I was talking with two Muslim men last week, and the conversation took a rather expected direction that truly marks the difference between not just Christianity and Islam, but Christianity and every other religion.
I asked the two Islam men how they could be saved according to their own religion, and they answered as expected: that you must be a good person, obey the rules and laws, and then God will judge them based on how well they performed on this side of heaven. If their good deeds outweighed their bad deeds, then they would pass into bliss. But if their bad deeds outweighed their good deeds, then God would cast you into punishment.
Then, I asked them what they knew about Christianity, specifically asking them what Christianity says for how one can attain salvation. Without hesitation, each answered that Jesus—like Mohammad for Islam—functions as the central, moral figure of the religion who gives the laws that we must follow in order to be saved. He insisted that Christianity, just like Islam, operates the same way: how well you follow the law determines whether or not God rewards you or punishes you.
I interjected, admitting that I was a Christian, gently telling them that they were actually wrong about what they believed about Christianity’s message of salvation. I explained to them that in Christianity, salvation is not earned by our good works, but is received when we claim Jesus as our perfect righteousness. I continued, explaining that because God is perfectly holy, we need a perfect righteousness to stand in his presence and be acceptable in his sight. Hence, Jesus lived a perfect life, gained perfect righteousness, yet willing died in our place for our punishment of sin, and offers his righteousness as a gift to us. I concluded that Christianity’s message of salvation is about how Jesus’ righteousness saves us, not our own righteousness; salvation is a gift of grace, not a personal goal.
Their response to my explanation, was, of course, highly expected. Why is that? Because it’s anyone’s response after hearing about this seemingly absurd system of salvation. Along with the chorus of history, they reacted brashly: “Well no! That’s ridiculous! That means Christians can just do whatever they want! And still get salvation?! That salvation doesn’t work!”
I nodded and said, “I totally understand where you are coming from, but that is not exactly the case.” I then encouraged them to think about it this way:
Imagine that one day, your child was walking across the street, yet completely unaware that a 16-wheeler Mac truck was speeding right towards them. Death looked them directly right in the eyes. However, immediately before impact, someone ran into the street and pushed your child away just in time, accepting the deadly collision themselves. From afar, you watched the whole scenario unravel and simply became overcome by emotion. An indescribable amount of shock, gratefulness, and indebtedness welled up within you for the individual who graciously saved your child.
“Now, in light of this reality,” I asked them, “would you honor the family of this hero because you have to or because you want to? Would you feel obligated to do honor them, or would you feel honored to honor them?
They agreed, anyone would do it out of honor, not obligation. And why?
Because the answer is obvious: No one in their right mind would say ‘well, I guess I have to honor that hero’s family now. I guess their sacrifice obligates me to serve them. In fact, I wish they hadn’t saved my child’s life… because if they hadn’t, then I wouldn’t be indebted to them.” Of course not! Their immense sacrifice to you makes you want to honor them.
The two Islam made the obvious connection that this story serves as a small analogy of how Christianity’s notion of grace-based salvation fundamentally provides a change of heart toward good deeds and sin: it compels responding to God out of love.
Christianity’s distinctive point–among all other religions–is that grace-based salvation causes you to love God, which alone is the best motivation against sinful living. It does not give you a license to sin; it finally gives you power against it. If God saved our lives from sin, then why would we fight it simply because we have to? Rather, Christians live for Christ because he lived and died for us, which causes us to want to follow him.
It is the grace of God that teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions. (Titus 2:12)
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2)
The Christian motivation for good works—unlike other religions—is not obligation or fear or guilt or bolstering our own spiritual resume before God. The Christian motivation is selfless, grateful love because of what God has graciously done for us in Christ.
All other religions say that salvation is earned. Therefore, these religious systems are inevitably motivated into good deeds by self-preservation, fear of loss, and personal reward. Religious people ‘do good deeds’ to get salvation. Christians, on the other hand, ‘do good deeds’ because they already have salvation.
