believe the more good works we do, the more God reveals His will, and His mysteries to us. The more Truth we learn and apply, the more Truth we are given, and the more the Spirit leads us. This is a glorious striving in the right, which activates growth in the believer, and glorifies God who desires to bless us with great liberties in the Truth of His Word. The more Truth we learn and apply, the more shackles He breaks in our lives through our ability to see our sin, and lay it down. Let me say it again, with every new Truth we learn as we grow, we are able to deny more of our self, because God reveals our sin, and His Truth to us. This is how we are able to be willing obedient, but yet free from self-righteousness...as it is God who reveals the sin, and keeps us from presumption...which is the Great Transgression according to David...and it is God who is doing the sanctifying inwardly, which affects us outwardly. A genuine regeneration by grace through faith, and unto good works, and good fruit.
Through this, the bride is being prepared. She is being adorned, washed, dressed, and waiting for her Groom to return to gather her to Him as one in covenant for eternity. She is perfected, and kept from adultery, by His abiding love in her, and His commands to keep from sin. This is exciting, and it 'is a birds eye view of how God is unfolding His plan before us.
I think obedience probably touches more than we have written here. I think it is good to talk about our call to good works because of all the above, and then some. I am not speaking of a self-righteous earning, but of a zealous striving through faith, and by a sheer outpouring of the love in us. It is our love before Him in submission, and our light before men in His Truth, and evidence of the love in us that overflows to those here through our good works.
The Lord bless all of you. (Sorry if my thoughts are juggled...rushed a bit today.)
I won't give you the politically correct answers. I will simply answer them.