Salvation and good works

[Pox Eclipse]

Thanks for inviting us Straight Dope board members to visit your board. I read your post, and have some questions:

Part of being a Christian is realizing that I am a sinner who cannot save himself. I'll never be good enough to get into heaven on my own. God solved the problem for me. Jesus paid the penalty for my sin by dying on the cross, and he purchased a place in heaven for me by raising from the dead. Out of gratitude for that incredible gift he gave me, I do my best not to go around lying, stealing, and cheating people out of their money.

Where does the part about doing good works come in? If I just accept Jesus a Savior, and try not to sin, and repent my sins when I stumble, will I be allowed into Heaven?


Matthew 25:43-45
I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'


Can I get into heaven without feeding all the hungry, clothing the naked and visiting the sick and imprisoned? Do I have to help all the unfortunates of the world? I am worried, because that last verse seems to say if there is even one that I did not help, I am not worthy. How many is enough? Under these terms, is salvation really possible?

[jamesglewisf]

That is an excellent question and a very common one. Here's an analogy I saw about trying to be good enough:

If I were to prepare an omelet with five good eggs and one rotten egg, I couldn't serve it to company and expect that to be acceptable.

Even less we serve up our lives to God, which may have many things in them that men would call good and yet are filled with deeds and thoughts that are rotten, and expect them to be acceptable to God. Scripture says, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10). If we want to get to heaven by our good works, then all we have to do is be perfect. God's standard is complete obedience to Him for all time.

If a person sinned only three times a day, he would be an incredibly good person. Imagine if you could keep from losing your temper, thinking unkind thoughts, or failing to do what you ought to God or man more than three times a day. Even if you were this good, you would have more than 1,000 sins in year. If you lived to be 70, you would have over 70,000 sins. That's called a habitual offender.

We can never be good enough, but God fixed our problem when His perfect Son died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.

2 Corinthians 5:21
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

[jamesglewisf]

How about some verses:

Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are not saved by works, it is faith in Christ alone. We are not saved by works, but for works.

John 1:12-13
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 6:37
37 "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

Jesus is never going to cast anybody out for not being good enough.

Luke 7:50
50 And He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

John 3:14-18
14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
15 that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life.
16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 5:24
24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Jesus tells us that if we believe in Him and the one who sent Him, we will have eternal life and we will not come into judgment. Why will we not come into judgment? Because that would be double jeopardy. You cannot be tried and punished for the same sin twice. Since Jesus already paid the sin penalty for us, we will not be judged again.

[jamesglewisf]

This is probably my favorite verse for this question:

John 6:27-29
27 "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal."
28 They said therefore to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

This is a profound verse. Jesus tells us that the work we need to do to please God is to believe in the one God sent, that is, Jesus.

How do we do the will of the Father? By believing in the One He sent.

John 6:40
40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

How are our hearts cleansed from sin? By faith.

Acts 15:8-9
8 "And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;
9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

Romans 3:22-26
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 4:1-8
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."
4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due.
5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works:
7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered.
8 "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account."

Romans 10:9-10
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;
10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

[jamesglewisf]

Still more:

I John 5:11-12
11 And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

It's not "he who has the Son and good works has eternal life."

Ephesians 2:5
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

The parenthetical comment is not mine. It's actually in the Scripture.

[jamesglewisf]

Romans 3:28
28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

Without Jesus help, we can do nothing. Even our good acts are only possible because of Him working through us.

So why do good works? Because it is the evidence of our faith. It is our thanksgiving to God. People will see our good works and want to know what makes us different. And what makes us different is that we abide in Jesus Christ and He helps us bear fruit.

John 15:5
5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

[jamesglewisf]

So what about the verses you quoted? Jesus was dealing with people who thought they were self-righteous. He was dealing with people who thought righteousness came from within themselves, not from God.

Matthew 23:23-28
23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
24 "You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.
26 "You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
28 "Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

[jamesglewisf]

What about the rich young ruler who asked Jesus what he had to do to get into heaven?

Mark 10:17-22
17 And as He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and began asking Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
19 "You know the commandments, 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"
20 And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up."
21 And looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
22 But at these words his face fell, and he went away grieved, for he was one who owned much property.

