Damned If You Do or Damned If You Don’t?

This is intended as more than a play on words, much less as a joke.
I intend it to be a catchy way of remembering a significant difference among religions as to the way of salvation. I do not intend this as an attack on any religious worldview but as a clarification of a key point in every religious and non-religious worldview. Every worldview is giving an answer to the quest for salvation that has been with the human race from as far back as one can trace our origins.
Archeologists speculate concerning pre-historic human beliefs about life and the afterlife on the basis of artifacts such as burial mounds and human remains unearthed from many sites around the globe.
We focus here on religions that survive in our times.
Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism teach that our destiny is determined by our deeds, whether good or bad. The law of reward and retribution causes a soul to either move upward toward liberation from the cycle of rebirths or downward. At the end, the soul escapes re-incarnation and dissolves into the timeless One (Brahman) where there is no further suffering since there is no further personal consciousness. Multiple births into this world is the hell we must endure until the debt of karma is paid in full. One can say, then, that one is saved and damned by one’s deeds. There is no slack given, no mercy, no grace from on high. Brahman is not aware of our struggles to achieve salvation—nirvana.
Judaism is the oldest of monotheistic worldviews, dating from Abraham approximately 4000 years ago. It has developed over the centuries into a small but vital religion. Religious Judaism teaches that the righteous will find the rewards of heaven if one’s life merits the commendation of God. One is saved based on one’s works, whether good or evil. One is damned if one persists in doing evil and saved if one succeeds in being righteous in the eyes of God.
As Maimonides says, I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those that transgress them.
Islam is the latest of the great monotheistic religions, purporting to be the culmination of faith that stems from Abraham and on through Jesus and the Apostles of Christianity. Like Judaism, Islam teaches that one is saved by one’s deeds. If one’s good deeds outweigh those done out of ignorance, one may be granted entrance into Paradise where pleasures of food, wine, and companionship are fulfilled. People are not so much willfully sinful as ignorant, often making many mistakes. But faithful obedience to the pillars of the faith can assure one a place in the world to come—with one exception. Allah, being sovereign, is not obligated to reward anyone with salvation. Even the most righteous person could be sent to hell should Allah will it. So one is damned if one does not avoid shirk and follow devoutly the way of Islam. Generally one can hope for salvation if sufficiently devout.
Christianity is the odd religion on this topic, teaching that one’s deeds can never bring one to salvation, only to perdition. Since all our self-styled righteous works are offensive to God, every act only seals one’s doom. How can this be? Because works done in an attempt to justify us before God are motivated by prideful self-seeking. Only deeds done with a pure heart cleansed of all taint of sin are acceptable to God. And there are none such. We stand in a position of rebellion against God and our good works cannot overcome the condition of the heart. Good and evil works alike damn us. Good works can never save us. This idea is counter-intuitive and often incomprehensible to many.
One is saved by throwing oneself upon the mercy of God as a person who sins in thought, word, and deed. The relation must be healed first. This requires repentance and total trust in the provision of God to transform the heart through the work of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose to bring new life to all who believe.
Good works are not a means of salvation but a grateful response to salvation freely given as a gift, not because of works of righteousness that we have done but in virtue of his mercy. (See the New Testament, Titus 3:5) Works can only damn us, not save us. Grace alone can save us, with works following as a result of the salvation that is provided as a gift from God through faith. Faith without works is dead, says the Apostle James. But works cannot raise the dead. We are dead in our sins so far as salvation goes. God kindly provides forgiveness and the life of eternal salvation, even helping us to repent of our rebellious attitude toward God.
We start out already condemned and we continue to be damned no matter if we do or we don’t. Salvation is a gift not a reward. I am damned if I do or if I don’t as far as my salvation is concerned. This does not mean that it does not matter what I do in this life, since my actions have social effects that are good and bad in that context. But when it comes to preparing oneself to meet God, a different set of standards applies.
Some may say this is a cheap free ride. But Christianity teaches the opposite. True faith means turning over one's entire life 24/7 to God, seeking always to serve God's program and not your own plan for life. It's like being on active duty. You serve the will of the Commander 100% of the time.
On this score Christianity is distinct from other religious worldviews.