We hope you enjoy this re-post from November 4, 2014. Be blessed! The Today’s Quote From God Team

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. – Ephesians 2:8-9, King James Version (KJV)

There are SO many people, even in churches, that believe going to Heaven is dependent on how good they are. “I just have to do more good things than bad, and I should be fine,” they think, but here’s the problem: how can you know if you’ve done more good than bad? You may be pretty good at controlling your outward behavior, but what about your inward? Christ said that to hate someone is to commit murder in the heart (see also 1 John 3:15) and simply looking on a woman to lust after her is adultery. If you could count how many times you’ve sinned in your heart, would your good really outweigh your bad?

Resting your eternity on the hope that your good works will outweigh your bad is a DANGEROUS practice. Thankfully, that’s not the way God designed His salvation plan. As Ephesians 2:8-9 states, salvation is a free gift; all we need do is repent of (turn our back on) our sins and accept the gift. Consider the thief on the cross. Unable to perform any good works to offset his bad, Christ still promised the repentant thief a place in Heaven, and He did so because the thief forsook his sin (Luke 23:41), recognized Christ as God (Luke 23:41-42), and asked for salvation (Luke 23:42).

Salvation is so simple; we don’t need to complicate it with our own ideas. Our good works don’t add anything to the salvation process. They just show our Savior how much we love Him for rescuing us in the first place.