That's one interpretation. But it's clear from
Matthew 25 that good works also result in salvation, and lack of good works results in eternal damnation.
Lack of good works does not result in eternal damnation; disbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ & rejection of His salvation & imputed righteousness does.
John 14:5,6 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way & the truth & the life. NO ONE comes to the Father EXCEPT THROUGH ME.
Acts 4:5-12, On the next day their rulers & elders & scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest & Caiaphas & John & Alexander & all who were of the high-priestly family.
7And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what POWER or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, FILLED WITH the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people & elders, if we are being examined today concerning a GOOD DEED done to a crippled man, BY WHAT MEANS this man has been healed,
10let it be known to all of you & to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—BY HIM THIS MAN IS STANDING BEFORE YOU WELL.
11This Jesus is the stone that was REJECTED BY YOU, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
And there is salvation IN NO ONE ELSE, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven GIVEN AMONG MEN, BY WHICH WE MUST be saved.”
16What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed THROUGH THEM IS EVIDENT to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem & we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them & charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
23When they were released...they lifted their voices together to God & said, "For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod & Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles & the peoples of Israel,
28to do WHATEVER YOUR HAND & YOUR PLAN HAD PREDESTINED TO TAKE PLACE. And now, Lord, look upon their threats & grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
30while YOU STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND TO HEAL & signs &wonders are performed THROUGH THE NAME OF YOUR HOLY SERVANT JESUS.”
This good deed done to the crippled man was not done by the apostles but by the hand of God who healed Him. All these good deeds, signs & wonders are performed through the Name of Christ. He did them THROUGH the apostles. This is emphatically stated.
Matt 11:27 All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father & no one knows the Father except the Son & anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him.
Acts 10:43 All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name."
John 5:36-40 For the WORKS that the Father has GIVEN ME TO ACCOMPLISH, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about Me that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness about Me. His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen & you do not have His word abiding in you, for you DO NOT BELIEVE the One whom He has sent.
39You search the Scriptures because you think that IN THEM you have eternal life; yet it is they that bear witness ABOUT ME, yet you REFUSE TO COME TO ME THAT YOU MAY HAVE LIFE.
It is obvious that even the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, was not saved by the good works that the Father gave Him to accomplish. He did them through the power of the Holy Spirit while He walked this earth. That is what we are to do. The power & the accomplishment is not of us; it is of Him. I can take no credit for it; so no credit of righteousness for salvation on my own can be claimed.
John 15:1ff “I am the true vine & My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away & every
branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. “You are already CLEAN because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4“Abide in Me & I in you. AS THE BRANCH CANNOT BEAR FRUIT OF ITSELF UNLESS IT ABIDES IN THE VINE, SO NEITHER CAN YOU UNLESS YOU ABIDE IN ME.
5I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me & I in him, he bears much fruit, FOR APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING. My Father is glorified BY THIS, that you bear much fruit & SO PROVE TO BE MY DISCIPLES.
Phil 2:12,13 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work OUT your salvation with fear & trembling; for IT IS GOD WHO IS AT WORK IN YOU, BOTH TO WILL & TO WORK for His good pleasure.
Over & over again, we can do nothing APART from God working in & through us as Christians. He does the work, He gives the grace & power to accomplish good works through us. We didn't do it.
A branch doesn't produce fruit, the vine does. A branch is a willing vessel. As long as it abides in the vine, the flow of all the nutrients to produce fruit comes into the branch from the vine. If you have a vine, it can produce fruit. But if the branch is cut off from the vine & left to itself, it withers & dies. The same is true for Christ's disciples, we don't produce the good works or the fruit; He does in & through us as we abide in Him. We prove we are His disciples by simply abiding in Him & allowing Him to produce His fruit in & through us. No credit or boasting can be made on our part, but praise is given to God who WORKED in us & accomplished through us what He willed & according to His good pleasure.
The whole gospel message of Christianity from start until now is that we cannot save ourselves. We are spiritually dead because of our trespasses & sins, separated from the eternal life of God, without God in this world. Until one recognizes that they are lost & separated from the life of God, there will be no need to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can make myself right before God on my own.
