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What is essential to being a Christian is our acceptance of what God has already done on our behalf:
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:19-26,NIV)
There were those at that time who were teaching that obeying The Mosaic Law earned them points with God. If we observed the law God would give us credit for that and let us into heaven. Jesus Christ himself 'shot down' that attitude when he taught his disciples what God's own attitude was (and still is) toward those who obeyed his laws:
"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' " (The Gospel of St. Luke 17:7-10,NIV)
As Christians we see what we do as nothing more than what we are supposed to do. The only reward that we look forward to receiving is the successful completion of the tasks themselves. To think otherwise, putting it in a modern-day situation, would be akin to expecting a police officer to pull us over so that he can reward us for driving safely and within the traffic laws.
So our salvation is not dependent on our actions. If it were, we would all be in trouble. Instead, it's dependent on the actions which God himself has successfully completed on our behalf. What we need to do is accept those actions as the source of salvific righteousness:
Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them." But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' " (that is, to bring Christ down) "or 'Who will descend into the deep?' " (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:5-13,NIV)
Just as we were confident in our parents' ability to carry us when we were little, So we are now to be confident in God's ability to 'carry us' into our salvation. We do what we can as a result of having accepted this salvation, but even as we're performing our tasks we are doing so out of gratitude rather than fear or a vain effort to curry favor with him. No matter what we accomplish, or to what extent we succeed, we have only done our duty, and nothing more.
