Ye Are Saved by Grace, Not By Making a Passing Score on the Final Exam

There are those who, perhaps unintentionally, and perhaps unknowingly, and perhaps while denying it, advocate a works-based salvation.

They say things like, "The only people going to heaven are those who 'do the right things/in the right ways'."

Yes, Jesus expects (demands) obedience. But it's an obedience from the heart that saves, not a perfect-performance obedience.

WEB Rom 6:[17 ]But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered.

God looks at one's heart, not at one's test-scores.

The fundamental problem with the Pharisees was not that they invented commands (this was a *symptom* of the problem), or that they taught those man-made commandments as doctrine (also a symptom), but that their heart was far from God.

God accepted Abel's sacrifice as a testimony that God accepted Abel (Heb 11:4), because Abel was righteous, that is, he had the right heart. Cain, judging by his actions, his attitude, his whining, and by how his children turned out, did not have a righteous heart.

The problem, and the solution, is the heart, not the external rule-keeping.

Strive to keep "the law", yes; that's what Jesus wants you to do. But don't rely on how well you keep the law. If you seek to be justified by your keeping of the law, you have fallen from grace; you are alienated from Christ (Gal 5:4). Trust in his righteousness, given to you as a gift; don't trust in your own righteousness, as did the Israelites, and who failed to attain the righteousness of God (Rom 10:1-4). Lean not on your own understanding; you won't get it right. There is none righteous, no, not one.

If you think you're saved by your perfect following of the Bible, you better get it 100% right (Rom 10:4-5); anything less means you've broken the entire law (Jam 2:10).