Misconceptions About Salvation
#2 "If my good deeds outweigh my bad ones, I will go to heaven."
The cause of this misconception is two-fold: a) a low view of God's holiness and b) failure to realize one's depravity.
* God is absolutely holy. He hates even a single sin. It took only one sin for Adam and Eve to be driven out of Paradise.
* Sin has affected and contaminated every part of our being---spirit, soul, body, mind, emotion and will. It has contaminated us entirely that even the best that we could do are "filthy rags in God's eyes" (see Isa. 64:6). Apart from the grace of God in salvation, our spiritual bank account in terms of good works is zero! Our good works will never outweigh our bad ones because we have no good works in God's eyes that He could accept in the first place (see Rom. 3:12).
We are saved through faith in what our Savior did and not what we have done.
