Online correspondence with friends and strangers
This is a compilation of my comments, replies and letters to questions posted in a dating website and some personal correspondence. Names are not real names of people to protect privacy.
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Which way to heaven ? GOOD DEEDS OR GRACE
# 1
Lady J
Which is which? You're religious but the attitude doesn't
show it at all? or you're not religious but you do good deeds?
Some say you'll be judge by your deeds, some say you'll need
to go to Church to be religious. Does having faith with God is enough to say
that you're good or just because you're doing good deeds you'll be considered
as good and religious?
Do you believe that not all that human thinks are good to
the eyes of God? Or as long as people think that what they do is good, then it
would be enough?
WHICH IS WHICH? :)
M’s reply :
Can i summarize your question to : “ How can one be sure of
going to heaven?" or " How can one be saved?"
Maybe it will help if we define the term Christian properly
first. It is not synonymous to religious.
According to Acts 11:26, the followers of Jesus were first
called Christians at Antioch. Why were they called Christians? Because they
were “followers of Christ.” They had committed their lives to “walk as Jesus
did” (1 John 2:6) A TRUE Christian doesn't belong to a religion but is a
believer in and follower of Jesus Christ . It is which church we go or how many
good deeds that makes one a Christian. One cannot claim be saved by her own making,
her good works ,no one can buy their way
to heaven, it is a GIFT from God. It is
written in Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.
Truth is we are all born sinners. We cannot pay our own way.
Because of Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross on our behalf, God
freely offers us forgiveness.
When you put your faith on what Jesus Christ did for you on
the cross , receive Him in your life and give yourself to Him and ask God to
forgive all of your sins and ask for His gift of Eternal Life, then God
promises to GIVE YOU ETERNAL LIFE.
As Christians will always be growing to be more and more
like Jesus Christ, we will change for the better and follow His will for us.
Let me repeat your final question : WHICH IS WHICH? :)
Read Ephesians 2:8 again :-) Your salvation is a GIFT. It is
free. Jesus paid for it. Amazing right? You do not have to work for it . You
cannot pay for it by good works. It is by GRACE through FAITH that you have
been saved.
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