By Faith not by Works

 

A large number of people would have seen me taking my wife to the Mall in a wheelchair, morning and afternoon, for many years now. I do that so she can have a better quality of life. Bear in mind that Audrey cannot move or speak so I count it a great privilege to be able to do this for her. We “window shop”, see the lights and pretty things, meet people and even have morning tea together.

Over the years, many people have come to me and said: “No doubt you will get to Heaven”. In saying that they are trying to express their appreciation of the fact that I help Audrey so much and they honestly believe that if we do good things like that, God will notice and thus we will somehow earn His forgiveness for anything we may have done wrong, and our Soul will be therefore accepted into Heaven.

 I can see where they are coming from, but that is not the way it works. In the New Testament letter of Paul’s to the Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 we find the following statement: “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”.

If we examine that text, we find that God created us to do good things so I get no special credit for being kind to Audrey. Further to that in Ephesians 5: 25 there is an instruction to husbands to love their wives, therefore, to do so is just looked on by God as me doing the normally expected thing. And to cap that of course, when we were married both Audrey and I vowed to each other that we would look after each other for “as long as we both shall live”. So no matter how you look at it I am just obeying the “Road Rules” and no driver gets any special privileges for that because it is what is expected of him or her.

So we see that obeying God’s rules is good for all concerned and if we want to spend eternal life in Heaven we need to be endeavouring to comply with those directions, but in themselves they don’t earn us a “Passport” to Heaven.

 In short, there is only one thing that earns us that privilege (as the text above says) and it is a “Gift of God” which is faith in, or belief in the redemptive act of Jesus sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary. As the Apostle John quotes Jesus as saying in the 16^th verse of the 3^rd chapter of his Gospel: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but inherit Eternal Life”

 Well that brings us to the next question “Were those people right when they said Audrey and I would get into Heaven?”

Yes, they were right, as it turns out, because both of us do believe in the saving grace of Jesus, and have been endeavouring to live the way that is expected which includes loving God and endeavouring to love our neighbour as we love ourselves; for sure we have made many mistakes since we made that commitment, but we endeavour to keep “short accounts” with God by daily asking for his forgiveness for those mistakes.

Aren’t we all fortunate that God was so gracious in making Salvation from the consequences of sin so simple for us that anyone can ask his forgiveness in prayer and know that if they are genuine and willing to endeavour to do things the way he would like in future, that they are forgiven and are on their way to Heaven. In the Old Testament, Isaiah (the prophet) wrote in the 6^th verse of chapter 53 of his book: All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all” (New Living Translation).

You have probably seen these sheep before, in one of my articles, and that is because, like you and me, they always need help. Happily, that help is only a prayer away.  Best wishes, Tom.