Heaven Bound By Faith? Good Deeds? Both?

Today a good friend of mine, Bob, shared with me a few things that happened at the funeral of his brother-in-law Tom.



Tom's funeral was a solemn one. No "When The Saints Come Marchin' In" type of music. And no smiley faces. When it came time for the "Words of Comfort" part of the ceremony, Bob was first in line to speak. It was his goal to liven up this "celebration." One of the things that he mentioned about Tom was that he was a humorous person. And Bob shared this story.

Like all wives Tom's wife had a "honey do" list of things to fix around the house. Men usually take their time checking things off this list. We know that when you mark through one item as completed, your wife will give you two more things to add. So when Tom's wife, after exhibiting enormous patience would say, "Honey, when do you plan to fix the leaky faucet," Tom would say, "any morning."



Late the next day, Tom's wife reminded him that he promised her to fix the leaky faucet hours ago, i.e. "in the morning." Then Tom responded in the nicest, most loving tone that he could, "Baby I didn't say "in the morning. I said any A-N-Y morning."



By now you're probably thinking, "That's nice. But what does this have to do with heaven bound?" Well, later that night after the funeral, Bob's wife, Lynn, told him that she had a problem with the eulogy. She thought that the preacher gave too much credit to the power of God's grace in the forgiveness of sin. The minister she felt should have stressed also the importance of doing good deeds in order to get to Heaven.



Bob shared with Lynn some Bible verses supporting the sufficiency of God's grace. He explained to Lynn that no matter how bad your behavior, God will forgive you. God's grace is available to you if you are a cheater, a liar, even a child molester or murderer. But there is a catch. To be forgiven is to be Heaven bound. Yet, to be Heaven bound the Bible teaches that that person has to have faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior who died on the Cross for the sins of all humanity. Lynn did not seemed persuaded.



Then, Bob tried again by pointing out to Lynn with a hug that it is faith alone in Christ alone that saves a sinner from hell and ensures that the sinner is Heaven bound. Lynn sighed. The discussion continues.


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(Graphic from Prawny @ www.dreamtimes.com)