It’s just human to think “You have to work for the things you want to be or have.” It just does not fall into your lap. But what about those things we just cannot get/achieve by our efforts? Think about striving to become a singer when we do not have that talent; professionally of course (anyone can sing in the shower). Think about slowing down the aging process or becoming younger next year! Or think about postponing death! It simply cannot be done by human efforts.

Similarly, getting into heaven is impossible by human efforts. You may ask, “What about all the charity, visiting holy places, and other good works? These make me a good person through which I can get to heaven!” Well, to understand this, we need to know what Sin is.

WHAT IS SIN?

Every human being has the capacity to know what is Right and Wrong. This is the only reason why we can say, without any doubt, lying, stealing, and raping and killing of little children is wrong which deserves punishment. It is also why we can say what Mother Theresa did in India was right and a noble thing.

Sin is doing that which we know is Wrong or not doing that which we know is Right. For example: we have lied even when we knew that it was wrong. Some of us have stolen (it may be very small, but stealing is stealing). Some of us have looked at the opposite gender with lust; some even cheated on their spouses. There are times when we failed to honor our Fathers and Mothers through disobedience or disrespect which is wrong. This is Sin! Since we are morally responsible for our willful actions (in this case, sin), we are sinners!

Almost all religions seems to agree on the fact that we have all sinned. In Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism, we are told that it is because of our past bad karma (sins) that we are here in this life. Otherwise, we would’ve attained moksha or salvation by now. Quran and Bible tells us that all have sinned (Romans 3:23, Quran 16:61). We all agree that there must be justice. Since God is a righteous Judge, our wrong actions will be punished however small that may be! We cannot get into heaven as we are.

GOOD WORKS CAN NEVER REMOVE SIN:

Why? We just saw that if we sin (do what is wrong), we are sinners. Almost all the religions testify to it. Now all the good works that we do, we do as sinners. It cannot change the fact that we had sinned. At the best our good works can be seen only as sinners doing good things.

Think of this analogy. If we play in mud, we will get dirty. Merely putting on good clean clothes does not change the fact that we are dirty, all we are doing is to cover our dirt.

Rubbing off the dirt is just going to spread it all over. Since we are dirty, our attempt to clean ourself with dirty hands is not going to help, but make it worse.

Now we cannot clean off the dirt unless we have a cleansing agent, say, water. If we use the water (fluid) that our body produces, will we be clean? Seriously, that’s gross!

We need clean water, not water from ourselves, but an external agent, to clean our dirt off. We cannot produce clean water no matter how hard we try. In analogous ways, we can never produce righteousness and holiness to wash away the stain of sin in our lives.

GOOD WORKS IS NOT A PUNISHMENT FOR SIN:

Why? Look at it this way: If a murderer comes to the judge and says, “I will help the poor from now on or I will feed the family of the victim or I will do religious penance or visit temples and do all the prescribed rituals,” do you think justice is served to let the murderer walk free?

REPENTANCE WITHOUT PUNISHMENT IS NOT ENOUGH:

If God can forgive a sinner just because he/she repented or devoted their lives to God, then justice becomes favoritism at the best. It is as good as no justice at all. Why? God just wrote off the sins we committed.

Think about this. If a murderer comes to court and tells, “Well, I am sorry that I did it. I regret doing it. I will live the rest of my life in the society devoted to the judge and the law.” That is not justice!

SUFFERING IN THIS LIFE IS NOT ENOUGH:

Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism teach that we suffer in this life because of our past-life sins. You may ask, “Isn’t that sufficient punishment for our sins?” In fact the answer is No! These religions also teach that our souls exists forever without beginning or end. This means that we’ve been living from eternity past. If we have not attained salvation by now, we have accumulated a great deal of bad karma– infinite to be precise – that we have to suffer for. It is not possible to suffer for infinite sins unless we be in punishment for eternity!

THEN WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The Bible also teaches that our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) and that the wages of sin is eternal punishment in hell (Romans 6:23).

You might say, “That’s a very unloving God!” When you hear it for the first time, you may think that way. I also had similar opinion. But when we read the whole verse we see a different picture.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:23)

God is not waiting to see us suffer in hell, but,

“in this manner loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

He displayed His love by taking our place on the cross and bearing our sins on Himself so that through faith in Jesus Christ, we can go to heaven. This is called Salvation. We are saved from the punishment of our sins (i.e. live forever in hell with no possibility of return).

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

HAVE QUESTIONS? WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Call us at 704.543.1200 and ask for a pastor and we would love to speak with you. Or fill out this contact form, and let us know that you'd like us to reach out to you. There’s nothing we’d rather do than tell you more about Jesus.