Question concerning good works and salvation: “IF OUR GOOD WORKS CANNOT SAVE US, BECAUSE NO ONE CAN BE RIGHTEOUS, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF 2ND CORINTHIANS 5 :17, ECCL. 12:14?”

Christian response,

The point is this…our works, on our best day, are as a bloody, filthy, menstrual cloth in the nose of our Holy God (Isaiah 64:6) and mankind is encumbered with a sin-nature (Romans 3:23) while the works of the Law, that which differentiates obedience from disobedience, mandates absolute perfection (James 2:10; Galatians 3:10) if one is to achieve righteousness through keeping it; therefore, the Law only defines sin void atonement (Romans 3:20) and therefore the Law only condemns mankind as a sinner and offers NO solution to man’s hopeless condition (Romans 8:3); therefore, God the Father, in His mercy and with grace (unmerited favor, a gift that cannot be earned) through a New Covenant, sent forth His sinless Son into the World to keep the Law for us in perfection (Matthew 5:17) and God the Father has agreed via Covenant (John 3:16; Luke 22:20) to forgive the sins of everyone who believes that Jesus died for them to pay their sin-debt (Romans 10:9-10); in addition, the Father agrees to give every believer in Jesus the perfection, the righteousness, of Jesus imputed into and over their lives and thereby declare them “not guilty” of sin and make them “positionally right” with Him, forever (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It is our obedience, our works of righteousness, SUBSEQUENT to having established relationship with the Father through faith in Jesus that pleases God as our works SUBSEQUENT to our confession of Jesus as Lord validates our faith in Jesus as true and confirms that the Holy Spirit has indeed taken-up residence within us as the Guarantor of Covenant relationship with God the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14).