Before one is saved one is a sinner. Because you do not have faith in Christ you are already judged and your eternal future will be Hell. There will be no get out of jail card....no amount of penance or praying from anyone will get you out of Hell.
Now, the sinner, if they give a cup of water to a person, or if they clothe someone they are still sinners if they do not have faith in Christ.
We have lots of examples of people who do "good works" everyday. But they are not saved anymore than the computer I'm typing on. The "good works" do not save you. Hitler instituted programs that feed the German people. Were those "good works" enough to save him?
So the "good works" some are clinging to do not and will not save you....nor do they keep your salvation. If they did we need to toss out most of what Paul wrote about. If it were all about "good works", Christ died needlessly.
A sinner comes to Christ through faith (John 3:16, Acts 2:38, Acts 10:43, Rms 1:16-17, Rms 4:3). They believe Jesus died for them and forgives their sins. The Bible tells us they are a new creature in Christ. The believer will now be guided by the Holy Spirit as He is their Helper (John 14:16, 26)and Advocate now. Not Mary, not Paul, not momma or daddy who have gone on to Heaven or any of the other saints.
Galatians notes that the fruit of the Spirit will be evident. As an apple tree produces apples so the Christian will produce fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-25).
A natural outgrowth of being a believer will be good works. But these do not save us, nor do they keep us saved as we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise who has been given as a pledge of our inheritance (Eph 1:13-14, 4:30).
As we are saved, we cannot be bad enough to "lose" our salvation as our sins are now completely forgiven by the work of Christ on the cross (Col 2:13-14).
We can grieve the Holy Spirit by how we live to be sure.
Will we struggle with sin? Yes we will as we see in the life of Paul and Peter. Paul admitted he struggled with sin(Rms 7:15-25) but he recognized that he was no longer condemned because of his faith in Christ (Rms 7:24-8:2).
The Bible is clear: our sins, through the shed blood of Christ, are completely forgiven. Do we produce good fruit for the Kingdom...yes we do as we are guided by the Holy Spirit.
The writer of Hebrews 13:5 in quoting the OT noted God will never desert your, nor will He forsake us.
Paul writes in Romans 8, if God is for us, who is against us? He also notes in Romans 8:35-39...what shall separate us from the love of Christ? The answer: NOTHING!
I leave you with this from John: (JN 3:16-18)
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
“Well that’s it, boys. I’ve been redeemed. The preacher’s done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It’s the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting’s my reward.
Delmar, what are you talking about?.
The preacher says all my sins is warshed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo.
I thought you said you was innocent of those charges?
Well I was lyin’. And the preacher says that that sin’s been warshed away too. Neither God nor man’s got nothin’ on me now.”
C’mon in boys, the water is fine. ~ Delmar O’Donnell