I grew up hearing a song called "Where I come from" by Alan Jackson which had the lyrics "workin' hard to get to heaven." While I love his music, these lyrics are not accurate to the Bible. Working hard is not actually the way to get to heaven. This is because all people have sinned and are permanently stained, this was inherited by the first man, Adam.

 

Romans 5:12 says "just as sin came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." All people have sinned as a result and deserve everlasting punishment.

 

Isaiah 64:6 says "we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away." No amount of good works can save a person from their sins. We are all unchangeably stained by our sin. Unless God were to intervene no one could be saved from this condemnation. However, there is hope, Jesus Christ did a work on our behalf.

 

The Westminster Catechism puts it this way (paraphrased) "Q. What work did Christ do to save you? A. Christ perfectly kept the Law of God and suffered the punishment due for my sins.”

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 

 

 

How to be Saved from Sin

 

Ephesians 2:8-9 says “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.” Rather than working hard to earn our way to heaven, Scripture teaches that salvation is a gift of grace through faith.

The only way to break free from sin and its punishment is to repent, turning from sin and believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

 

1 Peter 2:24 "He Himself bore our sins, in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness."

 

Therefore, only those who have died with Christ in faith, and are living a new life led by the Lord will be saved. Even faith and repentance itself is a gift of grace from the Lord, it is not from us.

 

In John 6:44, Jesus says "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day." We are inherently dead in sin and unable to come to God unless the Holy Spirit opens our eyes so that we can see our sinfulness and the work of Christ on our behalf.