The Great Paradox
 

The great paradox: Salvation is freely given by the grace of God, it is unmerited and underserved, yet so many people attempt to earn it by their "works". Whereas, damnation is worked for and deserved (The wages of sin is death), yet many people accept by faith that they are hopelessly lost and can never be saved.

Just thinkin' aloud.

Re: The Great Paradox
 

So many people try to save themsevles through "works" whether standards, religious rituals, church attendance, correct doctrine, etc. And fail to realize that savlation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Nothing we can do saves us, all we can do is accept by faith the work of Christ (elementary, I know).

Yet damantion is completely deserved. It must be "worked" for, because the wages of sin is death. And as Paul so perfectly pointed out if what we receive is a result of our work, it is debt, not grace.

Thus in effect, we cannot earn salvation, it is wholly of God. But we earn damnation, it is wholly of ourselves.

(BTW-this completely destroys the theory that "God SENDS people to hell." Man sends himself to hell, in fact, he has to earn it-by sinning).

Re: The Great Paradox
 

Reward is for works, justification is by grace

Romans 6:23, "If you go to hell you pay your own way; but you go to heaven on a pass" John R. Rice

Re: The Great Paradox
 

You don't have to work to be damned, we as fallen man are born damned, that is why grace is so amazing...The OP church would be 1000000x more powerful if they truly understood the concept of Grace and the fact that we are all morally bankrupt...

Re: The Great Paradox
 

Course, it's not "their" works, they accurately will say, it's God's work through them. But at judgment, it goes back to being judged righteous by what "they" did. Darn consistency.

Re: The Great Paradox
 

Few of them believe fully in Original Sin, or any shade or spectrum of total depravity. This may undermine their view of both sin and grace.

Re: The Great Paradox
 

In my forty years of knowing the Lord I have yet to find a professing Christian that is without sin! Now I have met many who think they are, but I and Jesus know better. People can pretend and even try to convince themselves and others that they are perfect in their own efforts but the fact of the matter is this. If you in your total person are anything in any area of your life less than what God in His totality is then my friend! You are not sinless and don't "according to some teachings", deserve to go to heaven.
God sees sin not only as the multiple acts of something, He sees sin as the presents of imperfection in reflection to who He is.
True humility is not having a patch sown on the back of your pants and hole in your shoe. It is realizing that you are less than the expectations of God and must be dependent upon His mercy and strenght. This kind of humility comes by revelation through the Holy Ghost. But some people never get it and go through life in a spirit of condemnation, allowing the devil to beat them every day. Jesus help our understanding!

Re: The Great Paradox
 

It's probably just their definition of sin is different than yours.

Re: The Great Paradox
 

Your real paradox is this: we deserve eternal punishment because we fail to accomplish the impossible.

Re: The Great Paradox
 

I agree 100%.

More then a few people here have declared it possible for a Christian to live sin-free and in fact say it is a requirement to enter heaven. ANY sin present at the time of death will result in eternal punishment.

The problem is that so many look at at everything in a binary way having to decide if every possible thing a person can do is sin or not sin. Example: Gluttony is a SIN, so at what point does eating become gluttony? There HAS to be the ONE tiny morsel, mouthful, or even crumb that defines the line between the two! This way of defining sin misses the mark by a mile. Rather I look at sinlessness as perfection -and sinfulness as anything but, and since NONE of us are perfect (save for Jesus Christ and Mary Poppins) we are ALL sinful, aka, not perfect.