A football helmet is a good thing—but you wouldn’t trust it to save you in a head-on collision with a freight train.

That is what it is like to trust your good works to get you to heaven.

The problem is not that good works are bad. The problem is that they are utterly inadequate for the weight of our sin. They cannot erase our guilt, make us righteous, or reconcile us to God.

We’ll never become good enough to save ourselves.

That is why Jesus did not come merely to make bad people better. He came to save sinners.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith… not of works.” — Ephesians 2:8–9

Do good works—but don’t trust them to save you.

Trust the Savior. Good works are the fruit of salvation, never the means to it.