Will good works get you into Heaven, or only bad works keep you out?

May, I ask you a question, “How does one receive salvation, justification, the new birth, and eternal life. Is it—

• By believing in Christ (John 3:16; Acts 16:31)?
• By repentance (Acts 2:38; 2 Peter 3:9)?
• By baptism (John 3:5; 1 Peter 3:21; Titus 3:5)?
• By the work of the Spirit (John 3:5; 2 Corinthians 3:6)?
• By declaring with our mouths (Luke 12:8; Romans 10:9)?
• By coming to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4; Hebrews 10:26)?
• By works (Romans 2:6, 7; James 2:24)?
• By grace (Acts 15:11; Ephesians 2:8)?
• By His blood (Romans 5:9; Hebrews 9:22)?
• By His righteousness (Romans 5:17; 2 Peter 1:1)?
• By His Cross (Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 2:14)?

Under normal circumstances, can any of these Scriptural ways be eliminated? If so, which ones? Can we be saved without faith? Without God’s grace? Without repentance? (Now, here’s the real test) Without baptism? Without the Holy Spirit?

I would suggest that the wise disciple would make sure all of these points are covered. Yes, and even including water baptism—regardless of what your theology of baptism is, how dare you neglect it? 

Yet, I find an appalling disregard to the urgency of baptism, or a concerted effort by the average parishioner to become fully engaged in the good work of the Church. Sunday school classes are left teacher less, nurseries are poorly attended, and, of course, on and on the list could go.

My question is this? Whatever happened to the good old days, when we were told that works did matter? 

Works, according to Scripture, can either affirm us, or condemn us (Romans 2:5-11; Ephesians 2:10).

For we know, as 2 Corinthians 5:10 reminds us,

"[We] must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad," 

Further, we also know that Christ said to John the Revelator,

"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done," which definitely describe a future judgment according to man's works. (Revelation 22:12,)

So, works matter. Consider faith as a many sided virtue, part of which is understanding, commitment, and obedience, and all of which is bathed in love.

I say this because to properly exercise faith we must understand what are committed to, and then why we have placed our faith in that something or someone. Faith is therefore commitment, an intelligent commitment in obedience.

Obedience, as well as commitment, implies conformity. We must conform to the requirements of our commitment. If, for instance, we seek employment, and then find it, we commitment to the requirements thereof with the expectation that we will be rewarded at the end of the day or for the period that we have agreed to work. 

That’s faith. Not blind faith, but faith with expectations. Why, the expectations? Well, simply because we trust the one who hired us to pay us when our work is done.

Now, there are many parts of this analogy that can lead us off on a thousand rabbit trails, but the central point is that faith is much broader than a simple mental assent, or to accept as it were a job, then expect to be rewarded for our laziness for not getting the job done.

No, committed faith, saving faith is willing to hold up its end of the bargain. For the child of God, a worker in His vineyard, we must be faithful to expect a reward in the end. 

The rules of engagement are perfectly clear that—

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

Now, that is a pretty stern message to the lazy Christian, who feels that they can just coast into their Heavenly reward without exerting any or hardly any effort at all. And, the truth of the matter is that no one is exempt. 

So, we must all work, for there will come a day, when no man shall work. (John 9:4)

In closing, I would like to ask: Could it be that we need to seek out a new paradigm for salvation in the ultimate sense? Could it be that our salvation is incrementally a process that begins at conversion but continues step by step through out life, and is only completed we are ushered through the Gates of Heaven? That is not to say that if death should suddenly interrupt the process that we would be barred eternally from Heaven; but it is to say that the task does not end with a simple "I do." As in any marriage, we, too, have our responsibilites.

Now, for a brief analogy which I think will be helpful in understand what I have just written in the above paragraph.

I taught at two fine institutions--one, North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the other in North Dakota called Trinity. In both of the schools, each had a student to die before graduation, one in a car accident, and the other with cancer. Neither had completed their course work; however, when graduation time came both were awarded their degrees posthumously. They had been faithful to the best of their abilities right up to the end, and were rewarded as such. Had either of them dropped out or flunked, neither would have received the degree, but since such was not the case, but both granted the degree.

I would suggest that, perhaps God operates similarly. So, as the journey continues; so does our commitment.

Blessings!

JimR_/