by Ma. Teresa Baniaga

Created on: June 16, 2009

Based on the gospel of grace that the New Testament teaches, being good does not count if we want to get to heaven. Good works are unacceptable as a means to pay our way to the Kingdom of God, because if we can gain entry to heaven by our own good works, Christ died for nothing. If there was any other way by which fallen sons of man can gain entry into heaven, it was utterly foolish for the King of kings to set aside His glory to die senselessly on the cross.

Being good is a product of being saved or being qualified to get to heaven. In other words, we are good because we are on our way to heaven, not the other way around. Our good works are a result of our personal relationship with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who promised heaven to us. God is a good God, and being so, His children are admonished to uphold goodness, holiness, purity, love, kindness. But these are not in any way His way of getting us to heaven, because He has paid the price already at Calvary. Acts of goodness are merely expressions of our being saved.

There is one problem with this salvation by works doctrine, or the belief that we can get to heaven by being good. Earning one's salvation gives way to pride because man, in his fallen state, can easily boast before God that he gets into heaven by his own merits. This is unthinkable, if we consider how far we have all fallen short of God's glory. If the Lord indeed accepts our works as payment for our passage to heaven, then, paradise will soon be populated by men with unregenerate hearts that extol their own goodness rather than God's. This is utterly unbelievable in the light of Jesus' declaration: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.

This doctrine also gives rise to more questions whose answers we will never ever know. If being good can get us to heaven, how good do we need to be in order to qualify? Who sets the level of goodness we all should attain to? What is the operational definition of good, for purposes of determining who can get to heaven? These are just examples of the questions we need to answer before this doctrine of salvation by works can be reasonably accepted or believed.

Jesus has done the work at the cross already so that we are acceptable to Him unconditionally. Isn't that more believable and easier for us all? Why do we need to complicate matters by insisting that man should work for his own salvation?

Christianity is based on the truth that man is sinful and is separated from God.

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