Question For All...

[Singinbeauty]

We have been talking a lot about Faith and Works here and it got me thinking…

[SIGN]How come we can’t earn our way to Heaven but we sure can earn our way out of it?[/SIGN]

I am not saying that all we need is to say we believe and that is it but with all of the posts flying around I thought I would bring this up. Let me know what you think!

 

[Pax]

Grace is God’s favor; we are saved by grace. Faith is a gift and a work by way of God’s grace. Our works are by way of God’s grace. We are saved by grace by the merits of Jesus Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection through faith and works.

Notice that all of this, including our ultimate salvation, is a gift. So far everything is from God to us and is completely unearned.

God does not initiate or cause us to sin. We choose to sin against God. We can choose to completely turn away from God and reject his gracious gifts which we may have previously accepted. God’s gift of human free will is left intact. God will not force us to love him, to know him, or to serve him. Like any gift or favor we can accept God’s grace or reject it at any point in time. This is how we can lose our salvation.

Romans 6:23 says:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So we see that the free gift of God is eternal life…this is what God does for us.

Furthermore, we see that the wages of sin is death…that is what we do to lose our salvation.

I hope this helps.

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[Gottle_of_Geer]

We have been talking a lot about Faith and Works here and it got me thinking…

[sign]How come we can’t earn our way to Heaven but we sure can earn our way out of it?[/sign]

I am not saying that all we need is to say we believe and that is it but with all of the posts flying around I thought I would bring this up. Let me know what you think!

What Pax said - & also, that we can’t lose the Vision of God in Heaven once we enjoy it.​

Loss of God, in any degree, is possible only on earth. So, in a way, you’re asking about a phantom problem. Even on earth, confirmation in grace is possible - the Church piously believes that St.Paul was confirmed in grace; this idea is at least as old as 1885, when it was already current (one of the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory refers to it).