Works

Many religious people think that they can earn their salvation by doing good works. They think that if they do enough good, God will accept them and let them into Heaven. However, the Bible teaches that no amount of good works will save a person and that even our good deeds are tainted by our sins (Romans 3:20, Isaiah 64:6). The Gospel says that we are not saved by our good works, but by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). That is not to say that good works do not have a place in the Christian life. Paul is clear in Ephesians 2:10 that Christians are saved in order to do good works. James goes further and says that without good works, a professed faith is shown in reality to be dead (James 2:14-26). In other words, good works are not the means to salvation, they are the fruit of salvation.