Good works cannot lead to your salvation. No amount of good works can make you reconcile yourself with God. Everyone has sinned and is far from God. Any human effort to get into heaven is futile and will never work. You are wasting your time.
Have you ever thought about it this way: If your good works could reconcile you with God and get you into heaven, why did Jesus have to come to earth at all? Why then did He have to die brutally on a cross in your place? After all, you can facilitate reconciliation with God yourself. His crucifixion was thus unnecessary? Ephesians 2:8 describes it very well:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – NIV
Any effort on your part to try and enable salvation for yourself, the Scripture says, won’t work. Your faith in Jesus Christ is what translates into your salvation. God's grace in Jesus Christ provides your salvation. Beware of falling into the trap of the scale-of-the-good-life. It's a test you’ll never pass. It’s only when you make God's grace in Jesus Christ your own, that your heart will overflow with gratitude. Then good works will take their rightful place. Because of gratitude for your salvation, you cannot help but do good works. Good deeds aren’t done to be saved, but indeed as result of your salvation. Ephesians 2:10 puts it so poignantly:
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do – NIV
So: good works and good deeds are not to earn salvation and grace. No, the desire to do good works and deeds flow from salvation and grace. God's free - but expensive - grace (it cost Jesus' life) is your driving force to do good.
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