In these scripture passages I hope you see or strengthen you in your beliefs that:
- Works can’t and don’t save.
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If you are trusting in your being a good person or doing good works then you are in need of a savior.
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That “good” works come from salvation (Roman Catholics and others will say that if you trust in Jesus alone and don’t need works to be saved then people will say that sin is justifiable and we can sin all we want).
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The debate over whether works save is not just a little issue between denominations, it is over the gospel, and people who don’t trust in Christ alone for their salvation are not just a different denomination, they are a totally different religion.
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All “good” works (except Christ’s) are like filthy rags (even the pope’s).
Romans 8:1
“There is therefore now no condemnation to these who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
Romans 8:8
“So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:30-34
“Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen. who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Romans 3:10
“As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;”"
Romans 3:20-28
“Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. by what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
John 14:6
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”.”
John 15:5
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Matthew 7:16-20
“You will know them by their fruits. Do man gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does no bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
Galatians 2:6
“but from these who seemed to be something – whatever they were, it makes not difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man – for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.”
Galatians 2:16-21
“knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!
For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Galatians 3:3
“Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
Galatians 3:10-11
“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them”.
But that not one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith”.”
Galatians 3:23-26
“But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
For you are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus”
Galatians 5:4-6
“You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.”
Galatians 6:14-15
“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”
Isaiah 64:6
“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away.”
Isaiah 53:6
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Luke 17:10
“So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”
Ephesians 2:4-10
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in trespassed, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 4:7
“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
John 3:15-18
“that whoever believes in Him should no perish but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
I Timothy 2:5
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,”
II Timothy 1:8-9
“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God,
who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,”
II Timothy 2:10
“Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is is Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”
Titus 2:11-12
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,”
Titus 3:5-7
“not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
who He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
