Fully true. Ask the non-believer what he thinks gets him into Heaven and the answer is always some form of “being a good person” or “doing good”. The Jews were given the Law as a means to achieve Salvation but the Law, while showing how sin is utterly sinful, also demonstrated how impossible it was for sinful flesh to lead a sinless life.
We needed a Lamb to take our place to pay the price for our sins and that Lamb is Jesus Christ who gave us, by grace alone, the means to salvation.
It is a gift and one cannot earn a gift. To make works a requirement for salvation is to make Christ’s gift no longer wholly sufficient. If Salvation is by a gift plus works, then the gift ceases to be a gift.
But works are the response of faith and thanks that we demonstrate towards God for saving us and making us adopted sons and daughters into His kingdom that our own actions alone could not have won such merit.
By his fruit shall a man be known but it is God through His Holy Spirit that generates the fruit in us if we simply allow Him to by submitting to God’s will. How do we learn God’s will? By reading His Word in the form of the Scriptures and seeking, by the power of the Spirit, to live by it.
Such a person, if he has by faith believed in the gift, cannot help but bear fruit and that fruit will become good works.
Interesting side by side comparison.
What a confusing chart. The author has got works as both necessary and unnecessary for salvation!
It seems he began with his own ideas, then went to the Scriptures to see if he could find support there. Doesn’t sound like he’s willing to serve the Lord, does it? Sounds like he’d rather the Lord serve him.
You might be wise to distance yourself from such false teachers, lest you become guilty of leading people astray and have to answer for it.