The thief on the cross had no works, all he had was belief in Christ. All he asked was "remember me."
Luke 23:41-43 "…41 We are punished justly, for we are receiving what our actions deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” 43 And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”…"
Day after day I meet people who believe they don't sin. Those who believe they will lose their salvation if they sin. Therefore they have to declare that they never sin to justify the belief that one can lose their salvation.
The questions that always come to mind is, "which sins are big enough to cost someone their salvation?" "How long do we have to be in a sin before our salvation is removed?"
God never tells us the size nor the length of sinning that loses one their salvation because our salvation is not based on whether or not we are sinners.
Our salvation is based completely on trusting the shed blood of Christ to cover our sinfulness.
Isaiah 646 "6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. "
No one can do enough good to gain salvation and no one can do enough good to keep it. There is no good in us that warrants anything but death. It is only Christ Who is good, only He Who can keep us saved.
Acts 20:28 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."
Christ purchased us with His own blood! We cannot do anything to add to that or that is greater than that.
If someone is trusting in their own efforts to keep their salvation they are not trusting in Christ.
Hebrews 9:12
"12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."
Ezekiel 16:8
"Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine," declares the Lord GOD."
The Ezekiel passage is a picture of what God does when He saves a born again believer. He no longer sees our sinfulness but He sees Christ in us. We have been made into a new creation Spiritually, but we are trapped in this sinful body which will be our struggle until God takes us home.
If there does not seem to be a struggle going on in someone then there is probably not salvation. Those who do not struggle are comfortable with their sinfulness. Those who are born again see everyday the struggle they have against the flesh that dwells in them.
Romans 7:14-25
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."
I worry about those who think they do not struggle with sin. It must be that they are denying their pride, their denial of what goes on in their minds from day to day.
We cannot be born again and absent of the struggle from the hatred of sin that dwells in us.
If someone is not struggling against the sinful nature within them, they might not be saved. Only those who know that Christ is their righteousness and that they have nothing good in themselves will struggle with their sin nature.
When the focus of the believer is more on whether or not they are doing all the right things they will not be focused on the things Christ needs to do in them. He is not the focus, their one righteousness based on deeds is their focus.
“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh” (Galatians 5:16–17).
