"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16. This is one of many verses in the Bible that states that we must believe in him, and we will inherit eternal life. (Rom 10:9, mark 16:16, John 14:6, etc.) We are saved by faith and faith alone not by mostly faith but by faith alone. There are countless explanations of why we are not saved by works and faith. This essay will only take you through a few. The Bible points to Faith alone, it is legally right and logically works, lastly there is nothing that we can do to earn eternal life.
There are many verses that state we are saved if we believe in Christ or put our faith in him. Ephesians 2:8-9 states, "For 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." This clearly says through faith we have been saved, not by works, just by faith. People might try to argue James 2:24 which says in the ESV version "You see that a person is justified by works not faith alone." But in the NIV version states, "You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone."
The person on the cross next to Jesus was not considered a righteous person. But Jesus told him he would see him in heaven. He did nothing to earn or deserve it, but he had faith and believed. There are numerous versus that claim no one is righteous (Rom 3:23, Rom 3:10, Ecc 7:20, John 6:28-29, etc.) and we cannot earn eternal life through works that is why Jesus paid for our sins. In the same way if we truly love Jesus, we will thrive to keep his commands. (John 14:15) Titus 1:16 states "They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."
True followers in Christ will show in their works. If someone says that they are a Christian, but they deny him by their works they must not have truly put their faith in Jesus. Mattew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawless."
In the same way if you have works but no Faith it is meaningless. In conclusion only God truly can tell if you believe in him and will go to heaven so we should leave the judging to God (James 4:12) but as Christians our works symbolize our newborn selves and show the Holy spirit working in us. Works do not save us, only faith but works represent our love in Jesus.
In court you're never going to get out of a serious crime by claiming to have done good works you can't say "I'm a good person and just gave 1,000 dollars to charity." That's never going to save you from the just penalty. It is the same for God. We could have millions of good deeds but just one keeps us away from eternal life. In court if you have speeding fines the judge can legally let you go if someone else has paid the fines. Jesus' last words on the cross were "it is finished" the word in Hebrew is "tetelestai" which can also be translated to "paid in full" meaning that the debt was paid in full. Romans 6:23 states "For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus are Lord." Wages are another word for payment. Therefore, God is paying us with death.
If one sin represents a drop of poison and a good deep represents a drop of honey, then no matter how many good deeds you achieve it won't save your life if you still have one little sin then death is imminent. Jesus though was the anti-poison no matter how much poison you have in your cup if you take anti-poison, you will live. It was not because it might have tasted good because of some honey but because of the anti-poison. Most people would claim to be "a good person" but being "a good person" won't help you when you face death. Lastly what would be the reason for Jesus' death on the cross if that is not ultimately what saves us.
All other religions believe that you just have to be good enough, but when are we good enough, how much good deeds before we will make it? All religions essentially believe in survival of the fittest. Evolution believes that to survive you just have to be a little stronger then the weakest link and all other religions believe that you just have to be better than other people who aren't morally good. In court are they going to let you go just because your crime wasn't as bad as someone else'. No that would be unjust. They would still give you the punishment you deserve.
When is "good", "good enough." Another thing that makes this idea wrong is that when are we "good enough" and at what point do we make it to heaven. The only way we can make it to heaven without Jesus is living the perfect life not the almost perfect life but the perfect life. In the book of James, he says if you are guilty of one sin you are guilty of it all. Jesus lived the perfect life and died on the cross for me and you so that we may have eternal life not by are works. Our balance needs to be 100% meaning our life needs to be perfect. Everyone has sinned resulting that we are all at -100% because of Jesus' death we are at 0% and because of his perfect life that he gives us we are at 100%.
Can we get to heaven by just believing in God? No for even the demons believe in God yet they will not be in heaven. Just merely believing is enough but repenting and believing is what the Bible requires his followers to do. Luke 13:3 says “But I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will perish.” Jesus repeats this exact phrase 2 verses later so we must pay attention to this. Repenting is turning away from our own sins and toward God. If we believe yet don’t condemn our wickedness but instead continue to let sin control our lives, we will not be saved instead we will perish like the demons. (There are so many amazing verses on repenting, I encourage you to read all of them listed here, 1 John 1:9, Acts 3:19, Mattew 4:17, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Ezekeil 18:30.)
In conclusion we are saved by Faith alone through grace not from works because the Bible points to faith alone, it makes logical sense, and lastly theirs is nothing we can do to receive eternal life. Faith and belief almost mean the same thing the only difference between them is faith is not based on facts as much as belief the bible tells us to believe or have faith in him and we will receive eternal life not by works but by belief or faith.