Jack
Hyles, the late pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana (FBCH),
taught that one should store up merits (works) to offset times of demerits
(sins). If you have enough in reserve, God will forgive your sin and put you
back in business.
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We
Christians must do good works because Paul says to the Ephesians: “We are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10); we must
do them so that men may see them and glorify our Father in heaven (cf. Matthew
5:16).
Of course good works are merits that a Christian stores up before God, this is why the Scripture says that in that day each
one of us will receive his own reward according to his good works. However,
far be it from us to think that we need to store up merits to offset times of
demerits. In other words, far be it from us to think that we need to do good
works so that when we sin the Lord will forgive our sins because of our good
works we have done, because such a thought would lead us to believe that
somehow we can merit the forgiveness of sins through our good works, which is
not true because we sons of God receive the forgiveness of our sins by the
grace of God through our faith in Christ when we confess them to God. Jesus
said that we must say to God, “Forgive us our debts” (Matthew 6:12 – NKJV),
and John says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9) and again:
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). Therefore, no matter how many
good works we may have done, if we confess our sins we are sure God will
forgive us our sins because He is faithful and just. He will forgive us by
His grace, and not because of some merits we have stored up. If forgiveness
of sins were by works it would no longer be by grace, and we would attach
more importance to our merits and sacrifices than to the sacrifice of Christ
and His merits, and in this way we would nullify His sacrifice and the
efficacy of His atoning death. Therefore, be careful brothers, for this
teaching is a diabolical teaching, it is a teaching similar to the teaching
of the Roman Catholic Church which affirms that the forgiveness of mortal
sins committed after baptism is obtained not only by faith but also by works
(actually it is obtained only by works), that’s why after the priest absolves
the penitent he tells him to do some good works, because in that way the
penitent can merit the forgiveness of his sins, he can be fully forgiven,
even though the forgiveness is never complete because there are always some
debts of temporal punishment to be discharged in purgatory. Brothers, be
zealous for good works, but do not do them in order to offset times of
demerits. If you sin, confess your sins to God and forsake them, and the Lord
will have mercy on you and will forgive you.
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