Is salvation a matter of arithmetic?

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Alma

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A young girl wants me to ask you this:
She says it seems to her that salvation is a complicated matter of arithmetic: :ehh:
God adds points every time you do something good and substracts points every time you do something bad. In the end He will make the final calculation and bam! send you either to Heaven or to Hell.
She gets discouraged because she notices that in a single day it is very easy to do good and bad things and never be sure if she gets enough ‘good points’ in order to go to Heaven some day.

I tell her that she is not considering God’s mercy; that she is not considering that He not only judges our acts but also our good intentions: if we really try to live according to His will; and, that He will pay close attention to our heart and He will notice if it is full of love for Him and for others, etc.:love:

Nevertheless she wants me to ask you folks what you think about this (and she can not wait to see what you have to say!):bounce:

Thank you in advance

Alma
 
I don’t think God works on a mathematical point system, until you get into purgatory. 😃

It’s tempting to think of our “cumulative total” as some form of merit, and therefore worthiness. We have had this drilled into us by worldly teachers. Jesus, the heavenly Teacher, doesn’t keep track of wrongs of those who love Him.

Mercy in fact does erase our past sin, which God puts as far away from us as the east is from the west, and God Himself forgives and forgets, effectively, so He cannot add up the total at the end because he erased the record of wrongs.

Alan
 
I’m afraid if it were a matter of simple arithmetic, we would all be doomed. Throw God’s love and mercy, which can’t be quantified (at least by the human mind), into the equation and all of us who love Him and try to do His will have a pretty fair chance.
 
I agree with the others; however, if she just cannot break away from the mathematical model, perhaps explain to her that we may be able to come up with an equasion for our life, but only God can determine the values of the variables.

IE: we can only see 2A+3B-4C+nG= Status of Salvation
Only God can provide A, B, C, n, or G.

So sure, we know a bit about what God expects of us, and what we do that displeases Him, and therefore we can create an equasion that seems to tell us where we are; but in the final “tally”, only He can tell us where we are at, and where we are at does not rely on us, but on the amount of Grace (nG) He gives us.

(not strictly orthodox, sure; but works given the analogy, I guess)
 
The math part is hard for me…seems I’m always wrong and at a deficit, but Someone who loves me very very much came and added more than I could ever get into the equation and as a result I can never go wrong again. Now my whole life is about putting to good use all His superabundant gift. I find that I give a lot of it away to other folks with those math problems now. Can I really figure it all out? I don’t think so…it’s too wonderful to understand completely (and math has never been my thing anyway…) but I never worry about it any more, and My Friend is always with me.
The Lord be with you always.
 
All she needs to do is remain in a state of Grace.

(I’m sure she gets added points with her parents on some days and loses points on other days, but they never cease to love her, even on the bad days. And they won’t kick her out of the House. She would only be left homeless if she ran away from the house and refused to come back. And she wouldn’t do that, would she?)
 
We used to have a saying long ago - One “Oops” (mortal sin) can wipe out a lot of “Atta boys” (good works). So arithmetic does not work.

God is our Father, He treats us with mercy and love, and wants us to become like Christ. The process of how He does that is very well defined in the Bible, it’s called Judgment :o
 
Wow, I’m about to sound very much like a protestant.

We are NOT saved by works! We are saved by GRACE alone. (Note: That says grace, not faith.)

The Holy Spirit, when we are open and willing to be submissive to God, grants the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

It is out of this love for God that HE gives us that we perform the works that are necessary signs of our salvation.

Josh
 
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