What Role Do Good Works Play in Salvation?

Are good works necessary for a person to be saved? If so, how much good works would be enough to qualify a person to enter heaven? Is salvation by grace alone and through faith alone – or is salvation by both faith and good works? If saved, can Christians exempt themselves from performing good works?

The Bible is clear that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone and not by works. We enter into relationship with God and are guaranteed eternal life not on the basis of our good works, but on the basis of our faith or total trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

To be saved by grace means that we are saved as a result of God’s unmerited favor and kindness towards humanity. We are all sinners and we all deserve to experience the eternal wrath of God or eternal punishment.
God is so holy and so pure that to sin against Him deserves the death penalty. If God were to judge us according to His law, we would all be guilty and deserving of hell – even if we have only broken just one of His commandments.
Romans 6:23 tell us that “the wages of sin is death” or eternal punishment.
However by definition, grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve. Grace is God’s unmerited kindness to a people who are undeserving of His kindness.
We deserve eternal punishment, but instead God has planned a way to escape hell and His wrath by offering salvation to mankind as a free gift when we place our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. This is why Ephesians 2:8 says that salvation is “not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”.
In other words – we do no earn our salvation – but salvation is freely given to us as a free gift through faith in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we do not have to do good works to earn salvation hence Ephesians 2:9 says that salvation is “not by works, so that no one can boast”.

Our works do not save us – instead it’s because of the perfect work and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross to pay for our sins that we are able to receive eternal life.
Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that we could not live. He obeyed every law of God on our behalf. He became our perfect Substitute by receiving the punishment for sin that we deserved. Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for all humanity to satisfy the wrath of God towards sin. Jesus resurrected after His crucifixion to prove that He was the Son of God and that death had no power over Him and all who believe in Him. Christ’s resurrection proves that Jesus is the Giver of eternal life and we can only receive everlasting life through Him alone.

Titus 3:5-7 says: He (Jesus) saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:5 emphasizes that Jesus did not save us because of any righteous deeds that we have done. Instead we are saved because of His mercy. God showed us mercy by withdrawing the punishment we deserved. In Titus 3:7 it says that we have “been justified by His grace”, meaning that we are saved and counted as guiltless because of God’s unmerited kindness and favour.

Therefore salvation is totally a free gift. We do not earn salvation through good works, but it is freely given.
Our salvation was paid by Jesus Christ who died for our sins on the cross. Jesus fully paid our debt for sin on the cross.

Are Christians Exempt from Performing Good Works?
If salvation is by grace alone through faith in Jesus alone, then is it okay for Christians to pervert the grace of God and be exempt from performing good works?
The answer is that if we have been genuinely saved by Jesus Christ – then we would progressively desire to do more and more good works in the name and to the glory of Jesus Christ.
After salvation (which is a free gift), comes our sanctification which is the progressive work of the Holy Spirit to conform us into the image and character of Jesus Christ.
It is through progressive sanctification that we learn to become more like Jesus Christ in our daily living. This means that the more we relate with Jesus, the more we will love Him; the more we spend time with God and His word, the more we will desire to obey Him and please Him. The more we know God and His character, the more we will hate sin and all kinds of evil works.

Therefore good works are a product of receiving the free gift of salvation. We don’t do good works in order to be saved. Instead we do good works because we are already saved.
Ephesians 2:10 says: For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Titus 3:8 says: This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

Therefore the desire to perform good works will naturally follow those who have been genuinely saved by Jesus Christ. However, good works do not earn us salvation. We are saved because of God’s love, grace and mercy which was demonstrated by Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our sins so that we may have eternal life.