if good deeds won't get you into heaven...?

Question

what's the purpose of even giving rules to live by? honestly, if they are as arbitrarily laid out by god as christians would have you believe, without any connection to rules man might have wanted. wouldn't it make more sense to just leave it at accepting christ as your savior. think about it. we have the ten commandments. but even if we follow the ten commandments, it doesn't matter because good deeds won't get us into heaven. by that logic, there's no real reason to define sin as being anything other than denying christ. what do you think?

mr. religion... even you should know the commandments came way before christ...

a lot of you really seem to be missing the point. let's say we were playing a game that i made up. and i gave you a list of about 20 rules, but you didn't have to follow any of them, just believe that i was the person who laid out the rules and you win. would you bother to play by the rules?

how can you say sin is not arbitrary? there were no rules before he made man. where did the rules come from?

the idea of sin is as arbitrary as defining a tree as being the source of knowledge of good and evil.

let me put it to you this way, since some of you still don't get it. i'm sure many of you have taken a college or high school course, where you knew before the final you had an a in it. and let's say it was a class where your final exam didn't make up enough of the final grade to bring you below an a average. you knew you were going to get an a for the class, even if you failed the final, so did you bother studying for the final? my guess is most people wouldn't.

Answer 1

Just do good deeds and forget about getting into heaven. If you feel good about yourself when your life comes to its earthly end, that's the best you can possibly do.

Answer 2

The Law or Ten Commandments teach me that God has rules for my good. He cares about the quality of my life. He is no arbitrary God. He is upclose and personal -- note that He really desires exclusive devotion first off. I'm a hipocrite, and see by the Law I cannot really keep it. Thankfully, God saw that "all have sinned and fall short of God's standards." before and made arrangements to take care of that. Jesus is God's perfect God - Man who is the only one who could pay the high cost of both perfection in keeping the law, and perfectly loving to the uttermost. He is EXTREME for you and me. How can we neglect so great a friend!!

Don't look at what you can't do. That's pretty immature. You're viewpoint is all wrong that way. (Many folks think that because we live in a "free" country that means that we should be able to do anything we want... Think again... Is FREEDOM doing anything we want? Like suppose you want to fly off the top of a building. That could give you about 30 seconds of freedom and then it follows the RULES of gravity and bang you're dead. All of life is this way. It's got rules. If you're wanting to go to a friends house will going anyway you want get you there? Do you get my point??

Jesus came to give you eternal life that you don't even realize how highly He values you and your joy of true life. Don't throw your life away on passing passions that will not truly satisfy. Your life is really worth investing some time in finding out why you are here and what life as defined by Someone higher than you, namely your Creator, is about. God bless you in your search. Start by reading the Bible--, but do it with purpose of drawing close to God-- get into relationship not religion. Also, I really enjoyed watching the movie "Jesus of Nazareth" -- I think it does Jesus some justice in portraying the major themes and character qualities of His life. The cast was excellent and the script was pretty close to the Bible. Even as you are, just start talking to God instead of keeping Him at a distance. He sees you just as you are anyway. He really is crazy about you and loves you GREATLY. God bless.

Answer 3

Actually there are over 600 commandments in the Bible and breaking any of them is a sin. The thing is God is an omnipotent being and can do whatever He wants. He doesn't care how you or anyone else wants to define sin. He defines sin as that which is not in accordance with His will. The rules are there so we are aware of the things God doesn't want us to do. You can't use logic to tell God how to do His job.

Answer 4

Well, Paul said, "Should we sin so that grace can abound? Certainly not!"

Do you love God? The bible also says, "If you love me you will obey my comandments."

The bible also says that God will bring every secret thing into account weither good or evil.

I think that there are some of God's laws that no longer apply to us now that we are under the new covenant, like the clean and unclean thing and the not eating pork thing, etc.

Deep down, we're all nasty inside. I think we all really NEED God to tell us what to do, because what we really want is the opposite. We're in a war with sin and God's will all of the time. The only difference is as Christians God gives us weapons to fight against it. Sometimes God wins, and sometimes our flesh wins. But the point is to keep fighting out of a love for God.

Answer 5

The Commandments are meant as training for Christians who walk in the path of Christ. Christ fulfilled the law so that we may be given the gift of grace through belief in Christ's atoniing sacrifice.

