Do we have to do good works to be saved ?

[Wayne222]

          NO NOT AT ALL ! LOOK TO JESUS AND BELIEVE IN HIM. All who confess Jesus and believe in him from the heart is saved. 

                From the second you trust in his name you are saved. And God seals you with the holy spirit. Crying Abba Father.

                 Saved by Jesus ! Not by works. Just like the children of Isarel look at the pole of a snake when they got bitten. The ones who look upon it were saved from the snake bite. 

                They just had to believe the order to look and when they did they were saved.

                    We have to look and trust God who said believe in my son. He who has the son has life eternal.

[other one]

No we don't do good works to be saved......   but if you are saved you will have good works of some kind....   it's just natural.

[Riccardo]

No you don't have to, but if you do bad I'd be questioning your faith, repentance & then your salvation. Good works reflect your faith & standing with God. 

[Dan_79]

Jesus and his chosen deciples say yes to doing good works.

Paul seems to think differently and preaches faith only.

Perhaps others will say that is incorrect and I would welcome their advice on this myself as Paul is at variance to Jesus and his deciples on certain things which although has not effected my trust in the Lord has led me to search for answers (the truth).

In theory if you abstain from sin you are only left to do good works. A passive good work might be not having been a burden for example. While an active good deed might be discribed as above doing something for somebody that is helpful.

Faith being either strong or weak, without works is said to be dead by some but not by others.

All of it however will be judged according to the Law which God commands and Jesus reiterated this in the NT. Which leads me to look more closer at what I should or should not be doing (and is itself a pro active decision based on choices guided by faith in prophets the Law and God as judge). 

I have absolutely no idea if I am saved or not because I cannot be my own judge (of my complete lifes work/s deeds or actions or how strong or weak my faith is....I simply do not know).

If Im told by man I am saved I might just take my foot off the gas.

If I fear God I will step in line, if not then I don't care and cannot learn to do what is expected.

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2018 by Dan_79

[Neighbor]

But, evil can do good works.  Perhaps works have nothing at all to do with salvation, but everything to do with obedience.

Must one be obedient to  be saved?  

Can one ever gain or lose salvation by way of their own doing?

[other one]

6 hours ago, Butero said:

That is it in a nut shell Other One, but there is yet another question.  What do we mean when we speak of good works?  Are we talking about things we actually do for others, or are we talking about abstaining from sin?  I never looked at it as doing a good work because I don't steal, kill, commit adultery, etc.  A good work would be giving to the poor, or perhaps helping someone with no money with home repairs if we are good at such things.  Good works to me are things we do.  

If we are speaking of sins, I choose to believe the Bible.  I would point to such scriptures as 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Be not deceived:  neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  

Then there is the book of Galatians.  I believe that too when it says the following in Galatians 5:19-21

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;  Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like:  of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  

I simply believe the scriptures.  If it tells me a thief won't inherit the kingdom of god, I believe it.  If it says an adulterer won't inherit the kingdom of God, I believe it.  If it says a fornicator won't inherit the kingdom of God, I believe it.  If it says that those who are into witchcraft won't inherit the kingdom of God, I believe it.  I don't see any exceptions for those who got saved.  It is simply saying these people will not inherit the kingdom of God.  

The typical response to these scriptures is to claim they can't really mean this in regard to Christians because they will claim that would contradict other scriptures, but I can just as easily turn it around and say their favorite eternal security passages can't mean that because they would contradict these scriptures.  Thus the cycle continues.  

just my personal opinion both.    When we love God with all our heart minds and souls we will not do the sins you mention, and if we love our neighbors we will be concerned and help them in whatever ways we can.   When we live by the two commandments that Jesus gave us in reality those things are just a natural part of our lives.

Good works is living the life that comes natural when one has close contact with the Holy Spirit.....   and if one is really saved, he/she has the Holy Spirit within them.

