28 Bible Verses about Salvation Not By Works

For it is by His unmerited favor through faith that you have been saved; it is not by anything that you have done, it is the gift of God. It is not the result of what anyone can do, so that no one can boast of it.

I never can nullify the unmerited favor of God. For if right standing with God could come through law, then Christ died for nothing.

For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body,

So one's destiny does not depend on his own willing or strenuous actions but on God's having mercy on him.

But if it is by His unmerited favor, it is not at all conditioned on what they have done. If that were so, His favor would not be favor at all.

Here is what I am saying to you: If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ can do you no good.

You people, whoever you are among you, who try to get into right standing with God, through law have cut yourselves off from Christ, you have missed the way of God's favor.

and that through union with Him every one of you who believes is given right standing with God and freed from every charge from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin. But now God's way of giving men right standing with Himself has come to light; a way without connection with the law, and yet a way to which the law and the prophets testify. God's own way of giving men right standing with Himself is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for everybody who has faith, for no distinction at all is made.read more.
For everybody has sinned and everybody continues to come short of God's glory, but anybody may have right standing with God as a free gift of His undeserved favor, through the ransom provided in Christ Jesus. For God once publicly offered Him in His death as a sacrifice of reconciliation through faith, to demonstrate His own justice (for in His forbearance God had passed over men's former sins); yes, to demonstrate His justice at the present time, to prove that He is right Himself, and that He considers right with Himself the man who has faith in Jesus. So where has human boasting gone? It was completely shut out. On what principle? On that of doing something? No, but on the principle of faith. For we hold that a man is brought into right standing with God by faith, that observance of the law has no connection with it. Or is He the God of Jews alone? Is He not the God of heathen peoples too? Of course, He is the God of heathen peoples too, since there is but one God, who will consider the Jews in right standing with Himself, only on condition of their faith, and the heathen peoples on the same condition.

Then what are we to say about our forefather Abraham? For if he was considered in right standing with God on the condition of what he did, he has something to boast of, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God."read more.
Now when a workman gets his pay, it is not considered from the point of view of a favor but of an obligation; but the man who does no work, but simply puts his faith in Him who brings the ungodly into right standing with Himself, has his faith credited to him as right standing. So David, too, describes the happiness of the man to whom God credits right standing with Himself, without the things he does having anything to do with it: "Happy are they whose transgressions have been forgiven, whose sins were covered up;

while Israel, though ever in pursuit of a law that would bring right standing, did not attain to it. Why? Because they did not try through faith but through what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble,

If I could speak the languages of men, of angels too, and have no love, I am only a rattling pan or a clashing cymbal. If I should have the gift of prophecy, And know all secret truths, and knowledge in its every form, and have such perfect faith that I could move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. If I should dole out everything I have for charity, and give my body up to torture in mere boasting pride, but have no love, I get from it no good at all.

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God.

For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them." Now it is evident that through the law no man is brought into right standing with God, for "The man in right standing with God will live by faith," and the law has nothing to do with faith, but it says, "It is the man who does these things that will live by doing them."

Is the law then contrary to God's promises? Of course not. For if a law had been given that was able to impart life, surely, then, right standing would have come through law.

but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again? You are observing days, months, seasons, years. I am beginning to fear that I have bestowed my labors on you for nothing.

For in union with Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor lack of it counts for anything; but only faith that is spurred on to action by love.

For neither circumcision nor the lack of it has any value, but only a new creation.

For we are the true circumcision, who by the Spirit of God worship Him, who take pride in Christ Jesus only, and do not rely on outward privileges, though I too might rely on these. If anyone thinks that he can rely on outward privileges, far more might I do so: circumcised when I was a week old; a descendant of Israel; a member of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew, a son of Hebrews. Measured by the law, I was a Pharisee;read more.
by the standard set by zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, and measured by the uprightness reached by keeping the law, I was faultless. But for Christ's sake I have counted all that was gain to me as loss. Yes, indeed, I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have lost everything, and value it all as mere refuse, in order to gain Christ and be actually in union with Him, not having a supposed right standing with God which depends on my doing what the law commands, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the real right standing with God which originates from Him and rests on faith.

If once through fellowship with Christ you died and were separated from the world's crude notions, why do you live as though you belonged to the world? Why submit to rules such as, "You must not handle," "You must not taste," "You must not touch," which refer to things that perish in the using, in accordance with human rules and teachings?read more.
Such practices have the outward expression of wisdom, with their self-imposed devotions, their self-humiliation, their torturings of the body, but they are of no value; they really satisfy the lower nature.

For He saved us and called us with a holy call, not in accordance with anything that we had done, but in accordance with His own purpose and unmerited favor which was shown us through union with Christ Jesus eternal ages ago,

But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Saviour were brought to light, He saved us, not for upright deeds that we had done, but in accordance with His mercy, through the bath of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

For we who have believed are being admitted to that rest, just as He has said: "As in my anger I took oath, they shall not be admitted to my rest," although God's works had been completed at the creation of the world. For somewhere He speaks of the seventh day: "On the seventh day God rested from all His works"; while in this passage again He says: "They shall not be admitted to my rest."read more.
Since then it still remains that some are being admitted to it and that those who first had the good news told to them were not admitted because of disobedience, He again fixes a definite day, saying long afterward through David, as has been quoted: "If you but hear His voice, you must not harden your hearts." For if Joshua had really given them rest, He would not afterward have been speaking of another day. So a sabbath of rest is still awaiting God's people. For whoever is admitted into God's rest himself has rested from his works, just as God did.

So then let us once for all quit the elementary teaching about Christ and continue progressing toward maturity; let us stop relaying a foundation of repentance from works that mean only death, and of faith in God, of teaching about ceremonial washings and the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and final judgment.

For whoever obeys the whole law, except to slip in a single instance, is guilty of breaking it all. For He who said, "You must not commit adultery," also said, "You must not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but you do commit murder, you are just the same a lawbreaker.

Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin.

To some people who were confident that they themselves were upright, but who scorned everybody else, He told the following story: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee stood and said this self-centered prayer, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector.read more.
I fast two days in the week. I pay a tithe on everything I get.' But the tax-collector stood at a distance and would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but continued to beat his breast, and say, 'O God, have mercy on me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man, and not the other, went back home forgiven and accepted by God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

For I tell you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven at all.