Expert: Marilyn - 5/31/2008

Question
Hello Marilyn,

Hope all is well, with you.

My question is this.


Can you gain paradise?? (Heaven) On works alone or do you need Faith as well?

If so, do the two go hand in hand (vise versa) Faith works, works and Faith??

Is it also true that because the Vatican says all muslims and Jews will be saved because at the least they believe in The Creator??  What are you feelings on that??

To me, you have to believe that Jesus is Our Lord Savior, that He died for our sins, past present and future. That we believe that Jesus was God in the flesh.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this.  Thankyou


Blessings, Junior

Answer
Howdy Junior!

Great to hear from you.  

Jesus' half-brother, James, writes extensively about the importance of works in his book.  He makes it clear you can't get to Heaven without faith, but faith without applying it won't cut it either.  

The apostle Paul wrote that if you believe in your heart Jesus rose from the dead and confess with you mouth, "Jesus is Lord" (Romans 10:9), you will be saved.  But Scripture makes it clear that this confession has to result in something.  A person who makes this confession then exhibits absolutely no change should not view himself guaranteed a ticket to Heaven.  

James says, "faith without works is dead, James 2:26.  In other words, the evidence that you now belong to God should show up in your life, you should stop cussing, you should start loving your neighbor, you should be paying your tithe etc. etc.  It's not expected that persons immediately become perfect Christians, it's expected that the evidence start showing up in this material world.  

What does it mean "Jesus is Lord" anyway?  Is Jesus Lord or not?  If we lived during the times of kings and queens we'd have a better understanding of what having a lord means.  We'd understand that to say, "Jesus is Lord," is to say, "I will obey.  I will submit to your will."  If it doesn't mean "I will obey.  I will submit to the Lord," what does it mean?  

It's not for human beings to judge people whose faith seems questionable.  We have no information of the internal state of the individual, of God's workings in his heart and life or of his actual future.  God must judge such persons as to whether or not their confession was genuine or just noise.  And He will do that at the appropriate time.  

Hebrews says, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sin is left, but only fearful expectation of judgment...How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the Blood of the Covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of Grace?  "It is mine to avenge, I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge His people."  It is a dreadful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God," Hebrews 10:26, 29-31.

Notice, he says "deliberately."  In order to find oneself in such a situation where the Lord feels He must exact revenge on you, you must willfully and actively, continuously and knowingly sin like the devil.  But this warning is given to persons who have made the confession, not to ordinary sinners.  Even the man who thinks he's willfully sinning because his heart is broken or because he's angry with God doesn't fit the bill of the person the writer of Hebrews is talking about here.  Salvation is not that easy to lose.  God keeps working on a wounded person to heal and to draw him back to His Heart.  Sometimes, like Jonah, or the prodigal son, we human beings have to go out into the world and break our noses falling down before we will fully submit to God as Master and King.  The Jonahs and the prodigal sons aren't the persons the writer of Hebrews is talking about.

Once a person makes his confession he becomes God's property and God doesn't let go of him.  He does His part to either bring the person to be transformed in the moment of confession, which does happen, sometimes in an instant.  He does His part over time through the working of His Word in the person's life, Romans 12:2.  He does His part through His faithfulness after the person falls down and finally gives in to God's Kingship (Jonah and the prodigal son).  And He does His part by sending mentors, guides and advisers.  

Once a person belongs to God, he cannot act like he belongs in the enemy camp without consequences.  Essentially, it's like the Israelites coming out of Egypt.  Getting their bodies out of Egypt was easy, getting Egypt out of their thinking and doing was hard.  The confession is like coming out of Egypt.  But unless Egypt gets out of the person, he won't be able to enter the Promised Land.  

Still, God does not expect perfection.  This is why the example of Abraham is mentioned.  Abraham was far from perfect.  Even in faith, he wasn't perfect all of the time.  But over all, Abraham did something few of us manage, he believed God, and next to love, God values faith the most.  "Without faith it is impossible to please God," Hebrews 11:6.  

Believing God is a thing that touches on works.  If you truly believe God, then you will look to Him to supply your needs, not to government, your personal schemes or some dirty deal.  If you truly believe God, then you will act as He would have you act, behave as He would have you behave.  This is why James says, "faith without works is dead."  If you don't act like you believe God, then you don't really have faith, so you?  Maybe it takes time for the concept of believing God to percolate through you and your thinking.  

It's a difficult juxtaposition.  On one hand God doesn't expect works, He expects faith and He looks at the heart, but on the other hand, if there isn't any oil in the lamp, any works to one's credit, then maybe there isn't actually any faith either.  Ultimately, each of us must come to an understanding of this difficult concept on our own.  Since you argue for God on the web and pursue understanding of Him--admittedly, I've never met you and I'm not the person to judge this--I'd say, it seems to me you're doing fine.  No worries.  

Unfortunately, the Bible is clear, Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, NO man comes to the Father, except through Him, John 14:6.  This upsets people.  They want Heaven to be an inclusive place where a person can expect to go regardless of what he believes and how he acts.  I think you and I have discussed before how Muslims are lied to when they're told they believe in "God."  And you and I both know Jesus is the Messiah for the Jews first.  This statement by the Vatican means Jesus died for nothing and sin really isn't an issue.  It cancels the entire Bible since sin is it's main theme.  It's a horrible thing for the Vatican to say this.  

People get upset about the idea that God would "let" human beings go to hell.  He's not letting anybody go to hell, He's done everything possible to stop people from going to hell, but He's not going to force anyone to accept Jesus as Lord or be in Heaven with Him when they obviously don't like Him now.   He's not going to let unrepentant persons in Heaven.  I don't know about you, but I'd feel kind of uncomfortable to find an unrepentant Hitler in Heaven!  Why did Jesus have to come and die if there's no accepting Him as Lord and Savior as a requirement to live eternally with the Father?    

I agree with you, there's only one way to Heaven and that's through Jesus as Lord.

Sincerely,

Marilyn