WE ARE NOT SAVED BY GOOD WORKS

By Harold Smith
inchrist@ns.sympatico.ca

If salvation is by grace alone and not by works, could not a person who claims to be a Christian live any old way after they are “saved”? Uh, not exactly.
 
Salvation is defined in Ephesians 2:8-9 as being by grace (on God's part) and faith (on our part) ALONE and "not of works lest any man should boast."
 
Ephesians 2: 10 says, "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”  Notice that we are saved unto goods works, not by good works. Good works are evidence of our salvation.
 
Grace alone saves, but grace is never alone. Salvation is not by works, BUT IT DOES WORK.
 
We have too many professing Christians who have a salvation that DOES NOT WORK. They cannot say like Paul in I Corinthians 15:10, "I am what I am BY THE GRACE OF GOD."
 
Salvation is like a person who has a plumbing problem. They know nothing about plumbing. They are absolutely incapable of fixing it, but they know a plumber who they believe can fix it.
 
Their confidence in him is so high that through their faith in him they call him to fix it. They do not have the ability to help the plumber fix the problem. They leave it all to him. When the plumber is finished the work, their faith in what he completed produces complete belief.
 
We all have a sin problem. Our lives are all messed up. We cannot straighten things out. We are absolutely helpless (Romans 5:6). We must call in the Savior and trust in Him to do what we cannot do for ourselves.

He comes in and our life begins to work right. He is able to save to the uttermost, says Hebrews 7:25. Like the plumber, the Saviour comes in and our life works begins to work, or bear fruit.
 
Titus 3:8 says, “...that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works."
 
Titus 2: 11-12 says, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation ... teaches us to denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly...."
 
If you have a salvation that does not work, it is NOT true salvation. A true Christian will break from habitually sin and be changed.