Having considered it prayerfully, I saw there were problems with any and all salvation-through-works doctrines. For many sects or religiously-based groups, salvation by works is continuously preached. They insist that the only way to obtain salvation is by strictly following every single biblical principal at every single moment. It's impossible to do and that teaching is in direct contradiction to the Bible's teachings as a whole.
In fact, the belief in a works-based salvation prevented many Jews of the Bible from accepting Jesus as Messiah.
"But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;" (1 Cor. 1:23).
The crucified Christ, whose work (submission to death) accomplished the only required and accepted work. That very work was "a stumblingblock", a barrier, for many Jews. Salvation by faith in God (acceptance of the gift of salvation) which was made possible because of Christ's finished work, is still a stumblingblock to many; it still trips people up causing them to stumble and fall. They fall away from that works-free, open-to-all gospel of Christ.
When Jesus told the disciples it would be very difficult for rich people to enter the kingdom of God, they were shocked and asked who could be saved.
Real faith is not an, "Okay, I said it. I'm in," type of thing. It is not the words, but the belief that matters. That's why Jesus said it would be very difficult for rich people to be saved. It wasn't that rich people couldn't say the words, "I believe." It was that genuine belief is total surrender--that includes possessions, status, social standing, influence or anything considered of value.
Matthew 10:39
He that findeth
his life
shall lose it:
and he that
loseth his life
for my sake
shall find it.
Jesus had responded to the question of who could be saved by saying that with humankind, salvation, was IMPOSSIBLE, but with God all things were possible (from Matt. 19:23-26, Luke 18: 24-27).
If salvation were possible through the performance of works, Jesus would not have said it was not possible for humans to achieve it. All of our righteousness is filthiness (from Isa. 64:6). These passages let us know that salvation is not casually saying some words, or religiously doing some works, or even proudly belonging to some lineage.
The thought that some people could live wickedly and still claim salvation actually angers some. That very issue is addressed in the 6th chapter of Romans:
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
