For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…
– Ephesians 2:8 (NIV)
It is a hard truth to wrestle with, but we do not earn our way to heaven. All of us go through life knowing that we are not all good. That we do things that are wrong. Not wrong in another’s eyes, but by our own standard of right and wrong. We are fully aware that we violate our own standard of right and wrong.
According to Scripture, we are saved by faith in Jesus. This is a reassuring thought since none of us are genuinely good. If we know that we break our own standard of right and wrong, how much more are we guilty of breaking the perfect Law of God? As this verse says, by God’s grace, He has relieved us of the burden of performance. He has given us equal footing. We do not have to wonder if we are good enough. All we have to do is turn towards God, in faith.
Faith in God is described in two words—believe and repent. We accept Jesus’ sacrifice as our own, and trust Him with our lives.