Salvation by grace has constantly been misunderstood by non-believers. They cannot understand how Christians can preach that just by believing in God and His grace of salvation they will be saved. Does that mean Christians are free to sin?
In most cases Christians will give the standard answer. "Christians are free from sin but not free to sin." This does not make any sense to non-believers. I even doubt that many Christians find this easy to grasp.
Let us start from the basic. All who are seeking salvation can understand that God can only accept a human in the next life if the human is righteous, pure, holy, or whatever goodness you care to include. Let me just use the term perfect.
I am sure that no person will claim to be perfect. They do not need the Bible to tell them that. So Hinduism and Buddhism come up with the "karma" philosophy to achieve perfection. God does nothing to help.
Islam required Muslims to believe in Allah otherwise there is no salvation for them. Muslims are also required to live a godly life and observe the religious rituals demanded by Allah. I am sure that no Muslim will dare to claim that on the Day of Judgment God can find the person perfect. They believe that Allah will show them mercy and give them salvation.
So Judaism, Christianity and Islam shared the basic understanding about salvation, after all they derived from the same root. A person who worship God is required to do good but their goodness cannot save them. Every one has to depend on the mercy of God for salvation.
Basically there does not appear to be any differentiation between Judaism and Islam. Muhammed is a prophet and not god, and the message is to believe in one God and to do good. To such believers God will show His mercy and give them salvation.
In Christianity we say it is not sufficient to believe in one God and do good, we must also accept the payment God made for our sin. Christians believe that God wants to save all people because He loves everyone. Yes even sinners. But Christians believed that there is a universal spiritual law that says that all sins must be paid for. Satan cannot accuse God of practising unaccountability.
What God chose to do was to pay for the sins of those who accept the payment. To many this is ridiculous. How can God allowed Himself to be humiliated and be killed? Yes, if He has to be humiliated to save humankind He will do it. This, my friend, is the love of God for His people. A love beyond all human understanding. To believe in God is not difficult, to believe that God would do this to save us is. That is the faith that saves us.
God is still the merciful God to all people, but on the Day of Judgment His hands are tied. For on that day the decision is made on the principle of good people who have accepted the payment to become perfect people. Their short-coming is redeemed by their faith that God had paid for their sin. Is just like two persons who satisfied the dress code but one has brought along the invitation card while the other did not. It is not hard to understand why one can enter for the banquet while the other cannot.
So I hope any non-believer who cannot understand the Christian salvation will only question how ridiculous it is that God has to die to pay for the imperfection of the believers. I can also respect all who cannot understand the Christian God - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. My only advice is "Please do not get stuck in the human rational paradigm for we are in the spiritual realm". However no one should raise the following two issues.
- Christians do not believe in one God
- Christians are bad people who will not try to be good but depend totally on Jesus Christ to give them a free ride.
Do Christians have to be good. Yes certainly.
Romans 2:4 - "Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? By your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day when God's judgment will be revealed. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil. But glory and honour and peace for every one who does good. For God shows no partiality."
John 14:26 - "The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance the scriptures."
Matthew 22: 37-39 - "You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And you shall love all people as yourself. All my laws are based on these."
Can goodness save a person? No, to God a person has to be perfect, not just good. However Christians (born of the Holy Spirit) are assured that they be made perfect on the Day of Judgment because of His grace.
So salvation is by faith. But faith by itself, without works, is false faith.
So Christian brothers and sisters, continue the race of goodness. Do not despair for your imperfections for on the Day of Judgment the grace of God will be sufficient for your salvation.
Romans 3:19-31 - Now those under the law know that they are accountable to God; to be perfect under the law. For all who are found short of the glory of God, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, through faith in Jesus Christ. For all who believe this is grace, a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. God put Jesus Christ forward so that His blood can make perfect those who received it by faith.
