Expert: John Fields - 12/4/2011

Question
I may have asked you questions before, I'm not sure. If so it would have been about Baptist vs church of Christ, which church is right. Anyway I am currently going to a church of Christ and the preacher there said last Sunday that if only 20% of the congregation is doing the work only 20% are going to heaven. This Sunday he said that our efforts are what get us to heaven, something to the effect that Jesus plus our effort is what it takes. I don't agree. I believe that we are saved by Jesus shed blood on the cross and nothing else. I believe we do works simply because we love God and we want to please him. But I don't think our works bear any weight on our salvation. This is seriously troubling me and I still don't know what to think. I grew up Baptist/ Assembly of God , but have been going to a church of Christ. But the teaching seems so foreign to me. I don't know if it is because the teaching is just different or the Holy Spirit is warning me. Could you tell me if you think salvation is by faith or works? Because what he is talking about sounds like works to me.

Answer
Please forgive my delay as I am a full time minister and had several crises come up that demanded my attention. God bless you for your desire to please God.

What the preacher said was mistaken and that you are VERY close to being right. Let me quote you.

"I believe we do works simply because we love God and we want to please him."   I agree 100% with this statement.

"But I don't think our works bear any weight on our salvation." Your second statement is closer to truth than not. They DO have a bearing on our salvation in that they tell whether we are walking in faith and love to show God appreciation or whether we are walking in the vanity of our heart.

As Christians, we are more blessed than any other group. But we need to be reminded how blessed we are lest we make the mistake of living like those who have little to no hope. When Paul wrote the letter to the Romans who was he writing it and sending it to? Sure we use it to convert people to Christ and it is very useful for that, but LOOK what Paul says about who it is written to.

Romans 1:13-17 (13) I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.  14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Paul called these people brethren, but they were NOT fellow Jews because Paul says he wants to have a harvest among them as he has had among the OTHER Gentiles. There is no way Paul refers to these Gentile people as brethren UNLESS they are already Christians. Romans has rightly been referred to as the Gospel for maturing and growing Christians. When Peter said our beloved brother Paul had written some things difficult to understand he was surely referring to Romans first and foremost. It has challenged, confounded and delighted countless Christians down through the years. It has truly shown the Gospel to be the GOOD NEWS!

So why was Paul preaching the Gospel to people who were already Christians? It was for the same reason that it still applies today. Many have the fruits of the joy and confidence of the good news robbed from them because they are placing their hope and confidence in a medium that can ONLY bring about doubt and hopelessness. They are attempting to place their confidence in self and how well they get the things right which we all have been charged with doing. They are using law-keeping or works as the means of keeping or obtaining the righteousness that can ONLY come from God and His Son and we can NEVER get from our own works. This can only harm us.

James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

This means that JUST one violation of law makes one as guilty as if they'd broken every single law. So if any of us is trying to be made right by our own observance of law we are choosing to live as condemned sinners since in practical terms, according to the perfect standard that God expects, there are no law keepers ONLY law-breakers. To be a law-keeper you have to have NEVER broken law. NOT ONCE! We'll see next that one who seeks to be justified apart from reliance upon God through faith in Jesus Christ is trying to establish his own righteousness.

Romans 10:1-10 (1) Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.  2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.  3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. 6  But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” 8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Was this applicable only to the Law of Moses? No, Paul was talking to non-Jews. This was applicable to ALL LAW . Paul talks about THEM , the Jews who are trying to be justified by law, and says they do not know about God's righteousness and are seeking to establish their own. How are they doing this? They are NOT subjecting themselves to the righteousness of God. If we do not acknowledge that we are INCAPABLE of perfectly keeping law to be saved and that Jesus dying in our place to fulfill the demands of law is the ONLY way we can be saved and made righteous we will NEVER be made righteous. This is Paul's message to those who have ALREADY accepted Christ as Savior as to how they SHOULD live and think in Christ. If you say it is my keeping of God's will and commands that keeps or makes me righteous you are, like those Jews Paul was referring to, attempting to establish your own righteousness APART from what God has done through His Son. Accordingly, you will be allowed your choice and condemned as a result as a law-breaker since you can never be a perfect law-keeper, no matter how hard you try. Keeping law from the point it is broken NEVER takes away the guilt from ANY of the previous times it has been broken. The wages of sin is death and those who live by law WILL be paid accordingly.

As humans, we are sinners who are guilty enough by our own "so called" deeds of righteousness to be sent to the Lake of Fire. The hard to accept facts are that we are not good enough or commendable enough to receive ANY good thing from the Lord. This is a hard blow to the collective egos of many, but the facts are that we are left with NO room to glory in the flesh or in the accomplishments we think we bring to the table.

Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Romans 3:9-20 (9) What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10  As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;  11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14  “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”  15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;  16 ruin and misery mark their ways,  17 and the way of peace they do not know.”  18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20  Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

When Paul is talking to the Romans he is talking to fellow Christians, NOT  Jews. So when he asks if WE are any better, he is asking are WE CHRISTIANS any better. Are we righteous because we've kept God's laws? NO .

What we have, we have been given. What we have been given has been imputed; we have it as certainly as if it were in a vault inside of a safe deposit box. If I told you that a long lost relative had left you a vault full of money and that you were free to come in and claim it anytime how would that make you feel? Good? How then would you feel if you'd been told long-lost relative has been searching and upon finding you was SO overjoyed they wanted to treat you as an adopted child? Forthwith, ALL they have is bequeathed to you in their will AND they have given you a BOTTOMLESS line of funds from their bank to yours. THAT is the Christian's reality when it comes to righteousness. We were flat broke with no prospects for recovery as regards sin and NOW  we have been GIVEN a bottomless supply of perfect righteousness. God has MADE us. His righteousness has been IMPUTED to us.

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD ----------------NOT PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS!

RIGHTEOUSNESS
Philippians 3:9  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS
Romans 1:17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”  Baptism and sanctification – renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5 ).

GOD'S GIFT TO SINNERS
Isaiah 61:10  I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Clothed with Christ (Gal 3:27 )

IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We are declared fit when he are not.

CHRIST'S PAYMENT FOR OUR PENALTY OF SIN
Romans 5:18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.

The GOOD NEWS, is the GREAT NEWS!
Titus 3:3-7 (3)  At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6  whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,  7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

He saved us at the first by HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS  and keeps us saved to present by HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS . He did this that we may become heirs, FULL of the hope of eternal life!