Blake Long

Some research estimates that there are over 4,000 different religions. And, as many know, there are five major world religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. But with all these different religions—from the mystical beliefs of Hinduism to to the doctrines of Islam—comes a different way of thinking.

There might be a plethora of religions—with different beliefs and rituals—that people practice. This is, indeed, true. However, all but one of them have something in common: heaven by works.

Religion of Works

Most religions teach, in various fashions, what to do in order to reach heaven, achieve nirvana, or something similar. Humans must perform certain rituals or specific “good deeds” so that they are on the right spiritual track according to their religion. It’s a mindset of “do this” and “do that.”

Here’s the kicker: this appeals to our sinful human nature. Naturally, we want to perform, we crave satisfaction from it being our work. We are so prideful that we want to rely on ourselves to achieve, or gain, salvation.

This is what all religions teach, various forms, except Christianity (as we will get to). Whether it’s Judaism, Islam, or the more non-theistic religions such as Buddhism, they all explain that salvation (of sorts) is obtained by performing. They say our “good” works must outweigh our bad works.

The problem is, in our natural, sinful state, none of us have “good” works. In fact, the Bible makes clear that our supposed righteous acts are “filthy rags” to the Lord (Isaiah 64:6).

That’s where the religion of grace, Christianity, comes in.

Religion of Grace

Christianity stands out from all other religions because, at the most fundamental level, it is a religion of God’s righteousness, not self-righteousness. There are myriad passages that indicate the grace of salvation, including Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5, Romans 3:24, and many more. Salvation is of God and of God alone (Jonah 2:9).

Man does not contribute to salvation in anyway. In fact, as theologian Jonathan Edwards once observed, “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.”

Blake, you might ask, don’t we contribute faith?

To be sure, we do exercise faith to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ; we use faith as an instrumental to cling to the gospel message, that Jesus lived a perfect life on our behalf and died for our sins—that is true. However, the faith we exercise is a gift from God so that no man may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). We have no room to parade about placing our faith in Jesus—even our faith is not our own, but a gift of God!

This is the polar opposite of all other religions. Christianity—the religion of grace—is the only religion that says, “Done” and not, “Do.” In the Christian faith, man is declared (not made—that is Roman Catholic doctrine) righteous in God’s sight by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. The only works that were truly required were Christ’s works—and they were perfectly pleasing to the Father. Upon salvation, not only does Jesus wipe our sin away, but He credits us His perfect righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21)!

The Christian life—from regeneration to glorification—is all of grace. Man’s work comes into play in the process of sanctification, but even that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and prepared beforehand by God (Ephesians 2:10). There are no amount of works, no measure of good deeds that can earn God’s approval. And that is what all religions, besides Christianity, teach.

Religions of work say, “If I can just do enough then maybe—just maybe—I’ll go to Heaven.”

Christianity, the religion of grace, says, “You will never measure up. Forsake your self-righteousness and cling to the life and death of Jesus—the only one who measured up!—and you be welcomed into paradise.”