Our salvation only comes by trusting in the perfect faith Jesus Christ had in his Father and by obeying his Father’s will He died for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day. If we believe and have trust in this, we will be saved.
But what about works?
Jesus was and is righteous in all his ways and although tempted in every way that we are never once sinned and he did the work his Father sent him to do. So, he was both righteous and performed works.
Now, we too have been righteoused by God for our trust in His Son and if we are to obey God, then we must love our neighbor and that means we do the works He has given us to do that James wrote about in his epistle and there is more than that we are being asked to do.
Do those works make us more righteous before God? No, but we might obtain a more excellent reward in heaven because of our obedience. There are several crowns mentioned by the Apostle Paul that we can earn which we each will lay with bended knee at the feet of our Lord when we see Him.
Jesus said that those who do the will of his father will be called great in Heaven and those who don’t will be called the least.
Is there a hierarchy in Heaven? Most certainly!
God’s Word shows us that there are angels with very high responsibility and are very powerful and others that aren’t.
When we go into Heaven, we too will be given responsibilities, and we will do our assigned tasks and account for them.
But aren’t we all equal before God?
Yes, in terms of receiving our salvation by grace but God has given us gifts to use and put to work to do his will while we are here in our flesh.
You may recall the parable Jesus taught about the three servants who were given varying amounts of money before the master left on a long trip. The first two invested what they were given and when the master returned, received much praise for the increase and they were given even more to put to work for their master but the third servant greatly feared his master and instead of investing what he was given, he hid it away and when required to account for himself, only returned what he was entrusted with. All that he was entrusted with was taken away from him but he was still a servant but had little responsibility and wasn’t trusted with the master’s goods.
This parable is symbolic of the gifts God gives us to use in the mission he has for us. The main mission we have is to evangelize the world. Now that doesn’t mean we are to make new Christians but only to tell people of the Good News. In our time off so to speak, we are to love our neighbor by doing works of giving to fulfil their needs just as we do works for ourselves to fulfil our own needs.
Paul taught us that we are to proclaim the Good News in simple straightforward language and not persuasive logic or clever tactics as anything more than a simple message robs the power of the cross in our message.
We don’t need to reason with people to try and convince them of God and Jesus and the Good News God brought into the world as He is working in people’s hearts to awaken them to the reality of Himself and to pay attention to what He requires to be saved. Like Lydia of Philippi, God noticed her belief in Him, but she lacked the knowledge of His Son, so He put it in her heart to pay attention to the Good News Paul preached and she believed and was saved.
Yes, God is working to prepare those that will believe and it’s up to us to simply share the Good News with them.
If you’re feeling like you just can’t do that, just throw caution to the wind and come out with it and see what happens. If the person says nothing, you’re done your job. If that person asks you questions, be ready to give a reason for the hope you have in you as Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15.
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”