Let me start by saying that you can not earn you way into heaven by doing good works. This is plainly stated in Eph 2:8-9, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” and there is no other teaching in the Bible that even remotely challenges this. Faith is an absolute requirement to enter the kingdom of heaven. That said, what else is needed?
In Rom 10:9 Paul tells us. “Because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” This says two things are needed for salvation, you must believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, and confess it. That’s straight forward enough, at least on the surface. And the surface is where many people stop looking. But let’s look at it a bit closer.
The two key words in that statement are ‘confess’ and ‘believe’. We’ll start by looking at confess.
The Rom 10:9 quote above is from the Modern King James Version (MKJV). Other versions state it as: “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord” (ASV) and “If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord” (ISV). The pattern here is one of telling someone else. It’s not enough to come to the conclusion in your own mind that Jesus truly is the Son of God, you have to tell someone else what you believe. This is consistent with Phi 2:11, “and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” It is indeed a requirement. Do it, and you’re half way to salvation.
I think it’s important to point out that this confession includes the faith requirement from Eph 2:8-9. One can only come to the conclusion that Jesus is the true Son of God through faith. Why? Because we don’t have first hand knowledge of the physical Jesus as He walked this earth. Therefore, it requires faith to accept what we read as being true. But even if we did, even if we were one of apostles, it would still require faith. The things Jesus did, walking on water, healing the blind, raising the dead, etc, have no earthly explanation. Normal men simply can’t do these things. So even if we were to witness the miracles of Jesus first hand, we’d still need faith to conclude that He is the Son of God because we can’t explain how they happened. In order for something to be used as proof, we must understand each and every step of what happened. If we don’t, if there’s something we don’t understand about the process, it introduces doubt and thus loses its ability to prove. Since we can’t explain, in earthly terms, exactly how Jesus did His miracles, it requires faith, even for the apostles, to conclude that He truly is the Son of God. There’s a lot of evidence that points us to this conclusion, true, but it only points, it doesn’t prove. To actually accept Jesus as the Son of God, and therefore worthy of being the Lord of your life, requires faith as that very last step.
The second requirement Paul gives us is to believe. This is where there’s more than meets the eye. Webster’s defines believe as 1b: to accept as true, genuine, or real. And that’s what most people in this country think today, that all they have to do is intellectually accept Jesus as the Son of God and they meet this requirement. But is that all there is to it?
I’m troubled by this apparent simplicity because of passages like Jam 1:22, “But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” This passage clearly states that we can deceive ourselves if all we’re doing is listening to God’s Word and not doing it. So, what does ‘doing it’ mean? It means incorporating God’s teachings into our daily lives.
Everyday we make decisions that can either agree or disagree with God’s teachings. We need to make sure each decision we make is in agreement with Biblical teaching, that’s being a ‘doer of the Word’. If you neighbor offers to make you a copy of the CD he just bought of your favorite band, you must say no, because it’s stealing. The fact that you probably won’t get caught and the band won’t even notice missing the profits from one CD are unimportant. The important thing is that you be a doer of God’s teaching.
“Therefore to him who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (Jam 4:17) This is the danger of being a hearer only. We hear God’s teaching so we know what’s right and what’s wrong, and yet, if we don’t do those things we know are right, we sin. And sin separates us from God. “For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.” (Rom 2:13) It is critically important that we not only hear God’s Word, but live it also.
Jam 1:23-25 says, “For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror. For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like. But whoever looks into the perfect Law of liberty and continues in it, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one shall be blessed in his doing.” If we don’t strive to live God’s teachings in our daily lives, we’ll find it all too easy to justify our sinful actions.
“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord! Lord! shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven.” (Mat 7:21) This is the other passage that has me thinking that there’s more to Rom 10:9 than meets the eye. Not everybody that calls Jesus Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven. That means that some of us think we are going to heaven when we are not, just as Jam 1:22 warns about. So who are deceived?
1Jo 3:7 tells us, “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as that One is righteous.” Again here, we see that one who does what is right in the sight of the Lord is indeed righteous. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he also will reap.” (Gal 6:7) This passage tells us that a man that sows righteousness (i.e. makes daily decisions that are in keeping with Biblical teachings) will reap righteousness. It also tells us that one who is a hearer only of the Word, but not a doer, sows nothing, and therefore reaps what he has sown, nothing. To me, this sounds like a person who thinks they are going to heaven, but is deceived. And this is in agreement with the end of Mat 7:21 quoted above, “but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven.” If we do God’s will by living our lives according to Biblical teachings, we are assured a place in heaven. If we make no attempt to live according to God’s word, we are “deceiving your own selves.” God is not mocked. He knows if you are truly making an effort to live according to His will or not and will judge each of us accordingly.
Rom 8:14-17 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father! The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; so that if we suffer with Him, we may also be glorified together.” Notice what it takes for us to inherit the Kingdom of God, we must be led by the Spirit of God. Led. That’s a verb of action, not simple intellectual acceptance. We must listen to and follow the direction of the Holy Spirit each and every day. We must be doers, in accordance with the passage in James.
Jesus said, “For whoever shall do the will of My Father in Heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother.” (Mat 12:50) ‘Do’ is the key word here, another action verb. He didn’t say ‘whoever acknowledges My Father,’ or ‘whoever doesn’t reject My Father’, no, he said we have to be doers of God’s will to be considered a brother of sister of Christ. And if we’re a sibling of Christ then we’re heirs to the Kingdom of God and our salvation is assured.
I could tell you that I know Jose Canseco (a famous baseball player for those of you who don’t follow sports). I could rattle off a lot of information about him, where he was born, where he lives, his marital status, number of children, batting averages, teams he’s played for, World Series he’s been in, etc. But do I really know the man, or do I just know a lot about him. The real test would be upon meeting him. Would he say “Hi, Dan,” or “I’m sorry. Do I know you?” The same is true with Jesus. We can know about lot about Jesus, but what’s important on judgment day isn’t whether we know Jesus, but whether He know us! “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord! Lord! Did we not prophesy in Your name, and through Your name throw out demons, and through Your name do many wonderful works? And then I will say to them I never knew you! Depart from Me, those working lawlessness!” (Mat 7:22-23) It doesn’t matter what kind if a life you’ve led or how many good works you’ve done, if Jesus doesn’t know us on judgment day it will all be for nothing.
Our Lord said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (Joh 14:15) By doing what your Lord has instructed us to do, not just acknowledging the validity of His teachings, we show our Lord that we love Him. And if we love Him, He will surely notice, for that is the entire purpose of creation. God created us to share His love with us. When we show our love by keeping His commandments, we become heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven and assure our salvation.
The Bible is an integrated message from God. When learning from it it’s not always best to simply take a passage or even a chapter and draw your conclusions simply from that, especially on a topic as important as salvation. We must look at all of the teachings and take them as a whole. When done, the message becomes clear.
“Go in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in through it. Because narrow is the gate and constricted is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” “Strive to enter in at the narrow gate. For I say to you, many will seek to enter in and shall not be able.” (Luk 14:15) Would you be able to enter the narrow gate today?
