There will come a day when you and I will stand before God, and he will ask each of us why we should be allowed into heaven. What will your answer be? Will it be something like “I tried to be a good person, always being kind to everyone and helping old ladies to cross the road?” Maybe you could say “I was the best husband/wife I could be, and my kids turned out great.” Or “I fulfilled all the requirements of my church and spent every free moment working for the Lord.” Or maybe you might answer “I read my Bible every day, prayed twice a day and never said a swear word.” What would you add? What would your reason be that God should save you from eternal damnation and allow you into his Kingdom?
Until fairly recently my answer would have contained any variation of the options above. But the Lord slowly opened my eyes to show me that, according to His Word, an answer which relies on any subject other than “Jesus”, is a false heresy.
I grew up believing I was a Christian because I ticked all the right boxes, fulfilling all the requirements of the church I grew up in. I knew all the answers in Sunday School as I tried my best to be a good girl. I was permanently exhausted from trying to earn God’s favour by being busy with church activities that had little to do with building a relationship with Jesus.
This anxious pursuit of perfectionism had two sinful outcomes: when I did excel at something and achieved my goals, I became proud and self-righteous. When I did not meet my own impossibly high expectations, I suffered from severe disappointment and fell into a deep depression because I was letting everyone down, especially God. I found myself anxiously see-sawing between these two extremes. I just could not be good enough to stop striving.
My striving for perfection reached a new low during our years of struggling to grow our family. Throughout the toughest trial of my life, I could not understand why God was not rewarding all my hard work by giving me the desires of my heart.
How could a good God be so cruel as to not only deny me the desires of my heart but also allow so much grief in my life? There were moments of agonizing sobbing as I doubted God’s love and goodness. Maybe my earnest striving was still sufficient to deserve his love and favour.
During these hard years, the Lord started working in my heart (Ezekiel 36:26) to ask the questions that would eventually bring me to him. I questioned God’s love and care for me and why he allowed these heartbreaking situations.
I soon realized the only way to find the truth of God’s character was to read the whole bible, which I did for the first time in my life in 2021. I was astonished to learn that the entire Bible points to Christ. I felt embarrassed and angry that I never before knew this about the Word of God.
Through God’s word, I learned that I was not as good as I thought (Romans 3:23) and God did not owe me anything. I was a worthless sinner and nothing that I could do could ever earn his love. But He loved me even in my sinful imperfect state (Romans 5:8), saved me from my sin (Romans 6:23) and adopted me as his child (Ephesians 1:2-8; Galatians 4:4-7), assuring me of eternal life with Jesus (Romans 10:9-13). Nothing could pluck me from his hand! (Romans 8:1)
There is nothing I can do to earn God’s love (Romans 4:4).
There is nothing I can do to lose His love.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8: 38-39
Not saved by our works
The doctrine I believed my whole life, of trying to earn my salvation through my works and efforts is not biblical. Theologians refer to this teaching as legalism which is the belief that a person can earn the right standing before God by good works and obedience. Although this term does not appear in scripture, many passages warn against the idea (Colossians 2:20-23; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; etc.). The idea is based on God’s instructions to the Israelites to obey the laws He gave them in the first 5 books of the Old Testament. God knew the Jews would fail dismally to adhere to these laws (all 660 of them). God used their continuous failure to point to the need for a New Covenant – someone had to fulfil these requirements on their behalf so that they could be reconciled with God.
Some “Christian” denominations have dragged legalism to new lows by adding or substituting other man-centred requirements (e.g. sacraments, striving for perfection etc.) to the law of the Old Testament as a “means” to salvation. Even though some of these requirements might be good and moral, they cannot earn our salvation (Galatians 3:10-14).
God is holy and perfect. To earn your holiness before God, you must obey his commandments faultlessly, 100% of the time (Matthew 5:20-48). God does not use a 50% or even 75% passing grade. Open Exodus 20 at the Ten Commandments and ask yourself if you’ve ever desired your friend’s jacket or told a “white lie”. That is only the superficial sin you are aware of. God is perfect and thus requires perfection. But Jesus came to live the impeccable life we could never live, fulfilling the requirements of the law 100% on our behalf. On the cross, our horrendous report card was put on his account, and he paid the price we deserved. What is even more wonderful, is that Jesus’ perfect record was accounted to us as if we’ve lived the perfect life!
It is finished!
There is no more work to do to be justified before God, except to place our imperfect faith and trust in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Legalism tells us we must do something to earn God’s love, but according to God’s word, the doctrine of grace teaches us that the work is done!
