June 1st 2014
What Does It Cost You To Go To Heaven?
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no-one can boast.
Following are comments a VOW subscriber wrote about the commentary of 5/16/2014.
So you don’t have to do anything good to get to heaven as long as you believe in Jesus. Hmm!
In the accounts of Jesus’ suffering on the cross, one of the thieves hanging next to Him, asked Jesus to remember him. We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:41-43) Jesus replied that this man would in fact go to heaven or paradise that very day! While this is a controversial situation, it shows the dependence on you doing something good is not necessary for you to go to heaven. All that is required is for you to believe Jesus is who He says He is, as this man professed!
So you can actually be a rather bad person, but if you believe in Jesus, you're in.
But you can do good works your whole life and if you don't believe in Jesus you're out.
Accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior is the only thing you must do in order to be saved. All followers of Jesus must confess that they are sinners, and thus, rely upon Him for their salvation. Only Jesus died for the sins of the world, and was considered by God our Father, as the required perfect sacrifice. Only Jesus is the Son of the living God. Following any other human being, or some other god or gods, will not save your immortal soul! Doing good works does nothing about the sinful nature you inherited from Adam. Only accepting the salvation offered through Jesus Christ can save your immortal soul.
Some people believe that salvation can be likened to a scale of justice, and if you do enough good deeds, and thus they outweigh the bad things you do, then you go to heaven. If this were true, then there is no need for a Savior, as your salvation would be decided by your deeds, good vs. evil! Thus, this thought process eliminates any need for a God at all. With this method, you would not know whether you were saved or not when you die. Unless, of course, you and you alone make the decision about your personal salvation! This situation then makes God answerable to you instead of the other way around! God is only allowed to apply His stamp of approval to your decision. Does this make any sense to you?
Mother Theresa was said to have doubts all her life, but she continued to do good works. So I guess she's out.
This may be controversial, as here, but I believe that having doubts is a sin that Jesus is willing to forgive, and Jesus paid the price for your doubt on that cross too! Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. (Matthews 28:16-17) Do you believe that all eleven (all 12 of the Apostles) were saved? Note: the statement in these verses about these eleven men, it says, “but some doubted.” Yet in Revelation we read about the twenty-four elders who have been received into heaven and are seated in a place of honor. These are interpreted as the twelve Apostles and the twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel. The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: “Amen, Hallelujah!” (Revelation 19:4) Therefore, some of the twelve Apostles when they met Jesus as it states in Matthew 28, had some doubt “When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” If you do not believe (doubt) that Jesus is who He says He is, and then you will not chose to follow Him, and then, your doubt will cause you to forfeit your chance to go to heaven!
Can you follow Jesus and not do good works?
This is the crux of the matter! Please remember, all of us are sinners, and all of us have a sinful nature we inherit as a human being. However, it seems that if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and we are working on becoming more Christ-like, then we have a real opportunity to desire not to sin. We want a relationship with Jesus, and we do not want to hurt His feelings by doing sinful things! However, our sinful nature, through Satan will tempt us by making sin look good to us. We have been given the Holy Spirit to indwell us, which will allow us to see sin as evil not good. Yes, your good judgment is NOT from you, but it is available to us through the Holy Spirit. However, we still have a free will, which was given to us by Jesus at our creation.
What a dilemma! Is it better to do good works without thought of reward, or just not to do them at all, since you're “saved” anyway?
If you look around this world, and see the good things people do for others, even without expecting those you help to appreciate it, as Mother Theresa did, then you can observe good deeds being done as Jesus would advise you to do. Around this world you can observe the building of hospitals, offering of soup kitchens, etc., these are predominately being sponsored by followers of Jesus Christ. When disasters strike usually the people who come in to help are followers of Jesus Christ.
In this lifetime you can either follow Jesus Christ, or you can be lead away from Him by Satan. Jude wrote an interesting letter seemingly just to the general population of believers. See if you agree that this writing seems to speak to us today about the world in which we live. These men are grumblers and fault-finders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 1:16-21)
I think some people will be very surprised at the end!
I too believe many people will be surprised, if they wait until the end, as this means, they have not accepted the grace offered by Jesus. If you accept this grace, then you will not be surprised at the end! Because you have already been saved not by your good works, but by Jesus’ sacrifice for you on the cross! Then, for you, there is no surprise, as you are immediately saved, and will eventually be with Jesus in paradise for all eternity! And all of God’s people said, ….!
