The works come after salvation not to gain it. When we confess our sin to God ask Him to save us, He changes us into a new creation, we can never go back to the old creation again. The old has passed away. We are also sealed with the Holy Spirit of God as a guarantee of our inheritance. No one can snatch us out of His hand and we are included in that "no one." Also we must remember that Christ's blood covered our sin, we still live in the flesh which is sinful, but God continually works in us to cleanse us until the day we die.
Ephesians 2:8-9 "…8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.…"
2 Corinthians 5:16-18 "…16 So from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:…"
God disciplines those who belong to Him, in other words believers do sin or there would be no need for His discipline.
Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, or lose heart when He rebukes you. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises everyone He receives as a son.” 7 Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"
If sin could lose us our salvation the question would be "how big" must the sin be, "how many sins" and "what kind of sin", we are not told all that because sin does not lose us our salvation. What kind of God would give us a salvation dependent on our next worst act, after telling us we could not earn it in the first place. No one I have talked to will address the matter of "how many, how big and which type", because sin is not relevant to the saving grace of God.
When we trust Christ we can trust Him that He will do all the work in us, the saving, the maintaining and the cleansing.
Christ paid it all on the cross we cannot maintain what He paid for with His blood. It is all about Him. How silly to think that Christ had to shed His blood to pay the penalty for our sin, but all that would be necessary to keep our salvation would be to choose to do no more wrong. We would be losing our salvation every other day if not every day, since we live in the sinful flesh. It was our spirit that was changed, our flesh is still dying because of sin.
Christ works in us after we are born again to cleanse us, we should be progressing in holiness all the time, sin should be falling off and holiness should be increasing. If we find someone who has not changed one wit in all the years they have been a Christian, I would have to wonder if they were ever born again.
Far too many people are thinking they can lose salvation by their works, making no sense at all, when we know we cannot gain it by our works. Gaining it or maintaining it by works is a works based salvation.
The only way to salvation is to trust Christ, then He begins His work in us. The more we confess and obey the more we grow in holiness. Some people will not grow much because they are stubborn children and others will grow leaps and bounds.
1 Corinthians 3:14-16 "…14 If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as one being snatched from the fire. 16 Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?…"
If you think that your works are doing anything for you in terms of salvation, then you need to repent, confess your sin of trusting in self and begin to trust Christ alone.
Romans 5:12-21
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.
17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Something to think about: How many of us say we believe we are saved by grace alone through faith in Christ, but live as though we think we are earning our way, terribly proud of how good we think we are?
