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SIX-POINT LAW/GOSPEL WITNESS WE CANNOT EARN HEAVEN BY WHAT WE ARE OR DO. 1. Because God demands perfection. Matthew 5:48 - Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. An absolute standard, not a sliding scale Results, not efforts 2. Because we are sinners who have not measured up to God's standards. Romans 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Sins are selfish thoughts, unkind words, wicked deeds AND all the good things we failed to do. Sin is our nature and inclination. Comparisons with others are invalid because no matter how good or bad we are relatively, we still don't measure up. 3. Because death, eternal separation from God, is what we've earned. Romans 6:23a - For the wages of sin is death, Sin is a mounting, unpayable debt that comes due. A just and holy God cannot tolerate or ignore sin. His identity, integrity and credibility are at stake. GOD GIVES ETERNAL LIFE IN HEAVEN FOR JESUS' SAKE. 4. God loves us and, in his Son, satisfied his own justice. John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God's love is not just a feeling or a word, but an action - sending and punishing his Son in our place. God punished our sin, transferring it from us to Jesus, at the cross. 2 Corinthians 5:21 - God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God 5. God gives us eternal life for Jesus' sake. Romans 6:23b - but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. It is a complete forgiveness and salvation in Jesus. It is entirely God's gift and doing. 6. God's gift of eternal life is ours by faith. John 3:36a - Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Sin is a mounting, unpayable debt that comes due. A just and holy God cannot tolerate or ignore sin. His identity, integrity and credibility are at stake. PRINT/SAVE SIX-POINT LAW/GOSPEL WITNESS