If God asked, “Why should He allow you to enter the heavenly kingdom?” what would you use as your reason, your bargaining chip with God?

If your bargaining chips are your beliefs, your good deeds, your religious practices you will be disappointed.  Anything other than,

will not save you.

“For it is by grace that you have been saved,
through faith, and this not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God – not by works,
so that no one can boast.”

Have you heard about or seen the latest T-shirt design coming out of California?  The T-shirt has a picture of Jesus’ face and head with the words, ‘Jesus is my homeboy.’  At first I thought it was creative way to express one’s relation in today’s culture until I learned, unfortunately that the shirt is only a fashion statement and not a faith statement.  The shirt is as meaningless as the cross that a person wears because it is a beautiful piece of jewelry.  It is as meaningless as a Christian bumper sticker or symbol on a car that is driven by a person with little respect for the law or motorists.  It is as meaningless as the prayers and act worship of the Pharisee because he was only trying to justify himself.  Instead of justifying himself he revealed his ignorance of God and self as he proudly stood up in the temple and prayed,

“Thank God I am not like that tax collector.”

We put ourselves in the same danger when we present our own goodness as a bargaining chip.

As Ron Susek points out in his book God Will Answer ‘self-acclaimed goodness is self-acclaimed glory’ it does not result in salvation.

“For it is by grace that you have been saved,
through faith, and this not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God – not by works,
so that no one can boast.”

What I do know is that when we offer our goodness as a reason, as a bargaining chip for our salvation, or for why Jesus should remove our trials and tribulations or cure our ills we are attempting to match our holiness with God as well as denying that our salvation is a free gift from God.

Thank God that our salvation does not depend on us. Thank God...

“For it is by grace that you have been saved,
through faith, and this not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God – not by works,
so that no one can boast.”

If good works don’t accomplish salvation why bother to do them?

We are not saved merely for our own benefit and own pleasure. Even though our good works or deeds has nothing to do with us obtaining salvation we are still called to do good works. We are called to do good works for the very reason we teach our children to say thank you when someone gives us something, and our salvation from God is no exception.

We are not saved for the solo benefit of ourselves but to serve Christ, spread the Good News and to serve others with Christ like love and kindness. We are saved because

“we are God’s workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us.”

There is a great illustration that applies to this morning’s text that comes from a devotional book titled, Keeping God in the Small Stuff. The author states, “Your faith becomes meaningful to you and effective for your salvation ONLY when you have faith in God. But what happens if you never act on that faith? How meaningful and effective is it then?

Let’s say you have reservations to fly to Hawaii. When the day for your flight arrives, you drive to the airport, check-in, and walk to your gate. But rather than taking your seat on the plane, you sit in the airport and watch the plane take off.  Then you turn to the person next to you and say, ‘Hey, you see that plane?  I have a reservation for that flight. My reservation is going to Hawaii.’”

It is unthinkable that anyone would be so foolish. Yet it is done every day with regards to our faith in God. God has a plan and a purpose for our life. As Paul stated,

“we are God’s workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us.”

Unfortunately, almost daily we choose not to get on board with His plan. Instead we focus on our needs and our happiness.

My future daughter-in-law has a bumper sticker on her car that reads ‘He who dies with the most toys, still dies.’ The point is very profound, it doesn’t matter how many toys you own, you will die. You can substitute money, good works, or possessions for toys and it doesn’t change the truth, we all still die. Yet we spend a greater proportion of our time accumulating toys, wealth, possessions, and accolades even though they will not save us instead of getting on board with God’s plan of salvation, instead of doing the

good works, which God prepared in advance for us.

Ron Susek in his book, God Will Answer has a different twist on an old saying. “It’s said that you came into the world with nothing, so shall you leave with nothing."  Not true! You came into the world with nothing, but you leave with the record of your life.  While you enter the kingdom of God as a free gift of God’s grace, it’s the record of your life and service to Christ that will establish your position in the kingdom (Luke 19:11-27).

Allow the message of Easter to challenge you:

To daily pray prayers of praise and thanksgiving that your salvation is not a result of your own goodness but is a result of God’s grace.

To daily rest in God’s mercy knowing that God loves you, sins, mistakes, and imperfections.

To commit yourself to daily get on board with God’s plan of salvation and express your faith and gratitude to God through your good works.

To acknowledge that your only bargaining chip with God is the chip God gives you,

Jesus, the Christ, the Truth, the Way and the Life.