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Salvation is not
achieved by one’s personal righteousness, or one’s
good deeds for God, church or people generally. It is
not anything one can earn, no matter how hard a person
tries. Salvation is not about removing ignorance of
one’s alleged divine nature, nor is it about human
enlightenment in a general sense or the progress of
human evolution. Biblically, salvation is from one
thing and on thing only: sin. Salvation occurs only
when a person’s sin is forgiven by God.
To merit entrance into
heaven, humanly speaking, one must be sinless, which
means that the Law would have to be kept perfectly,
without even a single failure. However, because all
men and women have inherited Adam’s sin and have a sin
nature, they can never keep the Law perfectly in order
to merit entrance into heaven:
All of us have become like one who
is unclean, and all our righteous acts are
like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and
like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6)
For I tell you that unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not
enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)
For whoever keeps the whole law and
yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of
breaking all of it. (James 2:10)
All who rely on observing the law
are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed
is everyone who does not continue to do
everything written in the Book of the Law."
(Galatians 3:10)
The problem is that no
one can keep the Law perfectly because of the
inherited tendency to sin and the willful choice to
sin. Therefore we all stand guilty before God and are
powerless to save ourselves.
"You see, at just the right time,
when we were still powerless. Christ died for the
ungodly." (Romans 5:6)
"For what the law was powerless to
do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God
did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in
sinful man." (Romans 8:3)
Thus, because we are
unable to keep the Law, salvation by that means must
be considered impossible. The following scriptures
prove this beyond dispute and reveal that all
religions which teach salvation by law or works are
wrong.
The Law, good works and
personal righteousness are powerless to save people.
For if a law had been given
that could impart life, then righteousness would
certainly have come by the law. (Galatians 3:21)
I do not set aside the grace of God,
for if righteousness could be gained through the
law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians
2:21)
For we maintain a man is justified
by faith apart from observing the law.
(Romans 3:28)
To the man who does not work
but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith
is credited as righteousness. David says the same
thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man
to whom God credits righteousness apart from
works: Blessed are they whose transgressions are
forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord will never count against him.
(Romans 4:5-8)
We... know that a man is not
justified by observing the law, but by faith in
Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in
Jesus Christ that we may be justified by faith in
Christ and not by observing the law, because
by observing the law no one will be
justified. (Galatians 2:15-16)
All who rely on observing the Law
are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed
is everyone who does not continue to do everything
written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one
is justified before God by the law, because,
"the righteous will live by faith." The law is not
based on faith; on the contrary, "the man who does
these things will live by them." Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law by becoming a curse
for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who
is hung on a tree." (Galatians 3:10-13)
Then they asked him, "What must we
do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered
"The work of God is this: to believe in the one
he has sent." (John 6:28-29)
Now then, why do you try to test God
by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that
neither we nor our fathers have been able to
bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our
Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.
(Acts 15:10-11)
If salvation does not
come by works, salvation must come by faith alone.
This is one reason the Scripture declares that our
faith is more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7).
Consider the following:
Yet to all who received him, to
those who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become children of God. (John 1:12)
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.
(John 3:16)
All the prophets testify about
him [Jesus] that everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness of sins through his name. (Acts
10:43)
Not having a righteousness of my own
that comes from the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from
God and is by faith. (Philippians 5:9)
For in the gospel a righteousness
from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by
faith from first to last, Just as it is
written: "the righteous will live by faith." (Romans
1:17)
Without faith it is impossible
to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)
I have come into the world as a
light, so that no one who believes in me
should stay in darkness. (John 12:46)
This righteousness from God comes
through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
(Romans 3:22)
Christ is the end of the law so that
there may be righteousness for everyone who
believes. (Romans 10:4)
Salvation is therefore
a free gift of God’s grace.
For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God—not by works, so that
no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Eternal life cannot
possibly be earned by subsequent works and personal
righteousness if eternal life is received
at the point of faith.
Whoever believes in the Son has
eternal life. (John 3:36)
I tell you the truth, whoever hears
my word and believes him who sent me has
eternal life and will not be condemned; he has
crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)
I tell you the truth, he who
believes has everlasting life. (John 6:47)
I write these things to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God so that you
may know that you have eternal life. (1 John
5:13)
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