What does a Christian need to do to pay for his sins and earn salvation? Does one do some deeds, make a sacrifice, talk to a priest or say a certain prayer? The answer is that we don’t need to do anything. Salvation is a gift from God. In John 3:16-18 Jesus taught, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God “Our salvation is not based in the least on our merit, but entirely on the grace of God. “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, the righteousness that is by faith from beginning to end, as it is written: The just shall live by faithâ (Romans 1:17) The penalty for sin, death by shedding blood, has already been paid by Christ for all sins past, present, and future. That is why His last words on the cross were: “It is finished” (John 19:30), meaning the debt has been paid, paid in full, there is no outstanding balance. The only action left for us to do is to accept this gift of salvation.
The Christian view of salvation seems too good to be true. It seems illogical. How can we get the most important thing in life, a ticket to heaven, for free? Nothing in life is free, and when something is offered for free, there is usually a catch. So what’s the catch? There is no catch, because it is free for us, but it came at a high price for God. He Himself had to pay the price for our sin by sacrificing His Son for us. We can’t even imagine how much of a sacrifice this was. Perhaps a father can imagine how it would feel to have to sacrifice one of his children. So salvation was secured, not by human achievement, but by divine achievement.
All the world’s religions promise some kind of path to liberation or salvation. Interestingly, all of these plans are based on something the believer has to do to earn it. In Hinduism, you gain liberation by living according to certain principles plus meditation, you can improve your next life and ultimately achieve total liberation by achieving Moksha. Buddhists work hard to implement the eightfold path to attain Nirvana. Muslims believe that by working hard to do good deeds and adhering to the letter of the five pillars, they have a chance to tip the scales in their favor and be judged by Allah as worthy of heaven. But mind you, everyone has to do the work and they’re never sure if they’ve done enough.
Even Christians struggle with the gift. Thus, we see pseudo-Christian cults like Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses add additional instructions and requirements that one must meet to earn salvation. We see the same thing in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches that accept Christ’s sacrifice as a first step, but then require the addition of works and sacraments in order to fully gain and reach heaven (and limit one’s time in purgatory). .
God did it all for you! He already did the job; we just need faith in his grace. God already loves you; you just need to start loving it.