God doesn’t just want our obedience. Besides, you can do something right with the wrong motivations. God wants an obedience that flows from being in love with him, which are the right motivations. That obedience is a fragrant offering to God. He doesn’t want ‘cold-hearted, obligatory-based, fear-of-punishment, only-for-reward’ type of obedience. He wants an obedience that springs from the heart, gleams with delight, and rejoices in affection. He wants to see that you love him in light of his great love for you, which he supremely demonstrated in the person and work of Christ.
Only Christianity, however, can compel you to do something right with the right motivations. Only an experience of grace from God can first produce the love in your heart that you need in order to then accomplish the right kind of good works for God.
In religion, the cause is the obligation of good works, and the effect is the reward.
In Christianity, the cause is God’s reward, and the effect is a response of good works.
Religion: Good works are the roots, and salvation is the fruit.
Christianity: Salvation is the roots, and good works is the fruit.
Religion: Live and die for God; hope it’s enough.
Christianity: God lived and died for you; It is Finished.
Religion: God with a gavel and scales in his hands.
Christianity: God using the gavel to drive the nails into Jesus’ hands to pay for your sin.
Religion: You pulling yourself up by your own moral bootstraps.
Christianity: God pulling you up out of your own moral grave.
The problem with religion’s premise—that salvation and right standing with God is earned by good deeds—is that it leads to moral dead ends. It makes you your own savior, which inevitably makes you boast in your own ability to keep the law (leading to pride and self-righteousness) or makes you despair in your inability to keep the law (leading to hopelessness and self-deprecation). Either way, the result is moral failure; you’re back at square one. In addition, how much ‘good’ is enough for salvation? Religion doesn’t provide assurance of salvation, so you will inevitably keep trying to prove yourself through your deeds. Over time, you will simply grow exhausted and will be dominated by anxiety beneath that hollow veneer of righteousness you have been trying so hard to maintain.
Christianity’s premise—that salvation and right standing with God is given as a gracious gift—only leads to moral purity. In light of God’s gospel for us, morality becomes a response of natural desire, not of unnatural coercion. For example, when Christians do good deeds, can they boast or become prideful or self-righteous? No, because their works had nothing to do with their right standing with God (Eph. 2:7-10). When Christians sin, can they despair or become self-deprecatory? No, because they are forgiven and loved in Christ, which means their sin does not separate them from God’s love. In addition, Christians do know how much ‘good’ is enough for salvation: complete perfection. Because God is perfectly holy, he requires nothing short of perfect righteousness. But God in his amazing grace provided nothing short of perfect righteousness for us so we can be reconciled to him—Jesus trading his righteous life for our unrighteous life. Therefore, Christians cannot become exhausted by good deeds; rather, their assurance of salvation fuels them for good deeds. Christians have nothing to prove in themselves. The only want to prove to the world how good Jesus really is.
Therefore, the initial reaction—“That salvation is ridiculous! That means Christians can just do whatever they want! That salvation doesn’t work!”—isn’t completely wrong.
What do I mean? What I mean is, because Christians receive salvation instead of earn it, we can do whatever we want. What we want, however, is not sin; an encounter with Grace in the midst of unrighteousness causes us to want righteousness. So the assertion is correct: Christians can do what they want, except what we want is not what they expect. The effect of salvation upon us—that God graciously lived and died for us—organically changes our hearts to want and to honor him more and more every day. We don’t honor God out of obligation, fear, threat, or even reward. We honor him simply because we love him—more than anything else.
Thus, their assertion that “that salvation doesn’t work!” is incorrect. Christian salvation does work; and it’s the only basis that motivates a life of obedience to God from love, gratitude, and joy instead of the coercion from cold-hearted obligation, or white-knuckled fear, or self-invested reward. Christianity doesn’t just require obedience; it gives you a completely different kind of obedience. Indeed, as God promises, only the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to write the law of love on our hearts and on our minds (Jer. 31:33).
