Can you improve your holiness by works?

Philippians 2:12 ESV
"...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,"

Indeed with such a strict and conservative dictation, it would seem to support the idea that works are necessary for our salvation. Then you can go even farther and quote from James, James 2:14-26:

Verse 24, "You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone."

But what is the issue with interpreting these verses this way?

What was the Mosaic Law? A set of righteous decrees by God to Moses that were meant to be kept and obeyed.

Lev 18:5, "Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD." (Deut 4:1, Eze 20:11-13, Gal 3:12, Rom 10:5, Phil 3:9)

The problem with the Law was that NO ONE could of themselves keep every single decree, for even breaking just the smallest letter of the Law made a person guilty of it all.

James 2:10 NIV, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."

Romans 8:3 NLT, "The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature." (Rom 7:18, Heb 7:18)

Now I can hear some clamoring already about we are not talking about the Mosaic Law and needing to keep it but rather good works and deeds that the Apostles speak of... but let me digress:

Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Now, I emphasized two portions of that scripture passage that we all know and perhaps quote often when witnessing. The one I want to focus on is God creating us in Christ to do good works.

Can someone tell me something that God made that is required to work to fulfill its purpose in creation?

The sun shines and doesn’t need to do anything extra, the moon orbits the Earth and the two govern the seasons, and yet they don’t work to do it. It is a natural action that God set within them to do. The beasts of the field do not have to work for their food and livelihood, Jesus Himself said in Matthew 5 that God feeds them down to the last bird in the air. So we can see that even in the physical creation, those things which God made did not have to work in order to accomplish their purpose.

Indeed the next verse after Phil 2:12, one in which I never hear quoted along with Phil 2:12 says:

“for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Phil 2:13)

God works in you so that you can work. Notice it doesn’t say in vv12-13: work out your own salvation for God expects you to will and act to fulfill His good pleasure. It says God works out His will and purpose in us.

Look at some of these other words of Paul concerning the same subject:

1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Colossians 1:29
For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Hebrews 13:20-21
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, THROUGH Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Paul confessed that everything he did, he did only through the grace of God. That nothing could be done outside of that! Even the author of Hebrews prayed that God would equip his audience with everything they needed to do His will and work in them to please God! Good works were NEVER intended to be performed or carried out outside of the realm of the grace and movement of God!

This is why I struggle here now with you who disagree with me when I say that the ONLY work that God requires of us is to believe! (John 6:28-29) This is why I say that by believing in Him you ABIDE in Him and walk in the Spirit. (John 15:4-6; Galatians 5:16-25) How can you abide in Christ in ANY OTHER WAY than that which you first were placed in Him?

Colossians 2:6-7
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

As you have received Christ, so walk in Him! You received Christ BY BELIEVING, and by no other means can you walk with Christ or His Spirit! That is scripture!

You see the funny thing about fruit is that it requires nothing to grow. The seed is planted and through natural processes of rain and sunshine the seed grows. Sure a person may come along and water it if they so desire, but that is not required. The seed being planted is all that is required. So when Paul says walk with the Spirit and you will NOT carry out the works of the flesh, but rather the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-25), that fruit grows only by walking with the Spirit which is done only by believing!

You believe and receive the Spirit. You continue to believe and walk with the Spirit. You walk with the Spirit and the fruit begins to grow and multiply! That fruit is what leads to the good works that God desires to work through us. It is all a product of believing. Believe, believe, believe in Christ! Wait upon Him! Look to Him to fulfill His purpose in you.

You see Christ came so we could have rest from the things that caused us strife and grief. (Matthew 11:28-30) Surely this is what Paul spoke of in Romans 7 about how even when we want to do good we can not because our flesh is weak. Paul even wrote in Galatians that the Law is meant for doing and obeying and that NO work of the Spirit is done by works of the flesh, rather receiving the promise of eternal life and working in the Spirit are done only through believing. (Galatians 3) He even wrote in Romans 4:4-5 that those who do works, are rewarded just as a laborer is rewarded for what he does. So those who preach WE must do good works to complete our salvation, you are preaching that salvation is something to be earned, for a worker is worthy of their wages.

As you received Christ, so walk in Him! (Colossians 2:6-7) As you walk in Him, you will fulfill His entire purpose in you, free of your own working and struggling. Renew your mind each and every day and be full of the fact that you are in Christ only by faith and only by faith in Him will He work out His will and pleasure in you.

Now inevitably some will interpret what I'm saying as it is okay to live freely in sin. I never said that, in fact when I said you abide in Christ by believing, that very phrase implies that by a continual abiding, you will be free of sin! (John 8:36, Acts 13:38-39; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1, 13)