So the "rules" are to help Christians be better and hence, the world around us. If there were no rules, our sinful natures would have the streets running with blood.

Answer 6

Christ Jesus was there before the world was created, as He was the one who made all things. The Commandments were given to Moses to establish the Law of God in a way that mankind could understand the perfection of God. Additional Laws are given in the scriptures. The point of all the Law is very basic, no man can live by them without failing. That simple. That means all sin, and the Law provided for sacrifices and such to 'cover' or as atonement for mans sins. Jesus came into the World, and REPLACED the need of sacrifice, as HE BECAME the sacrifice for all sins, of all men, for all time. Those Laws were not abolished, but fulfilled, with Jesus life of perfection, so God gave us a way of salvation from sin, death and the Law. Jesus sets His people free, and we that are His strive to live as He would have us. Works of good come not to gain us entry into heaven, but into His rewards.

Answer 7

Are we speaking Christian theology or what you imagine is BS? in accordance to Christian theology Christ is the Messiah, the Lord, the selected One, the Redeemer, the Neo (you know that the Matrix is a Christian allegory; correct?) the Son of God. God ( you know, the large Cheese, the Wizard in the back of the curtains, the author, the life stress (the stress is with you Luke). really the life stress is the Holy Spirit; yet enable's no longer confuse you with the secret of the Trinity (you know like Neo's female friend contained in the Matrix.) the following The Trinity refers back to the three persons of the Godhood in a unmarried being:God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. besides, the answer on your question is that faith on my own (opposite to Martin Luther (no longer speaking about the lifeless black dude the following) and some Protestant theology gained't forestall; there must be the fruit of that faith: or solid Works. (James contained in the Bible) yet definite, in case you're literally not between the choose; (Revelations) properly, the pooch is noticeably a lot screwed. you're case is basic. you've gained the solid information and rejected it. yet what of those little brown adult men operating around the Amazon? What if someone lives and dies and under no circumstances hears the solid information. Hmmmm! What does God do? no individual is acquainted with! So walk your human being route. do not repent. (Repent is Latin for walk yet otherwise!) And you need to really tell God what you imagine of all this "bullshit" once you meet Him.

Answer 8

The very short and oversimplified cliche response (although still accurate) is that if you were truly saved/ had truly accepted Jesus you would not wish to do immoral things but instead focus on right actions and helping others. The whole "and by your fruit you shall know them." The apple a fruit tree makes doesn't say anything about the long term life of the tree, it does however let you know it is still an apple tree. (That was a horrible analogy, but I'm a little sleepy so we'll leave it there..haha.)

Answer 9

That's an interesting way of looking at it.
I like the point you make about defining sin as only being the denial of Christ. (Did I paraphrase that right?).
So, as long as I don't deny Christ, I can't sin.
Simple, straightforward. and for me, quite an attractive idea.
I neither acknowledge nor deny Christ, as a figure.
Ergo, I don't sin.
So, that nullifies all the threats I receive of Eternal Damnation because I'm a "Heathen".
I like your take on Christianity.
I doesn't seem to be as intolerant and judgemental as other forms of Christianity.
Good luck with 'spreading the word as you know it', I look forward to living in a world with 'moderate' Christians who practice a live and let live attitude towards those of other faiths.
There truly will be peace on Earth and goodwill to all men.
It'd make a nice change, wouldn't it?

Answer 10

I can't follow your logic very well. God never does anything arbitrarily. Sin is something that separates you from God. Without rules set down by God you'd never know were the boundaries are. Man had to learn he could never be perfect enough to reach God without ritual cleaning and Jesus provided that once and for all.

Answer 11

The reason good deeds won't get you into heaven is because good deeds can't cancel out the bad deeds. If you have murdered someone, you can't make him alive again. If you have lied, you can't make the lie being unsaid. If trust has been broken you can't easily repair it.

God does want us to do good deeds, even more so He wants us to be holy = perfect, like He is.
"As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear."

Unfortunately, too many, who call themselves Christians, don't live their lives in conformity with this teaching. They take Jesus' death on the cross like they would a pill for a headache, never considering what it cost Him to pay for their sins.