God does not send people to hell, they send themselves by choosing to reject God & His only way to obtain righteousness in Christ, to reject Christ & substitutionary death, burial & resurrection & instead go their own way, depending upon themselves. Jesus taught that there is a wide road that leads to destruction & a narrow road that leads to life. There is a gate of entrance on the narrow road & Jesus said He is the only entrance by which one must go through to enter into life.
This is the hardest thing any human being can accept. We cannot save ourselves by our own works of self-righteousness. Everyone seems to start with the premise that they are not that bad, that God will somehow wink at their rebellious disobedience against Him & accept them. The truth is that we are that bad, lost & separate from God BECAUSE of our evil works & disobedience. There is salvation ONLY in the Lord Jesus Christ. No one else. Not us, not our parents, not our religious leaders, not by any decision made by another human being.
God's righteousness & salvation is not of ourselves, it is not achieved by good works. Salvation does not result from good works. It is a gift. One cannot earn salvation by doing good works. It is a fruit of being saved. Good works done by God working in & through us show we are saved, not save us.
John 6:26-40 Jesus answered them & said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves & were filled. Do NOT work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”
28Therefore they said to Him, “What shall WE DO, so that WE MAY WORK THE WORKS OF GOD?” Jesus answered & said to them, “This is THE WORK OF GOD, that you BELIEVE IN HIM WHOM HE HAS SENT.”
35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger & he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me & yet do NOT BELIEVE.
37“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me & the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
39“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. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son & BELIEVES IN HIM WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE & I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
A rich young ruler was told by Jesus that following commandments will result in him 'entering into life', not rewards, but eternal life. (
Matthew 19:17). The rich man couldn't give up his riches & went away sad. But if the "grace" teaching of the modern Christians is right, that young man did not have to leave his riches in order to be saved!
Here again your ignorance & not understanding the text is obvious. First, the rich young ruler IS NOT SAVED, so the issue of rewards is not there. He must first become saved.
Second, no one can keep the commandments of God perfectly. One broken commandment at any time in one's life leads to separation from God, spiritual death & lost. Jesus KNEW this! The young ruler was boasting in his accomplishments, which got him lost. And he didn't keep all the commandments. He was breaking the 10th commandment of covetousness.
John 7:16-19 “My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me. If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own. He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? YET NOT ONE OF YOU KEEPS IT.
Isaiah 53:5,6 But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him & by His stripes we are healed. WE ALL like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to HIS OWN WAY & the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Matt 16:26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world & lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Psalm 48:7-9 No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God, since the price of redeeming him is too costly, one should forever stop trying--no payment is enough.
Job 36:17-19 But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked; judgment & justice have seized you. Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow; for a large ransom would not help you avoid it (cannot deliver you). Can your wealth or all your mighty effort keep you from distress?
I Timothy 2:6 Who gave HIMSELF A RANSOM FOR ALL, to be testified in due time.
The rich young ruler KNEW this wasn't enough, it wouldn't work because he fell short & knew it. Something else was needed but he didn't know what that would amount to, so he asked Jesus what was still lacking.
Grace does not teach you can depend on anything else except Christ to save you. You are making an assertion that isn't shown in the Christian doctrine of being saved by grace through faith & that not of yourself.
Jesus taught that one had to deny oneself, take up one's cross daily (dying daily) & give up all they have, IF they wanted to be His disciple. Peter demonstrated that concerning Christ's disciples & apostles:
Mark 10:23-31 Then Jesus looked around & said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
They were even more astonished & said to one another, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them & said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
28Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything & followed You.”
29“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake & for the gospel will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses & brothers & sisters & mothers & children & fields, along with persecutions—& in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last & the last will be first.”
He had to give up his riches because that was his god, his dependence was on them, not Christ. In order to be saved, confessing Christ as Lord & obediently following Him, he must give up the one thing that KEPT him from being saved, his Master of money. God was not His Master, thus by breaking the commandment on coveting, He had broken all the rest. The very first commandment is to have no other gods before or besides Me. Money was his god, placed before God. He was not willing to give it up in order to have eternal life. He was not willing to give it up in order follow Christ.
The false teaching of supposed 'grace' that you assert is not the biblical teaching of Christ or the Scriptures.
. Your son doesn't have to worry about his non-Christian friends frying in Hell for all eternity. He doesn't need to worry about himself going to Hell for all eternity either.
