My bro is back from college now and he's been working on this paper I was reading for him today. It was really easy for me to see how confused he's been about God lately while I was reading it because the whole ordeal is a paper for his core class at a Catholic college teaching the goodness of Christian Humanism. After saying just a few brief things about how those two words don't even belong in the same phrase really, I found this beautiful artile on the "Truth about Christ Blog." It reads...
"Do good works save you…what did Jesus teach?
Do we need to do good works for salvation? That is a big question in some religious circles. Both Christian and Non-Christian groups alike teach that we need to do good works in order to obtain salvation.
The big question that we need to ask is, “Is this biblical or man-made?” So where do we need to go to find an answer to whether or not works are needed for salvation? The best source I believe is Jesus Christ Himself, and Matthew chapter 7 is where you will find His teaching on this topic. In this chapter Jesus is still preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and at verse 13 of this chapter Jesus starts to tell the people about the way to heaven (narrow is the gate…). He then goes on to tell the people to beware of false prophets who will come to deceive them into believing something else, and at verses 21 – 23 we find the following words of Jesus:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ Matt 7:21-23 (NASB)
Obviously, “on that day” is talking about the day when Jesus comes to judge us all, which will determine where we will spend eternity. Right before Jesus passes judgment, what does Jesus say the people will appeal to in order to show Him that they are worthy of a heavenly reward?...their good works. Jesus listed out a bunch of things that the people said they did in His name, and what was Jesus’ response to all of this? Did He say, “Well done, your heavenly reward awaits you”? No, Jesus told them to depart from Him because doing those things isn’t what saves you. Only our relationship with Christ, our acceptance of Him as Savior and our obedience to Him will matter. No faith in an organization or denomination will save you...it's only our faith in Jesus Christ that will save you.
Posted by Tim4Christ at 7:08 PM"
I encourage everyone to read through this more than once and then visit Tim's Blog as well as the other links on it. There is some great ministry being done by these folks, and so far, I have to say I agree with their motions to be obedient to God. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and feel free to send me your prayers so I may pray with you.
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