Something to think about.
Equal to God
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV)
I imagine that every Christian has either read or heard this verse. Its meaning is straightforward. God saves you through His unmerited favor. You can't be saved by your own doing. But yet there are still those who feel there must be something I can do to facilitate or assist in my salvation. Salvation can't be that simple.
If you find a need to work for your salvation, you must answer this question. How can I earn my salvation? The concept of earning is that you do something of value to receive something of equal or greater value. Working with the idea of "earning" you must do something that is of sufficient worth to pay for your sin. The standard of payment is the complete eradication of sin. You have to do something equal to the cost of your sin in order to remove every vestige of the sin. Covering it up is not acceptable. You must remove even the memory of it. You have to, in essence, make it as it never happened. Forgiveness of sin is not enough you must make complete payment for your sin. You must make it as if never happened. You must restore the situation to its perfect state. When you work for your salvation, this is the goal, the restoration of perfection.
Biblically God accomplished the restoration of man by becoming man Himself. Then He died on the cross and shed His blood so that through His blood man's sin was wholly paid for. He restored perfection to man by the complete removal of sin. The cost of sin was so high that only He could make the payment for us that we might become perfect in Him. God, Himself is the only one capable of making the payment. His proof of payment is then exhibited in the resurrection.
For those of you who are determined that you must work your way into heaven all you have to do is make payment for your sin. What you have to do is very simple and clearly stated you must become equal to God. Since God was the only one capable of making the payment for sin; it follows that if you are going to work your way into heaven, you must also make a qualifying payment. The requirements are simple you must be sinless, perfect. You must have the currency of blood, perfect clean sinless blood, you must die and then you must resurrect yourself. In short, you must become equal to God.
