Salvation

It is hard work being a Christian. I have to pray, go to Church, love my neighbour, and in general, be a good person if I am ever to achieve eternal life. Right? Wrong.

How dreadfully easy it is to think that being a Christian consists of simply being a good person, and how ironic that, in trying to simplify things by ignoring the gospel and just "doing good," we have actually made things a great deal harder! We are attempting to accomplish that which no man has ever accomplished, For "as it is written, 'none is righteous, no not one'" (Romans 1:10).

Does good works save a man? Then no man is saved. Does going to church, reading the Bible, loving our neighbour, and so on and so on save a man? Then again, no man is saved. "For...'none is righteous, no not one.'"

What then? Have we no hope? Will we perish in a wretched state of always trying harder and never winning our goal? Or will we even blindly pursue the world, knowing that it is utterly hopeless to ever attain salvation? By no means! If Christians do exist, and good works do not make a Christian who he is, then something else does.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17, emphasis mine).

Therefore, it is faith in the gospel that makes man a Christian. It is believing that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a substitute for us by living the good life that no one else could and dying the death everyone deserved thereby imputing or giving his righteousness to us if we believe. And this is what saves us.

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." (Romans 5:6-9).


This is the gospel; man is sinful, God is holy, and the only way of reconciliation - the only bridge between the two - is Jesus Christ.