Will A Good Life Cut It?

QUESTION: If I live a good, clean, respectable life, will I not surely be
saved?

ANSWER: This is the common belief. According to an easy understanding of the Bible, that belief is wrong.

Proverbs 14: 12 says, "There is a way that SEEMETH right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death."

Salvation is not something we merit or earn. It obligates God. He then owes it to us. The Bible says salvation is by grace (God's undeserved favor) - Eph.2: 8, 9.

When God looks at that kind of person He sees their past sins. "God requireth that which is past", says Eccl. 3:15. God does not look at us as we presently are, but He sees our life from the cradle to the grave.

We are without strength to save ourselves, according to Romans 5:6. It cannot be by works. If we could save ourselves, the Bible would not state in Ephesians 2:3, "Not by works lest any man should boast."

Attempting to quit all ones sins is noble and it will make us better people, but it will not take away our past sin we have committed.

These sins must be taken away before we can be saved. According to the Bible, the blood of Christ can cleanse us from sin. See 1 John 1:7.

People who depend on their good lives to save them will never make
it to Heaven.

Are we depending on ourselves or Christ for salvation? Only He alone saves. That is why He is called "Savior."