Many people are sure that salvation is earned; that it is not a gift of God's grace. So, they go about trying to work their way to heaven. They give to charities, take food to the bereaved, donate blood to the red cross, and of course, join a church and observe the rituals required by it. Meanwhile, they hope that God keeps accurate records of their good works.
But how good must their best efforts be in light of Isaiah 64:6 which says, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; . . ." The sinner, at his best, produces works that are filthy rags in God's sight. What merit will that earn for a man toward a place in Heaven if God is keeping the records?
In Romans 3:12, God says that ". . . there is none that doeth good, no, not one." The sinner, at his best, can do no good. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23); "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). Try as he may, the sinner is doomed to failure if he seeks to earn a place in the abode of the holy God of Heaven.
What, then, is a sinner to do? Let God speak from Romans 3:21-26: "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, . . . which is by faith of Jesus Christ . . . upon all them that believe: . . . Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (satisfaction) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
God is just in condemning the sinner who tries to establish his own righteousness. But He is also just in forgiving and justifying the sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ Whose shed blood satisfied God's demand of the death penalty for sin. The sinner, at his best, is hopelessly lost. But if he allows God to justify him by faith, he is saved and the joyous possessor of eternal life. ". . . Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, . . ."(Acts 16:31).