Two Ways To Eternal Life

There are two ways to obtain eternal life according to the bible. The first one is through the law. That would be, known moral law. In other words, do what you ought to do. Obtaining eternal life by this method would entail patiently and diligently obeying your conscience throughout your life, without interruption. Doing the right thing every time, is the requirement. Failing to do the right thing even once, results in a condition called, "dead in trespasses and sins", which results in falling short of the glory of God, which results in eternal punishment. That's God's standard. Furthermore, the result of your right doing that you get from obeying the law (your conscious moral standard of right and wrong) is your righteousness. When I go to church, read my bible, give to the poor, feed the homeless, run an orphanage, get baptized, be humble, be broken... I increase my righteousness. When I do the commandments that Jesus said to do, that would be my righteousness. When God helps me to do right, that is still my righteousness. So anything I do in my physical body that would bring rewards to me and earn me favour with man or God, would be my righteousness. Anything I could brag about and be proud of, would be my righteousness. An attempt to gain God's favour and inherit eternal life by this method is difficult to say the least...

Mt 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Even one sin is one too many. There are no browny points for effort. "A try" is not worth anything in God's eyes. You either keep the law and do what you ought to do all the time, or you perish. There is no forgiveness in the law. If you DO the law, you live. If you break it, you break the whole thing, and you lose. God is perfect and sin cannot be in His presence. Not one imperfect, soiled or tarnished individual or creature is able to stand in the presence of Almighty God.

This is where religion goes astray. Man's standard is not God's. What seems fair and right to man, is not fair and right to God. God requires perfection. Man's religion says that it's alright if you've sinned. Just start doing the right thing, confess your sin and God will forgive you. It leaves men grasping, climbing, in a futile effort to try and earn for themselves eternal life. The only man that ever gained salvation by this method was Jesus Christ. All other humans fall short. All other humans followed after the lusts of their own bodies over the better judgment of their conscience and subsequently fell short of the glory of God.

The other method is a free gift and it is accessed by faith. You say, "Faith in what?"
Not faith in yourself or your own merit but, faith that your eternal salvation was taken care of 2000yrs ago. God has created another way apart from the law whereby we can be saved. God became a Man and paid the penalty Himself, for our sin. Jesus lived a perfect life and died as if He were the sinner. Then after three days God raised Him from the dead having conquered sin, death and the grave.

Here's the deal... This goes completely against the course of nature. Instead of inheriting eternal life by our own merit or by our own righteousness, God is offering us the free gift of salvation if only we will place our faith in His righteousness, and not ours. Instead trying to earn our own way in (which is futile now that we've sinned), we simply accept that Jesus took care of it. God is willing to give us eternal life on the basis of Christ's work for us on the cross. God will count our measly faith in Christ's finished work, as if it were the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. So how does this work out from now til we die? We just give up on ourselves! We stop trying to earn it ourselves. We stop trusting in our own goodness. A true Christian has no confidence in ANYTHING he or she has ever done, is doing, or ever will do. Does that mean we stop doing good? No! We just stop trusting in anything good we do, as a means of getting right with God.

All of a true Christian's faith is in what Jesus Christ did for us on Calvary, as a means of getting right with God and getting into heaven. This simply means, believing with all of our hearts that Jesus is enough to get us to heaven. This method of salvation forces us to admit that we are nothing but hell deserving sinners with no hope outside of Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

Anything we add to Christ's righteousness, in effect voids the gift. There is no salvation in a "man's part, God's part salvation". ANYTHING we would add to the free gift would be our righteousness. We cannot go to heaven by the law AND Christ. It's either perfectly keeping the law, or Christ.