If you are still trying to earn good standing with God through your efforts, you insinuate Jesus’ work on the cross was not good enough. Can you see what blasphemy it is to think you can top up Christ’s perfect sacrifice with your pitiful efforts?
If salvation could be simplified to a mathematic equation, legalists would summarize the process as such:
Salvation = Works + Faith
The equation is all wrong. It gives a sinful human too much power in a process that is a wonderful gift from God given by his grace.
We are saved by faith alone through grace alone.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”.
Ephesians 2:8-10
Only when you see your sinfulness relative to God’s perfect holiness you can appreciate the immeasurable gift of grace. It takes great humility to accept that you are helpless in the sight of God. My salvation from my wretched sin depends on God, and God alone. This is difficult for us humans to accept. We want to do something to earn this love because we want to contribute somehow. We are too proud to concede that we are helpless before God.
I could not accept the free gift of grace until I realized I had nothing to offer.
I always thought I was a good person and had been blind to my sinfulness and need for salvation. I couldn’t see that the price for my sin had already been paid and that there was nothing I needed to do to earn God’s love. I didn’t need any other mediators except Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 8:6). He knew me better than I knew myself, but still died on the cross for me. I was so lost I couldn’t see that all I needed to do was trust in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour (Romans 5:1-2). All that hard work I had placed my value in was like filthy rags before him (Isaiah 64:6). Most importantly, there is now no more condemnation for me (Romans 8:1), and nothing can separate me from His love (Romans 8:38-39). I can be certain that I will be with Jesus in his Kingdom one day (John 10:29). I always thought I would have to wait and see what he would think of all my efforts on the last day.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
John 10:29
When I ponder the truth that God has forgiven my sins of self-righteousness and pride that I have battled with all my life, I am overcome with gratitude and awe. I can only imagine how many people I must have hurt with my arrogant attitude. God has always loved me just as I am, which negated the need for the exhausting striving for perfection. I was like the Pharisee praying in the temple, always showing off how good I was and listing all my ridiculous works before Jesus to prove that I was worthy of his love (Luke 18:9-14). He must have looked at me with such great pity. I’m eternally grateful that through his perfect love, he never gave up on me.
The Father chose me.
Jesus died for me.
The Holy Spirit is working in me to make me more like Christ.
There is a place in God’s Kingdom already prepared for me.
I don’t have to prove my worthiness because I can never be.
That is the best news I have ever heard.
I love the NASB translation of Psalm 46:10: “Cease striving and know that I am God.”
There is a famous clip from one of Alistair Begg’s sermons where he paints a picture of the thief on the cross next to Jesus and how he was saved. I love this illustration which overwhelms me with gratitude every time I watch it. You can watch the full sermon here.
Where do my works fit in?
When an unbeliever or a legalist hears that salvation is by grace alone the most common response is that it is too easy. They might ask “How can you merely sit back and let God do all the work and have no human responsibility?”. Pride prevents a person from seeing that only God can save them, and ignorance blinds that same person to the magnificent reality of salvation.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Read Romans 6:1-14
When you honestly grasp the truth that Christ died for you while you were still a sinner (Romans 5:6, 8, 10) and you were utterly helpless to contribute to this incredible act of love then you will be a changed person, and this gratitude will permeate every area of your life.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have work? Can that faith save him?… For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
Read James 5:14-26
At conversion, a child of God is given the Holy Spirit which convicts us of our sin and opens our eyes to the areas of our sinful nature that need to change. Together with God, we will work in our hearts to overcome sin and grow in the likeness of Christ. “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). The work of the Holy Spirit will bear fruit in the life of the believer (Galatians 5:22-23). If there is no evidence of a changed heart, there is no evidence of salvation. No matter how “good” you think you are or which requirements you think you obeyed, if your life is not dramatically different from that of an unbeliever, you are not saved.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6
The right equation for salvation is thus:
Faith = Salvation + Works
In the documentary American Gospel: In Christ Alone, the difference between legalism and Biblical Christianity is explained clearly:
Thus the conclusion of our complex mathematics problem is not that we sit back to “let go and let God”. This is antinomianism, another heresy you can read more about here and here. Instead, the believer works in synergy with the Holy Spirit to provide evidence of a changed heart, producing new ways of thinking, and thus new patterns of behaviour to grow in the likeness of our Saviour.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12-13
Now that we have studied what grace is and what it is not, listen to the well-known hymn of Amazing Grace with new ears. What do you think?
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
Amazing Grace – John Newton
