good works and heaven

[loveisjoy]

"The Father has loved us so much that we are called children of God. And we really are his children."
1 John 3:1




Misbeliefs​

I have to keep all the rules to be set right with God. I have to make myself fit before God. I have to be perfect. I have to be good and do good works to get into Heaven. I have to make myself holy and righteous.
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Truth​

Justification By God And Salvation​

• "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we became conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who beleive. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified [made righteous] freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. " (Romans 3:20-14)
  
• I "know that a man is not justified [<--Hebrew word meaning made righteous] by observing the law, but by faith in Christ Jesus. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified [made righteous] by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified [made righteous]" (Galatians 2:16).
• " In Christ, neither my most conscientious religion [keeping of all the rules and laws; punctual observance of the law] nor disregard of religion amounts to anything"--toward being justified (made righteous) before God or eternal salvation. But faith alone (in which is freely given to me and faith in Christ's righteousness and his work on the cross) justifies me before God and gives me eternal salvation. (Galatians 5:6). If we are justified (made righteous), not by our own righteous works, not by the law of Moses, but as a free gift of God through faith, there is no ground for boasting (Romans 3:27-31).
• "Therefore," says the apostle, "no man can hope to be justified [made righteous] by any law, whether it be that general law, or the particular law of Moses, and therefore to be saved: when we compare the law and man's life, we see that all men are sinners, and therefore worthy of condemnation in the sight of God." But God took that condemnation, the penalty of death on himself, satisfying perfect justice, so that we could be with him. (see Bible verse)
• If I was made righteous by my own works alone or partly by faith and partly by works, the glory of this justification would not be wholly given to God (see Bible verse).
• Christ won't be the Savior of any one who won't rely upon him as their only Savior (See Galatians chapter 5).

Righteousness And Holiness
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• Christ made me righteous (Romans 3:27). Depending on the works of the law for righteousness forfits all my advantages by Jesus Christ.(Galatians 5:2-4).
  
• I can never be perfect. But Jesus did what I could not do. When God looks at me, He sees the righteousness of Christ.
  
• "We are made holy through the sacrifice Christ made in his body once and for all time." Hebrews 10:10

Being Set Right With God And Pleasing God
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• "[I am] not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 2:16).
• "If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. ...Abraham entered into what God was doing for him and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own" (Romans 4:3).
• "If see that the job is too big for [me], that it's something only God can do, and trust Him to do it-- could never do it for myself no matter how hard and long worked--well that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets [me] set right with God, by God. Sheer gift" (Romans 4:5).
  [*]"No human being can please God by self-improvement, instead [I am] set right before God by trusting the Messiah, not by trying to be good" (Galatians 2:16).
  

Being Fit Before God
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• I don't have to make myself fit before God. Jesus made me fit before God.
• "The sacrificed Jesus made [me] fit for God, set [me] right with God" (Romans 4:25).
• "Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable..."
  

Following The Rules
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• "God made us alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins. He cancelled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow." Colossians 2:13-14
• "Entering into this fullness is not something figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of..keeping a long list of laws. [I'm an insider] through what Christ has already gone through for me, destroying the power of sin" (Col 2:11).
  [*]"If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily" (Galatians 2:21).
  
  

Who Saves? ​

• "Saving is his work, all do is trust him enough to let Him do it. neither make nor save myself. God does both the making and the saving" (Ephesians 2:10).
  [*]"By faith in Christ [I am] in direct relationship with God" (Galatians 3:26).
  
  

A Gift
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• "God's promise arrives as pure gift" (Rom 4:16
• "[I'm] not 'doing' anything; [I'm] simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for [me]. That's salvation" (Romans 10:9).

Let me use a piece of the movie The Perfect Stranger to explain:


God is about restoring relationships. He isn't interested in people performing well enough for them. We can't possibly do that anyway.

God created people to have a relationship with Him so they could enjoy His love.

How many dishes would a child have to wash before she could get up in her father's lap and get a hug again? How many A's would she have to make in school? None. She doesn't have to do anything, she's his daughter. That's exactly how it is with us and God. We can't do anything to earn God's love.

No one is good enough to make it into Heaven no matter how hard they try. Doing all the right things, like keeping the Ten Commandments, won't get you into Heaven. Man's rebellion against God is like a huge rip in the moral fabric of the universe, with God on one side and everybody else on the other. And there's no way you can get to the other side. Because only God is big enough to fix the tear.

Mother Teresa for all her goodness, was no closer to bridging the gap than Hitler was. Both of them, based on their own merits, were still a long way from being with God.

Keeping the Ten Commandments won't get us into Heaven because no one could ever keep them well enough, because God's standard is perfection. On what basis will you stand before a perfect God and say that you've been good enough?

More than anything God wants to forgive people so they can return to Him, but God's desire to forgive can't override his perfect justice. People have to pay a penalty for breaking God's laws. And the penalty is death.

So what has to happen before he'll take us back? Well God has two options. Either God can let people pay their own penalties--which they can't do, there's no way, they'd be separated from Him forever. God's other option is to take the penalty of death on Himself. He can do that because He's God. The Creator is always greater than the creation. And for the Creator to take on the penalty of death for himself, that satisfies perfect justice.

God wants you with him. It's why he made you in the first place. But you're naturally separated from God because of the bad stuff you do. And to make good on the fact that a penalty has to be paid before you can be with God, God took your penalty on Himself and He died to pay it for you. All he wants from you is just that you trust Him and believe in the fact that he did die to pay your penalty.