Not By Works

It does not get any plainer..........Our righteous works have ZERO to do with Salvation!

English Standard Version
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Berean Study Bible
He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Berean Literal Bible
He saved us, not by works in righteousness that we did, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

New American Standard Bible
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

King James Bible
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Our works cannot save us,for our works is as filthy rags,and there is none that does good,no not one,and all are sinners and come short of the glory of God.

So no matter what we do we cannot ever do good enough to receive salvation.

In that position the only thing we can do to correct this position is to have faith,that is why we are saved by faith for that is all we can do,for our works cannot do it.

All we have to do is believe.

Paul said we are not saved by works,but by accepting Christ,which he was addressing Gentiles,and their false religions,that thought they could have favor with God by their religious ways,but Paul said you are not saved by those works but by confessing Christ.

Paul was speaking from a fleshy perspective,not saved by works,and James is speaking from a spiritual perspective,accepting Christ,and being led of the Spirit,justified by works and not faith alone.

If a person does confess Christ,they only have to love people for love is the fulfilling of the law,which is what James is saying,and that is why he said if you do not feed someone when you can,then how do you have faith,and any work they would do apart from that,loving people,like if they go by Old Testament physical ordinances,or do something that another religion would do has no bearing on their salvation,but a waste of time.

Paul,not saved by works,James,but led of the Spirit loving people to have faith active in our life.

you trying to cause trouble here?.....

Not only can we never be good enough to deserve salvation nor can we be so bad that we can not be saved.

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

I feel overwhelmed with gratitude that God has given me the gift of salvation.

If we have been saved, I agree with you that we can not become worse than we were before. I think sometimes we forgot that over time through the work of the Holy Spirit we become more like Jesus. The difficulty can be that we become more aware and more sensitive to our own sinfulness. We also forget thatwe and others have been on a journey and loose sight on where we have come from and what we and they wre like.

I just posted this in another... Abraham believed was Counted righteousness then did a work to show or prove his faith... Circumcisions.. You can't throw out works.. they prove your faith

Amen! I've heard works-salvationists attempt to explain Ephesians 2:8,9 away by interpreting it as such:

8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith (and good works, just not works of the law) and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by "those" works (works of the law) so that no one can boast (but by these works/good works). Which of course is bogus. Good works cannot be dissected from the moral aspect of the law.

Amen

Not of works LEST ANYONE SHOULD BOAST.

If you can take credit, or boast, Then it is a work,, You can boast of works outside the law. Not just the law.

Not to mention, at no time is the law mentioned in these chapters of Ephesians in regard to works, so they are ADDING to the word.

What a load of garbage... You clearly need to go seek the truth..

Our righteousness is as filthy rags.

Any good deeds I do flow out of my salvation.

Ephesisians 2: [SUP]10 [/SUP]For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.


Any good deeds I do are as a result of my salvation and in no way can they earn me salvation. Anything I do is out of loving gratitude to God.

Amen! Faith is the root of salvation and good works are the fruit. We are saved FOR good works and NOT BY good works.

I never said He needs it... If you don't have them they are a sign you don't have IT...

We know them by what they produce, if you produce nothing, then.... You're all talk

You throw out grace like its the subject.. you can count and hope if you want... Faith and walking with Christ produces .. if you have nothing you're doing nothing but reading.. hearer only

how can "you" know someone has good works? And is not just religious?

You can't so what good is it? God does not need it, You can't use it to determine someone elses salvation, so other than you examining you own faith, what good is it?