Salvation Must be Earned

People seem to have an innate sense that, if there is a God, they must somehow earn their standing with Him. It seems hard-wired into the human psyche. And I've often wondered why that is. Recently, I feel like a light has finally come on. I realized why so many of us flatly assume that salvation must be earned.

You want to know what I came to realize? ....

Salvation must be earned.

I know. I know. Just hear me out....I realize that Paul wrote in "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). I know he wrote that eternal life is a "free gift" of God (Rom. 6:23); and I know, a few chapters earlier, he went to great lengths to emphasize that we are justified by faith alone...

I also know that one of the most foundational tenents of Christianity is that we are justified "by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone."

So why on earth would I say, "salvation must be earned?"

First, notice what I didn't say. I didn't say that salvation must be earned by us. God's inspired writers of Scripture flatly deny that possibility (see the passages above and many others)....But our salvation and our standing with God are still dependent on works...Just not our works.

Good standing with God is not something He just gives willy-nilly. Despite what you might have been taught all your life, God's favor must be earned....God only gives life, reward, and good standing to the perfectly righteous. Don't believe me? Jesus Himself said in His famous Sermon on the Mount, "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

So...left to ourselves, we are helpless. None of us can meet that perfect standard. But there is one man, Jesus, who did. He lived an entire lifetime that was full of perfect works and total righteousness. He is the one person ever who earned the Father's favor and reward.

And His perfect record can be counted to us if we repent of our sins and trust in Him. His death on the cross can atone for our sins, and His perfect obedience can be counted to us--allowing us to be the rightful recipients of God's favor. What a humbling and glorious truth! As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

So salvation IS by works. That's how God operates....Salvation is not by our works though. Salvation is by Christ's works--His perfect life of obedience and His sacrificial death in our place.

Next time you are having a discussion with someone about the gospel and they start to reveal their assumption that God's favor is something that has to be earned, don't be so quick to convince them otherwise. It must be earned. And it has been earned--if we will only place our trust in the One who's earned it.