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no-one can boast.
Following are comments a VOW subscriber wrote about the commentary of 5/16/2014.
So you don’t have to do anything good to get to heaven as long as you believe in Jesus. Hmm!
In the accounts of Jesus’ suffering on the cross, one of the thieves hanging next to Him, asked Jesus to remember him. We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:41-43) Jesus replied that this man would in fact go to heaven or paradise that very day! While this is a controversial situation, it shows the dependence on you doing something good is not necessary for you to go to heaven. All that is required is for you to believe Jesus is who He says He is, as this man professed!
So you can actually be a rather bad person, but if you believe in Jesus, you're in.
But you can do good works your whole life and if you don't believe in Jesus you're out.
Accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior is the only thing you must do in order to be saved. All followers of Jesus must confess that they are sinners, and thus, rely upon Him for their salvation. Only Jesus died for the sins of the world, and was considered by God our Father, as the required perfect sacrifice. Only Jesus is the Son of the living God. Following any other human being, or some other god or gods, will not save your immortal soul! Doing good works does nothing about the sinful nature you inherited from Adam. Only accepting the salvation offered through Jesus Christ can save your immortal soul.
Some people believe that salvation can be likened to a scale of justice, and if you do enough good deeds, and thus they outweigh the bad things you do, then you go to heaven. If this were true, then there is no need for a Savior, as your salvation would be decided by your deeds, good vs. evil! Thus, this thought process eliminates any need for a God at all. With this method, you would not know whether you were saved or not when you die. Unless, of course, you and you alone make the decision about your personal salvation! This situation then makes God answerable to you instead of the other way around! God is only allowed to apply His stamp of approval to your decision. Does this make any sense to you?
Mother Theresa was said to have doubts all her life, but she continued to do good works. So I guess she's out.
This may be controversial, as here, but I believe that having doubts is a sin that Jesus is willing to forgive, and Jesus paid the price for your doubt on that cross too! Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. (Matthews 28:16-17) Do you believe that all eleven (all 12 of the Apostles) were saved? Note: the statement in these verses about these eleven men, it says, “but some doubted.” Yet in Revelation we read about the twenty-four elders who have been received into heaven and are seated in a place of honor. These are interpreted as the twelve Apostles and the twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel. The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: “Amen, Hallelujah!” (Revelation 19:4) Therefore, some of the twelve Apostles when they met Jesus as it states in Matthew 28, had some doubt “When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” If you do not believe (doubt) that Jesus is who He says He is, and then you will not chose to follow Him, and then, your doubt will cause you to forfeit your chance to go to heaven!
Can you follow Jesus and not do good works?
This is the crux of the matter! Please remember, all of us are sinners, and all of us have a sinful nature we inherit as a human being. However, it seems that if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and we are working on becoming more Christ-like, then we have a real opportunity to desire not to sin. We want a relationship with Jesus, and we do not want to hurt His feelings by doing sinful things! However, our sinful nature, through Satan will tempt us by making sin look good to us. We have been given the Holy Spirit to indwell us, which will allow us to see sin as evil not good. Yes, your good judgment is NOT from you, but it is available to us through the Holy Spirit. However, we still have a free will, which was given to us by Jesus at our creation.
What a dilemma! Is it better to do good works without thought of reward, or just not to do them at all, since you're “saved” anyway?
If you look around this world, and see the good things people do for others, even without expecting those you help to appreciate it, as Mother Theresa did, then you can observe good deeds being done as Jesus would advise you to do. Around this world you can observe the building of hospitals, offering of soup kitchens, etc., these are predominately being sponsored by followers of Jesus Christ. When disasters strike usually the people who come in to help are followers of Jesus Christ.
In this lifetime you can either follow Jesus Christ, or you can be lead away from Him by Satan. Jude wrote an interesting letter seemingly just to the general population of believers. See if you agree that this writing seems to speak to us today about the world in which we live. These men are grumblers and fault-finders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 1:16-21)
I think some people will be very surprised at the end!
I too believe many people will be surprised, if they wait until the end, as this means, they have not accepted the grace offered by Jesus. If you accept this grace, then you will not be surprised at the end! Because you have already been saved not by your good works, but by Jesus’ sacrifice for you on the cross! Then, for you, there is no surprise, as you are immediately saved, and will eventually be with Jesus in paradise for all eternity! And all of God’s people said, ….!
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
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