So is Jesus saying that you have to give away all your property to get into heaven? No, people in Jesus time and in ours thought that really good people were blessed by God with money. They thought that one way to tell who was going to heaven was to see who God was pleased with. Hence, rich people got to go to heaven. Let's read on:

Mark 10:23-25
23 And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, "How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!"
24 And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25 "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Jesus isn't saying that rich people can't go to heaven. He is saying that being rich isn't good enough to get you into heaven. His disciples were shocked, because they believed the lie also. They asked,

Mark 10:26
26 And they were even more astonished and said to Him, "Then who can be saved?"

Hey, they thought, if a rich man can't get into heaven, then who can? Jesus had just shattered their belief that good works got you there. Jesus then told them:

Mark 10:27
27 Looking upon them, Jesus said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God."

Only God can get us into heaven. It's impossible for men to get themselves there, but all things are possible with God.

[jamesglewisf]

How can God be just and the justifier of the wicked? How can he be just and allow wicked people into heaven? Because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins already.

Romans 3:21-28
21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

What is propitiation?

PROPITIATION

[pro PISH ih a shun]-- the atoning death of Jesus on the cross, through which He paid the penalty demanded by God because of man's sin, thus setting mankind free from sin and death. The word comes from an old English word, propitiate, which means "to appease." Thus, propitiation expresses the idea that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for sin which a holy God demanded of man the sinner.
Although Jesus was free of sin, He took all our sins upon Himself and redeemed us from the penalty of death which our sins demanded. As the writer of 1 John declared, "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" <1 John 2:2>; (expiation, RSV).
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)
(Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

The wrath of God against our sin was appeased by the death of the perfect man.

I want to repeat that last verse:

28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

The only thing that gets us into heaven is the fact that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins. We are saved by faith, not works.

[jamesglewisf]

I think your real question is "How can I be assured of my salvation? How can I be certain that I won't mess up and blow it with God?"

When my daughter was learning to walk, she stumbled and fell down all the time. When we went on a walk together, I would hold her hand. If I just held my finger out and let her hold onto me, the first time she started to fall she would lose her grip on my finger and go crashing down. That is why I held her hand. As long as I was the one holding her, there is no way she was going to fall.

Jesus gave us the same picture in John 10:27-29:

27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.
29 "My Father, who has given {them} to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch {them} out of the Father's hand.
30 "I and the Father are one."

Paul said much the same thing:

Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 6:37-40
37 "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
39 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

Eternal life begins the moment you receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Eternal life is just that, eternal.

John 5:24
24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Jesus finishes what he started:

Philippians 1:6
6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

We are saved forever:

Hebrews 7:25
25 Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

John 11:25-26
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies,
26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

[jamesglewisf]

Another great verse about our assurance of salvation is Romans 6:23:

Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The penalty for sin is death, but God offers a free gift to cancel out that penalty.

[jamesglewisf]

I think the next logical question is this: If I can never lose my salvation, is it alright for me to just go live a life full of sin and debauchery? As you would expect, God anticipated this question and answered it in the Bible.

Romans 6:1-2
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 6:14-18
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

[jamesglewisf]

As you can see, I love this question. This is a question that I have asked before. It is a question that almost everybody asks. And it is a question that has been answered by God in His word. I'll shut up now, I could go on forever about how great His love is for us.

[jamesglewisf]

Oops. I thought of one more thing.

This is what separates Christianity from all other religions. We do not believe that we can ever be good enough to get into heaven. We believe that the only way we can get there is if God does it for us. We believe that the only "good enough" is perfect, and no one but Christ achieved that. We believe that the only way to get into heaven is to accept what God did for us: Jesus died in our place.

Becoming a Christian accomplishes two primary things:
The penalty for my sin is paid for. I receive eternal life.
The Holy Spirit comes to live within me, and He empowers me to do good works. He empowers me so that I can overcome temptation.

We don't become perfect. We don't become better than everyone else. We've had the penalty for our sins paid.

[IBM]

Maybe to simple ....but good works is faith in action
IBM

[4everHis]

Or said another way (not that much can be said that Jim hasn't already said)...

Good works are evidence of your Faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross, not the means to get into heaven (you can't earn it). Works are done out of gratitude for the free gift Christ offers, so they follow Saving Faith.