The Curse of Salvation by Works!
Man in his pride says, "I did it my way. It would be unthinkable if a just and holy God would not receive my accomplishments, my good works, I helped the poor, surely I will make it into Heaven." Notice it is very much the me, myself and I theology. In short, it does not glorify God, only God is to be glorified even in the Christian's continuation of good works. Romans 10:3 is clear that man in his sin tries to achieve his own righteousness being ignorant of the righteousness of God. In fact, that is why sinful men who try to work their way to Heaven are jealous of the Christians who do good works only because of God's grace. It's like Cain and Abel. Remember that Cain in Genesis 4 brought the fruit of his labor. Nothing in the Scriptures suggest they were rotten vegetables. For Abel's sheep, it's somewhat implied that God accepted it because He was asking for a blood offering, not a grain offering. Maybe Cain brought the best fruit to brag to God but Abel in humility brought the unblemished lamb, which would represent the coming Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. Bible teacher Pastor Vernon McGee also said of Cain that, "What is the way of Cain? When Cain brought an offering to God, he did not come by faith - he came on his own. And the offering he brought denied that human nature is evil. God said, Bring that little blood sacrifice which will point to the Redeemer who is coming into the world. Come on that basis and don't come by bringing the works of your hands." But to sinful man, that is very hard to believe. Sometimes before a person can even get saved, it can take weeks or even years because of his pride and God fortunately has a grace period but when that grace period is over, it's over as Hebrews 9:27 says that man once dead is passed unto judgement.
Why is works salvation a curse? We might want to consider the curse of man in itself, the curse of the ground in itself, the curse that hit the creation in itself! When we try to reanalyze Cain's offering as rejected by God, we will analyze one thing to put the puzzle together. In Genesis 3:17, God cursed the ground that He made man to labor to eat. Imagine that, God cursed the very ground! Baptist preacher, Pastor Ruben L. Lumagbas Jr. would comment that because the ground is cursed, then the fruit was cursed because it was the fruit of the ground. Obviously, no amount of good works could even free a man. Try to remember in Genesis 3 we also do need to realize God cursed man's flesh because of the sin of Adam. Romans 5:14, and 1 Corinthians 15:22 declares God cursed Adam. Remember that by Adam, sin came into the world and that means, every person when they enter into the age of accountability will no sooner than that age, sin and because of that just one sin, that person has had a contract with the Devil signed in blood that can only be broken by the Lord Jesus. In short, Cain was a sinner, Abel was a sinner and they both needed a substitute sacrifice. Abel obviously humbled himself before God but no, not Cain. In fact, Cain's killing of Abel is a pattern that repeats between the works salvationist persecuting the Christians. The pattern had repeated even up to today. Just think of the persecution of Christians- I've heard of Muslims bomb the Doulos boat in Mindanao because they were telling Muslims salvation was a free gift, the same went with the Inquisition against the Protestant Christians and Baptists. Obviously, their pride was always getting in the way.
Expositor Pastor John F. Macarthur from Grace to You also quoted of Cain, "I think with that God instituted the substitutionary death principle. And I'm sure that God had communicated that as the kind of sacrifice that he wanted brought. So here you have Cain giving no recognition that he is a sinner. In fact his offering is a self righteous one. He is bringing what he has produced out of the ground. It appears to have been an offering of self- righteous human achievement. There are only two ways you can approach God. You approach God offering him what you've achieved or you approach God realizing that you deserve death and you recognize that by offering a sacrifice in death as a symbol of the need for a substitute who can die in your place by which your sin can be covered. Apparently Cain didn't have any recognition of the sin and that becomes very clear as the story goes on. Apparently he didn't think he needed substitutionary death on his behalf. He didn't need to depict the reality that he was a sinner worthy of death who needed an innocent substitute to die in his place. So here is the first example of false religion. Here is the first example of the religion of human achievement. Where somebody gives to God what they produced with no recognition of the necessity of atonement by substitution and death." How true indeed, it makes more sense than the rotten vegetables speculation. In fact, the works salvationist obviously falls into that curse of himself. In fact, if your salvation is by works, Christ is not first place!
In fact, man is even cursed by the Law way ahead before he becomes more rotten on the outside than he currently is. In Romans 3:19-20 we realize that man is in himself condemned by the Law. Romans 3:10 even says no one is righteous. Romans 3:23 says we are all fallen short of the glory of God. Reading through Romans 3, we read man's helplessness before God to achieve his own justification. James 2:10-11 is clear that for whosoever tries to keep the whole Law and offend at one point, the person is already condemned before God. Think of a doll hanged on a ten knot string. You just need to cut down one knot, everything falls down! In fact, the total depravity of man is very hard to believe as a reality because man may want to believe they are basically good when that is plain crooked. No, when Adam sinned, men became sinful and no longer basically good. It sickens me to read how some people even teach that man is basically good. People who claim to read the Bible misquote it a lot whenever they believe in the natural goodness of man. They fail to see that man because he is a sinner is hopeless. In fact Isaiah 64:6 and Hebrews 9:12 condemn these "good works" as filthy rags and dead works. That is every effort they do to be "just a good person" is failing because the Bible condemns the righteousness of man as filthy rags. In fact, the proof of salvation by works is failing is because of what fruit it produces.
Matthew 7:17-20 is clear that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and vice versa. It's simple to understand this, works salvation is hanging good fruits that came from a good tree on a bad tree, it's a deception and a sham at best that is exposed sooner or later. It is like the lazy farmer who only has bad fruit and steals from the farm with good fruits and sells it for his own selfish profit while the good farmer sells his fruit not solely for money but also for others to enjoy. While I don't buy the Antinomian, easy believism theology I don't buy works salvation either. In fact, how many people do I know are works salvation proponents who actually have much sin in their lives? In fact reading Matthew 7:21-23 we realize that when these people claim to all their works to please God, however God in the end dismissed all their claims saying He NEVER knew them and called them as doers of iniquity. And how sad it would be that the wicked themselves even think nothing is wrong with them. It made me think of the adulterer and adulteress that was once preached to and they even believed God approved of what they were doing. That is, they thought they could make up for their sin of living in with each other while their spouses lived (Does that sound like Herod Antipas and Herodias?) if they continue attending masses, praying the Rosary, etc. which again were all laced with heresy. To God, the system of man cannot match up with perfection. A holy, righteous God cannot sin because He is holy and righteousness and man because of sin really needs the Savior to take the curse for Him.