I've found recently that some Christians believe that, 'receiving eternal life' or 'getting to heaven' is through doing more good than bad! In other words there's some scoreboard in heaven they believe and if the right-hand column adds up to more than the left-hand then they make it!

The problem is that there are no scriptures to back up this belief system! In fact this belief is similar to that of those religions which do not have a saviour. Since there is no-one who has gone before and provided a means to be saved then the only other option they have is to save themselves through their 'good works'.

Of course, these 'good works' are not necessarily good in a Christian sense. In some religions one can commit murder/lie/steal/deceive for the religion's sake and that would, for them, be counted on the right-hand side and help them, they think, get to heaven!

But let's get back to the Christian world. Is there any scripture that tells us how God (the true God, of the the bible) might count our good works and our sins? Well actually there is, in the book of James.

In James, Chapter 2, verse 10, we read this...
Jam 2:10 If someone obeys all of God's laws except one, that person is guilty of breaking all of them.

Isn't it interesting that God looks on law keeping in this way? Whereas we might think in terms of adding up the good law keeping and seeing how they might counterbalance the bad law breaking we've done, we find God thinks in terms of all or nothing!

In God's acounting of our law keeping we find there are only two scores possible. We either score 100% or we score 0%.

Actually we can only get one score, 0%. This is because we learn this from the bible also.

Ecc 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Fortunately for us though, while we cannot live up to God's standard of ourselves, He has rescued us from death through Jesus redeeming us on the cross.

Rom 3:21-25 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.

As you can see from the above scripture, we Christians are justified (declared righteous/innocent) not by our good works, but we are justified by faith in Jesus. He has done what we could not, and by faith His righteousness is imputed to us.

God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

By ourselves we'd be Zero's but in Jesus our saviour, we are 100%.

It's great when a God plan comes together. The true God of course! The God of the bible. He alone has the power to bring all that He says to pass.

Best wishes for Grace and the Peace of Jesus.

Attlee.

Another thought....

Can You Lose Salvation. Click Here.
Is Holy Spirit God? (Pt 1) Click Here.
Sand On The Seashore. Click Here.