SALVATION BY GOOD DEEDS?

Can we earn salvation by doing good? An increasing number of people believe that we can. In a Christian Post article entitled, “US Christians increasingly departing from core truths of Christian worldview, survey finds” (8/9/2020) Brandon Showalter, has written:

·       A new survey shows that the majority of Americans no longer believe that Jesus is the path to salvation and instead believe that being a good person is sufficient.

·       Sixty-eight percent who embrace that notion identify as Christians, including 56% of self-described evangelicals and 62% of those who identify as Pentecostals. Sixty-seven percent of mainline Protestants and 77% of Catholics also embraced that idea, the findings show.

·       Slightly over half of Christian respondents said they believe someone can attain salvation by "being or doing good," a figure that includes, 46% of Pentecostals, 44% of mainline Protestants, 41% of evangelicals, and 70% of Catholics.

These findings show that many have abandoned a Christ-centered Biblical faith, a faith embedded throughout the Scriptures, which teach the impossibility of anyone being good enough that they can earn their way to salvation. Why, we are all sinners who need the mercy of the Savior. Let’s start with the Hebrew Scriptures:

·       Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. (Psalm 143:2)

·       If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. (Psalm 130:3-4)

Paul had quoted these Scriptures to make the point that our salvation must always depend on the mercy of God and not upon our moral merit:

·       as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”  “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” (Romans 3:10-13)

Since we this describes all of us, we must not entertain the idea that we can be good enough for God:

·       yet we know that a person is not justified [forgiven and saved] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:19-20)

There are many other indications that, by our own efforts, we can never merit salvation. Jesus warned that even a single sin, without the mercy of God, could damn us:

• “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:22).

There are many other indications that anything short of perfection will damn us:

• For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. (James 2:10)

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

Therefore, salvation must be by the mercy of God and nothing else. God will never be indebted to anyone:

• “Or who has given a gift to him [God] that he might be repaid?” (Romans 11:35; Job 41:11)

•  “Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” (Jeremiah 3:12-15)

No one could ever be good enough to earn salvation:

·       Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit. (Psalm 49:7-9)

The righteous could never be righteous enough to enable him to sin even once:

·       “And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins.” (Ezekiel 33:12)

It must be through faith as a gift, since it cannot be a matter of our merit. This is Jesus’ teaching

• “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)

• Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:28-29)

• “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24)

·       John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”

This is also the explicit teaching of the rest of the Scriptures:

• And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

• Ephesians 2:8-10  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

• For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” [Genesis 15:6] Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (Romans 4:2-8 quoting Psalm 32)

If there is another way to be saved, then Christ died in vain, Scripture can not be trusted, and our hope must be placed in our own moral performance. However, this leads to self-obsession and self-righteousness, a deadly combo.