July-August 1998
How Many Is Enough?
by Richard Maffeo
Some days he signs as many as a thousand autographs-all without charge. Each year he appears at numerous benefits and never charges a fee. Since his retirement from professional sports, his weeks are full with what he calls "good deeds." Why does he do it? He believes each good work will help get him into heaven.
He is not alone in his faith. Millions across the globe share his conviction that God keeps a celestial tally of our deeds. They believe God will use that record at the Great Judgment to determine our eternal destiny.
On the surface, that philosophy might seem reasonable: but a closer look raises more questions than it answers. Is God really a Great Accountant hunched over an open ledger spread across his desk? Is he eternally busy jotting down our good and bad works as we perform them? How many good works does it take to earn eternal life?
And suppose when we die we are only one good deed short of the number needed to earn admission to heaven. Would God close our file and say: "Sorry, but you missed it by one. It's off to hell with you"? Or might he give us an extra day of life to make up our deficit? Surely a person could perform one good deed in 24 hoursjust enough to put him or her over the top.
Then again, suppose the person was not one, but ten good deeds away from eternal life. Might the merciful God give him or her another week? After all, what is one more week of life when eternity is in the balance?
And speaking of balance, how many goods does it take to balance bads? Would helping an elderly person across the street compensate for two lies? Would ten kind words about another cover the cost of several lustful thoughts? Would being a Boy Scout leader for a month remove an adulterous fling from the scales? Would a fifty-dollar theft require fewer good deeds than those required for stealing a thousand?
To add to the confusion, what if the person who signs a hundred free autographs does so -- not out of kindness -- but because he wants to ensure he gets into heaven? Does his selfish motive turn all hundred good deeds into a hundred bad deeds?
Two thousand years ago, a prison guard asked a question much the same as our sports champion: What must I do to be saved? (Acts 16:30). The jailer wanted to know what we all want to know: How many and how much is enough?
Paul and Silas answer must have surprised the jailer. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31).
That's it? There's nothing more to it than believe? Does faith invalidate the importance of good works as a means of gaining everlasting life?
Yes and no. Yes, because Scripture declares it is our faith in Christ's work -- not ours -- which saves us (Galatians 2:16-21; 3:11). No, for although our good works don't ensure everlasting life, performing good works is evidence of the faith which saves us (James 2:14-26).
Scripture repeatedly makes the point -- probably so we won't miss it: Only one thing can compensate for our lies, thefts, angers, lusts -- even murder. That one thing is the blood of Jesus Christ.
Salvation is not based on the bottom line in some Great Ledger. It is God's free gift: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
For centuries, men and women have asked: "What can wash away my sin? How many autographs must I sign? How much money must I give? How many ladies should I help across the street?"
And for centuries, God's answer has remained the same, "Nothing can wash away sin -- nothing but the blood of Jesus."
Richard Maffeo is a registered nurse who lives with his family in San Diego, California. He is the author of numerous articles appearing in Christian magazines. E-mail: maffeo@inetworld.net.