Christianity, better understood, achieves a great balence of salvation & good works.
"For it is
by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." --Ephisiens 2:8-10
Our salvation is by God, and we still need to good works for Him. Remember St. James' warning: "
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is uselessd]">[
d]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”e]">[
e] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." --James 2:14-26
All we need is faith; good works are necessary to keep our faith alive. James gives great explanations for why this is.
A very crucial point to take away from this is that our salvation is not numerically based. At the end of the line, St. Peter won't stand at the pearly gates, look at our report card, and say, "You did 343 good works, and only 127 bad ones. Yay! You can come in! As for you--well, you did 301 good works, but 457 bad ones; sorry, looks like you can't come in."
It's the faith & the belief in Jesus that matter; salvation is a lifelong process, and repentance is a necessary factor, but as long as we do good, our love will blot over a multitude of sins, and we can enter heaven in eternal bliss.
