I am most amazed with what John Calvin wrote about non-Christians who lead virtuous life, kind compassionate, generous, and helping the poor and needy, but not accepting Christ as personal Savior and Lord. He said their accomplishments in the world is considered as garbage in the sight of God because their good deeds were done without a worship unto the Lord who created them on the first place. All this boils down to ‘worship’. Truly without worship, awe and acknowledgement of the Almighty God who birthed you into the world, all the good deeds and virtues in the world will get you nowhere because you have not acknowledged and honored the God who has given you everything including your ability to do good deeds to others.

I am so blessed to better understand why good non-Christians won’t go to heaven. I am struck with that important, in fact, the most important facet of life, is about worship of the living God, not about how good a person you are. In all honesty and truth, it’s not about you, it’s about God. Nothing of the fragile weak fallen broken human and would get you anywhere in the holiness and sight of the transcendent God.

So doing good deeds just as a nice person, law abiding person, good heart on its own, though appealing, is not what will make the difference. What matters is doing good deeds, kind and law abiding as a worship unto the Lord. That’s the difference. You have to first put your faith in Christ as your Savior and Lord and then any good works will be as a result of that as a living sacrifice unto the Lord. Romans 1 explains the emptiness of people who refuse to honor the creator God, no matter how good they are as a person.

Romans 1:20-23 (ESV) 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

We all know that Christians fail God and even society as well. And the fact is it’s even more complicated by the fact that just because a person goes to church, it does not make him to be a real born-again Christian. The doctrine of teaching on ecclesiology is that only the elect will be saved into the Kingdom of God. And the odd thing is not everyone in the church are part of the elect. Theology calls it the visible church and the non-visible church. Non visible church consist of the elect.  Who are the elect?[1]

The invisible church consists of only the elect. The visible church consists of elect + non elect, and you will never really know until the end time. And that’s why, you would so much hypocrisy and some even apostacy in the churches today, because not all of them really belong to Christ.

The main point carrying forward is: Worship.

Good deeds ————(not equal) —-Worship

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[1] John Calvin, Of the Eternal Election, Institutes of the Christian Religion Unconditional election (also known as unconditional grace) is a Reformed doctrine relating to predestination that describes the actions and motives of God prior to his creation of the world, when he predestined some people to receive salvation, the elect, and the rest he left to continue in their sins and receive the just punishment, eternal damnation, for their transgressions of God’s law as outlined in the old and new Testaments of the Bible. God made these choices according to his own purposes apart from any conditions or qualities related to those persons.