Now and then, I will hear a person say something like this: “I believe in God. I try to be a good person, and live a moral life. I go to church, and I would hope God will let me in.”
I want to say, “You say you believe in God. You try to be a good person, you live a moral life, and you hope it’s enough to get you into heaven? Do you know that this is wasted effort? God says you cannot earn your way to heaven by being good.
Hear his word in Isaiah 64:6… “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts (good works) are like filthy rags.” We cannot claim righteousness by our good works. We are made righteous only by placing our faith in Jesus Christ and his righteousness.
“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”: (Romans 3:23); “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”: (Romans 6:23); “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
I feel as if I must shout it out. PLEASE UNDERSTAND! YOU CANNOT BE SAVED BY BEING GOOD, or by joining a church. Not by giving a certain amount of money, not by your abilities, or even by your good looks! God, speaking through the apostle Paul, in his letter to the church at Ephesus, says this: “You are saved by faith not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Jesus’ own words are, “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). In Acts 4:12, Peter, speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
Someone once said, “Do what you like, you will never save yourself.” It is a mystery to me why we have to make it so hard. Jesus Christ died once for all. There is no other way.
In His Truth,
Pastor Jerry
sandhillspastor 