If not performed through faith in Christ, then they have their rewards already and it was done by themselves independent of Him.
Anybody performing outside of faith through Him, is acting in sin.
In order for Christ to work in the person, they must first take on the mind of Christ and allow Him to indwell within them. Christ is unable to indwell the person, until that person is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, and this does not occur until something spiritually righteous is found in that person. Faith alone in Christ alone does provide something God finds to be righteous per Rom 3:22. Once this happens, God the Holy Spirit regenerates the human spirit, providing a temple for the indwelling of God in the believer. Once indwelt, and remaining in fellowship with Him, God the Holy Spirit is able to further sanctify the human spirit, which then makes sound Bible doctrine understood by the mind in the soul of the believer. A the believer matures with more doctrine circulating in his soul, he then may begin to take on the mind of Christ.
Man ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden. He is able to discern and perform good works, but not necessarily by God's Plan or by His Divine Standards unless it is performed in a right way. A good work is righteous by Divine standards, only when performed through faith in Christ.
There are many good works performed everyday independent of faith in Christ, but those will all be burnt up as hay and stubble or dross in the refining fire or defined as good for nothingness.
Ping to me. Excellent explanation.
That’s all I hear from people who say they don’t believe in God, or at least my God of the Bible, but all you have to do is be a good person.
Not necessarily. If an Atheist, Jew or Muslim does something of heroic virtue, that is despite his well-being, then he does not receive any social reward. The only reward he gets is the same reward a Christian will get: the spiritual reward of imitating Christ. And conversely, any good work a Christian might do out of legal obligation or for social reward is not salvific.
What Roman 3 is teaching, is that the faith in Jesus Christ justifies through His grace, but it does not speak of those whose faith does not lead to good works, or of those who do not have a conscious faith at all. That we are judged by our works St. Paul has established already, in the preceding chapter, Rm 2:6-10.