Let’s decipher the age old debate of what it takes to gain the reward of eternal life with God in heaven. The New Testament clearly states: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”. (John 3:16 ESV) None the less, throngs of Christians holdfast to the New Testament verse: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24 ESV) Plain and simple, John 3:16 gives God’s grace, received through Jesus Christ, as the way. James 2:24 emphasizes the need to earn, through ourselves, the gift of passage into heaven. Many basically feel “believing” is too easy and, surely, it has to be harder to merit heaven than that. Well, I’m here to say, wake up every one!!! “Believing” is enormously harder than the act of doing. In fact, there might not be anything harder than “believing”.
Abraham took his son, Isaac, up Mount Moriah to obey God’s asking Abraham to sacrifice his child. Abraham’s “believing” in God was the only thing powerful enough to enable him to even crawl this path. Abraham “believed” God would ultimately bring Isaac back to life to fulfill the promises God had made to him. Can any parent reading this sacrificial story even doubt that Abraham’s “believing” in God had to be the hardest possible thing for Abraham, or us, to do? Wouldn’t it have been easier for Abraham to have offered a billion good works over “believing” God was enough and would save his son?
Ask any parent watching their child fight a fatal disease, if it would be harder to accomplish the most treacherous good work imaginable or to believe their child’s life in God’s arms is better than life cradled in their own.
This week has tragically unfolded before our very eyes the scene of many of our fellow countrymen and friends of America stranded in Afghanistan. Which do we judge to be harder for those waiting to be rescued – waiting for the good deed of our military bringing them out or believing God’s grace will ultimately save them, no matter if the worst happens?
Good works can be accomplished by strong hands and feet. “Believing” is strongest when weak knees bend in confident prayer. Take a moment and ponder. Is “believing” really too easy a way into life with God for anyone to accept as adequate merit? Good works are a tally sheet of positives. That’s an easy accomplishment. However, when life is full of negatives, is it not much harder to “believe” that grace, through Jesus Christ, is the only deed we need? Is God in heaven more concerned (and confirmed) with the counting up of our pluses or with our holding on to even the tiniest thread of “believing:???
Uplifted in a Broken Down World 