What Good Are Good Works?

Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. “And the nations were enraged, and Your rage came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and to give reward to Your slaves—the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great—and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”” (Revelation 11:15–18 LSB) https://accordance.bible/link/read/LSB#Rev._11:15

 

At the end of all time, before God creates a new heavens and new earth for His people to live with Him forever, He will bring before Him all people, some will be judged and then condemned to suffer for all eternity, others will be received and rewarded and will live forever with God in peace, joy, and love. Two outcomes exist for all humanity, for those in a right relationship with God in Jesus the Savior, reward and life abundant, for those not in a relationship with Jesus, judgement and eternal punishment. This is the key difference between Christianity and all other religions. All other religions require good works and promise the hope of appeasing the god they worship if those good works are accomplished. Yet no one in those religions knows for sure if they have ever accomplished enough good works to appease their god. Christianity is a relationship with God, not a religion trying to work ourselves to God. Christianity is the description of the relationship men have with God through Christ the Savior, Jesus the Lord. This relationship is obtained by humbling ourselves before Him and admitting to Him that we are incapable of doing good or being good enough for God. Christianity is about repenting before the One True God that we are indeed, as He says, born rebels against Him and one another and we are sorry, we are hopeless and helpless to change that. We come to God seeking pardon, forgiveness, mercy, and grace to live with God. God loves us so He grants us pardon, His holiness, His requirement for perfection, His righteousness, satisfied by Jesus Who lived among us as God with us. Jesus lived the perfect life required by God of all of us. He was punished by God on the cross for all of us who have not lived that perfect life from our birth to our death. Jesus rose from the dead, proof that His sacrifice was sufficient payment for our rebellion and that He now holds the power of pardon for all people who come to Him in humility seeking reconciliation with God. Christianity is a relationship with God and those in that relationship with God will be rewarded by God for the good works that they do to glorify God. God’s reward is His benevolent bonus of love for His children. They worked not to earn their place with Him but to demonstrate their love for Him and their thankfulness to Him, by their obedience before Him in doing the good works He commanded of us.

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