“We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day night is coming, when no man can work.” The Apostle John reminds us of the importance of the need to “work” while we are here on Earth: This is clear from the Biblical record of Scripture. While we, as Christians, don’t believe our works have anything to do with our entry to heaven, we do understand our works have everything to do with our reward once we get there. The beliefs of Christians are often mischaracterized.
After all, do we actually think all believers are acceptable to God no matter what they do or how they behave? Do we believe someone can simply say they believe but then live a life exhibiting very little evidence of this belief and still expect to get into Heaven? Doesn’t the Mormon notion of levels of Heaven (for example) seem to be a more equitable and fair position on the nature of the afterlife?Īren’t We Asked to Work While We Are Here? We cannot ‘earn’ our way into Heaven, this is a gift of God, so no man or woman could ever boast they ‘earned’ a place in Heaven with God.įor by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.īut when we make this claim to non-Christians who believe salvation results from some human effort in combination with the work of God (Jewish believers or Mormons for example), we often hear the complaint orthodox Christianity seems to ignore the behavior of believers altogether.
Our ‘works’ play no role in our salvation. When we say this, we mean we believe God sets us apart for salvation based not on anything we could do on our own effort, but based on the “free gift” of salvation offered by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. As Christians, we believe that we are saved solely by the grace of God.
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