Do Christians Need Good Works to Be Saved? A Look at Romans 11 and James

Hi everybody, and thanks to those who send in questions. This week we looked at Romans 11, the passage that talks about the branches that were cut off and the Gentiles who were grafted in. And a theme that has come up multiple times throughout Romans is the idea that nothing in our hands we bring, simply to the cross I cling.

I quoted that hymn, Rock of Ages, this week in the message, and Dan has talked about it as well. As Tim Keller said, the only thing you need to be a Christian is nothing, but most people don’t have it. That theme keeps coming up, and it brings up this question. So today’s question is this: what about good works?

If we really truly don’t need anything to bring to the Lord in order to be a Christian, what about good works? Doesn’t Jesus tell us to feed the poor and clothe the poor, help the least of these as he says? Is that a contradiction, that we need to do good works in order to be a Christian and we need nothing in order to be a Christian?

And the other one is James that tells us faith without works is dead. Well, here is the difference. It’s not in order to be a Christian. Do we need to do good works? Yes, absolutely. But time out, pause. What is the beginning of the conversation? The beginning of the conversation is all you need is nothing.

And most of us don’t have that. We’re working, we’re striving, we’re trying to engineer the relationship on our own instead of just humbly coming before the Lord and laying everything down. And then we worry about good works. And then we respond with good works. This week in Romans 11, it’s that image of the vine.

The branches were cut off, others were grafted in. And this connects so well to what does it look like when someone is a mature or healthy Christian? And in Galatians, we learn about the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So again, if all you need is nothing to come before the Lord in order to be a Christian, should we have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and so on? Should we demonstrate self-control? Yes, absolutely we should demonstrate self-control. But for me, the difference is the order of things. In reality, it’s the intention behind things.

Are we demonstrating self-control in order to get closer to God? Or are we demonstrating self-control because God first demonstrated that to us? God first loved us and offered us this relationship, and we came before him, we laid down all of our efforts humbly and then came to him, were welcomed in, and then we have self-control as a result of that.

It’s the fruit of the Spirit. First we are grafted in, and then the fruit can grow off that vine. So yes, absolutely, we should feed those who are hungry. We should clothe those who are poor. We should help the least of these. We should have good works from our faith, but we should not do those things with a motivation of, “I really hope God will welcome me in if I do these things.”

The same is true of sin and repentance. We’re called to repent. We’re called to turn away from our sin and turn toward God. But do we repent in order that God would offer us grace? Or does God first offer us grace, we accept that grace, and realize from that we should repent and confess and turn toward God with our whole heart?

The order of things shows that God first loved us. And if we accept that, if we are grafted into the root, then the fruit of the Spirit will naturally flow from us. I hope that’s been helpful to you, and thanks for sending in those questions.