Consume Product

Even though people have tried to codify it one way or the other for centuries, the bible seems to have made it deliberately impossible to fully solve the equation between faith and works.

Yes, it's explicitly stated that faith alone justifies you, and that the saving work is God's...

But Jesus himself spends countless words articulating in blunt terms that those who do X will be damned. Those who do Y will be saved. He outlines salvation as an economy of mortal deeds, though he is the door through which the deeds enter.

This is classically resolved by saying that works don't save, but the presence of works is necessary proof that you possess the faith that does save.

But how many good works are required to cross or maintain the threshold where your faith is counted as "saving?" Is it relative per person? Is everyone held to an identical standard? How many evil deeds does it take to cancel out your good ones?

You can infer answers from certain things (such as the thief on the cross being saved for his confession despite living a wicked life) but ultimately, the bible gives you no way to definitively solve this. It simply tells you what God expects, and that he will judge.

I don't agree with the EO on much, but I think one controversial thing they get right is that you can't be certain of your salvation. And you must use this uncertainty as fuel to never stop striving for virtue all the way up until your dying breath.

Within reason. Don't become one of the people who *ACKS!* himself out of despair because he couldn't stop sinning.