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I am not sure exactly the method of judgement but, we are told the books will be opened and we will be judged from them. I am supposing all our acts are recorded somewhere and that we will have to answer for them. Before you flame me please continue reading. . . . .

We, all of us are sinners. None of us deserve any kind of reward, we have all failed the test so to speak. Because God loves us, He sent His Son into the world to be punished for our sins. Taking advantage of that punishment however is not automatic. This is where it gets controversial.

Some say that if you confess Jesus as your Lord then all is forgiven, forever. Others say, well not quite. It is easy to say you confess Jesus but if you only talk the talk but don’t walk the walk then you don’t really get the benefits package after all.

Doctrine according to Joe (that’s me by the way) says that option number two is more correct. Some will say that means you believe that works save you. No, I do not believe works save you. Faith in The Lord Jesus Christ makes you eligible for Grace that He offers to those that FOLLOW Him. The big problem is who follows Him. I think that is what the books are for. When we are kind to our fellow man it is recorded and you can say you are walking the walk. When you are mean, unkind or whatever then you are not walking the walk and that too is recorded. All of us at sometimes do bad things to other people. If we realize our sin and repent and then ask forgiveness of it The Lord will likely scratch that out of the record.

I suspect that there is nobody that will repent of every bad thing they have done but they may have tried. I am very much hopeful that The Lord will give us an E for effort and forgive us even if we haven’t asked but that it will be a judgement call.

I am unwilling, after reading many times the New Testament, to believe in the doctrine of once saved always saved or that simply saying “Jesus is Lord” will save me from anything. While we are all sinners, Jesus abhors sin. If we don’t abhor sin we will not be with Jesus in my humble opinion. If we are constantly doing things we shouldn’t then we don’t really abhor sin. Good luck with that lifestyle come judgement day.

For those who genuinely try The Good Lord will stand with them on judgement day and tell The Father that He has already been punished for those sins and that He will deal now with that person, that person is His. I hope He claims me. I’m trying to be like Jesus, I think that is what it takes.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m trying to be simple here, certainly there must be things you must do to show you are His like being baptized, but following Jesus, trying to be like Him brings us to these things.

We could argue on the points of who can baptize or what method works, but, those things are unimportant until you decide to follow Him, until you feel sorrow for your sin, until you are willing to repent and then ask forgiveness.

I suspect that doing these things will bring you to Christ in the end.

Has works got anything to do with it? No. But if you don’t have any good works I doubt you are trying to be like Jesus.