saved a person must pray a certain number of times, in a certain manner, facing a certain direction. Or he must wear a particular type of religious garment. Or he must visit a certain religious shrine or temple. Or he must worship in a particular way.

Some religions require sacrifice and even the infliction of pain upon a believer in order to become holy in the sight of God. Some extreme religions require adherents to beat themselves with whips or rods to show their devotion to God. Some require pilgrims to crawl on their knees a certain distance in prayer in order to earn righteous points with God. Some religions require worship on Friday; others on Saturday; and others on Sunday.

But in all of this, the striving after righteousness is based on the religious activity of the man or woman. In every other religious system besides Christianity, a spiritual scale hangs over the head of the individual, with all of the sins they have committed on one side and all of their righteous deeds on the other. The person never knows whether they have been good enough, or prayed enough, or worked hard enough to earn the righteous points needed to counter their earned sins.

But the Christian Bible teaches that man is a sinner and could never earn salvation by what he or she did.

As the Scriptures say, "No one is righteous-not even one." (Rom. 3:10, NLT)

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. (Rom. 3:23, NLT)

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. (Is. 64:6a, NLT)

The apostle Paul makes it clear that salvation is available only through the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made when he carried the sins of the world on the cross.

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Cor. 5:21, NLT)

Jesus never sinned. So He was the only one who could pay the price and carry the sins of all people who ever lived upon himself on the cross. He was the sacrificial lamb who took upon himself the sin of the people.

This salvation comes only through the grace of God toward man, and we can only receive it by faith -- not by any deed that we could ever do.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Eph. 2:8-9, NKJV)

No matter how good you are; no matter how religious you are; no matter what you do for God, you can never be good enough, or holy enough to earn salvation.

Any plan of salvation that is based on the efforts of man is doomed to failure. But the Bible tells us that salvation has been made available to us because Jesus came to earth and bore our sins on the cross.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16, NKJV)

All we have to do is believe and receive what Jesus did to bring salvation to us. God has given us the grace to receive salvation; all we have to do is open the door by faith.

What About All the Hypocrites?

By Connie Strasheim
Guest Writer

CBN.com - What about all the hypocrites that call themselves Christian, but don't live it?

Several possible answers exist to this question. The first is that people can be religious, and not really know God. They may be Christians for reasons of power, security, or to gain acceptance from others. Perhaps, out of fear, they need to create an ideal of God that has little to do with who He is and their preconceived notions keep them from truly knowing Him. For instance, those who have had abusive upbringings may believe God to possess characteristics akin to their earthly fathers, which hinders them from really experiencing His gentleness.

For others, the message of the Cross has not reached their hearts because of an attitude of ingratitude or a spirit of entitlement towards God. In a society where we are mightily blessed with health and material wealth, we tend to downplay God's sacrifice of Jesus Christ as a BIG deal. When in fact, without it, we would never have the possibility of eternal life.

Not having truly encountered God will leave a person unchanged, and any attempts at Christ-like behavior are phony.

Apparent hypocrisy also can happen for other reasons. Christians and non-Christians alike tend to uphold an ideal for Christian behavior that may be unrealistic. Christians are expected to live as Jesus Christ did. While this is possible with God's help, nobody will ever be able to do this as perfectly as Him. Christians who love God strive to love Him and others, but they are nonetheless human and will make mistakes.

Also, rather than expecting immediate and total sanctification, Christians and non-Christians alike ought to realize that holiness is a process that takes a lifetime. Evidence of God working in a Christian's life is more powerfully seen in someone who has improved tenfold in his behavior towards others since surrendering his life to God. Anyone can spot a hypocrite a mile away because they don't grow in their faith, they settle for their belief in religious practices. For example, a man who was physically and verbally abused as a child and yet who manages not to curse his wife, might be holier in God's eyes than the man who treats his wife like royalty but who was yet raised by loving parents. What comes more naturally for the "healthy" man may require a supernatural indwelling of God's spirit in the man who was abused. Hence, it is important to look not only at outward behavior. A person's