[frienduff thaylorde]

3 hours ago, Neighbor said:

But, evil can do good works.  Perhaps works have nothing at all to do with salvation, but everything to do with obedience.

Must one be obedient to  be saved?  

Can one ever gain or lose salvation by way of their own doing?

OH yes ,  evil people can do good works .  right on .

ONLY one work is required for salvation .  BELIEVE in the one WHOM GOD DID SEND.

Will the disobedient , murders , adulterers , emfinate , covetous ,  fornicators INHERIT THE KINGDOM .  NO.

As for obedience .    WE are the SERVANTS TO WHOM WE OBEY .   

If I pulled my son out of the mud pit and clean him up and then tell him, SON obey me ,  follow my instructions

do not walk out into the street or you will be killed.    IF my son who I cleaned up , corrected , pulled from the mire

THEN decides , hey I am going to go ahead and go out into the street and play ,   is my grace covering HIM ,  OR is he going to be hit by cars .

IF we DO NOT continue in JESUS , continue IN the SPIRIT ,    we do not make it .    Tons of examples in the new testament .

 

[Wayne222]

3 hours ago, frienduff thaylorde said:

OH yes ,  evil people can do good works .  right on .

ONLY one work is required for salvation .  BELIEVE in the one WHOM GOD DID SEND.

Will the disobedient , murders , adulterers , emfinate , covetous ,  fornicators INHERIT THE KINGDOM .  NO.

As for obedience .    WE are the SERVANTS TO WHOM WE OBEY .   

If I pulled my son out of the mud pit and clean him up and then tell him, SON obey me ,  follow my instructions

do not walk out into the street or you will be killed.    IF my son who I cleaned up , corrected , pulled from the mire

THEN decides , hey I am going to go ahead and go out into the street and play ,   is my grace covering HIM ,  OR is he going to be hit by cars .

IF we DO NOT continue in JESUS , continue IN the SPIRIT ,    we do not make it .    Tons of examples in the new testament .

 

No one has really snswer the question. Either we are saved by what works we do or not. First comes salvation then good works come out of a new life in christ. We are saved apart from anyyhing we can do. We become his servants after we are saved. So that does not save us but is our new life of loving God after we are saved.

[Wayne222]

14 hours ago, Butero said:

That is it in a nut shell Other One, but there is yet another question.  What do we mean when we speak of good works?  Are we talking about things we actually do for others, or are we talking about abstaining from sin?  I never looked at it as doing a good work because I don't steal, kill, commit adultery, etc.  A good work would be giving to the poor, or perhaps helping someone with no money with home repairs if we are good at such things.  Good works to me are things we do.  

If we are speaking of sins, I choose to believe the Bible.  I would point to such scriptures as 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Be not deceived:  neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  

Then there is the book of Galatians.  I believe that too when it says the following in Galatians 5:19-21

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;  Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like:  of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  

I simply believe the scriptures.  If it tells me a thief won't inherit the kingdom of god, I believe it.  If it says an adulterer won't inherit the kingdom of God, I believe it.  If it says a fornicator won't inherit the kingdom of God, I believe it.  If it says that those who are into witchcraft won't inherit the kingdom of God, I believe it.  I don't see any exceptions for those who got saved.  It is simply saying these people will not inherit the kingdom of God.  

The typical response to these scriptures is to claim they can't really mean this in regard to Christians because they will claim that would contradict other scriptures, but I can just as easily turn it around and say their favorite eternal security passages can't mean that because they would contradict these scriptures.  Thus the cycle continues.  

Those who do such things are not saved. But by not doing such things does not save you. Only the blood of Jesus saves us from wrath. Once saved those who did such things have already turn from those things. 1 john 3 days those born again does not practice unrighyeousness

[Dan_79]

Wasn't one of the two criminals crucified with Jesus "saved" on the cross during his last dying hours, while the other criminal did not? 

Just saying.

 

Edited April 28, 2018 by Dan_79