Good Works

Question: May I merit heaven by my good works?

If your works are absolutely perfect, if you never break the law of God at any point from the hour of your birth until your death, if you do all that God requires of you and all that pleases Him, you can merit heaven by your good works. But this is something that no man except Jesus Christ has ever done or can ever do! "There is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:22-23). The moment any person breaks the law of God at any point, he can no longer merit heaven by his good works. The law demands perfect obedience (Galatians 3:10). Nothing but perfect obedience to the law of God will secure life or heaven. There is, therefore, no hope on the basis of our own works.

The moment a person has sinned at any point, his only hope is that he be justified freely through the grace of God in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24). But justification by free grace is offered to all who will accept Jesus Christ. All who believe are "justified freely" - that is, as a free gift - "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (v. 24). God set Him forth to be the "propitiation [atoning sacrifice] by His blood, through faith" (v. 25). If you will study the whole passage, starting from the ninth verse of Romans 3 and reading through the eighth verse of Romans 4, you will see how impossible it is for anyone to merit heaven by his good works, and what God's method of justification is.

~R. A. Torrey~