According to Paul, we can be saved by faith in Jesus, and this is a gift from God, not the result of any work we may have accomplished or be in the process of accomplishing. We place our confidence in the sacrifice of Jesus, because he told us to trust him, to believe in him. We trust that he will vouch for us before God, that he took our place on the cross, that he died instead of us, so we can know God, be reconciled and enter into an eternal relationship with him.
All of this by faith, dependant on God's grace. We can't earn nor affect this salvation, this gift of God.
However, Paul makes it quite clear virtually every time he talks about the fact that God has saved us by his grace, when he place our faith and confidence in him; that following on from this intervention of God in our lives, our behaviour and general living reveals what has taken place.
So he says in Acts 26 while talking to Agrippa :
"I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds." (Acts 26:20)
For Paul, the deeds do not save, they don't gain us any merit with God, they don't earn us credit in heaven, they are merely the proof that we have repented of our former lives and turned to God.
Repent: Our deeds reveal that we have recognised that our way of living, our way of choosing for ourselves apart from God, believing that we knew better than God, that we could do without God; in this we were wrong.
Turn to God: Which is why we turned to God. We recognise that we need him, that he knows best how we might live best, for our own good and for his glory, for our peace, for our joy. We are created to be in relationship with him, living apart from this relationship is existing, at best it is living only a part of what we were created for. So we turn to God, we trust in his wisdom, his grace. We seek to listen to his instruction, his teaching, his voice.
Thus our deeds reveal this ; that we recognise that we cannot live to our best when we live apart from God, so we have turned to God in order to truly live, so we are goverened by God, not by ourselves.
But no-where does Paul indicate that our way of living is what gains our salvation, our peace with God. It is upon our faith in Jesus, our trust in God, that God enters into our lives and fills us with his grace and peace and joy and light. Which itself results in changed lives, acts, deeds and behaviour.
What if there is no change in a person? What if there behaviour sees no significant modification? Perhaps the question is better asked of oneself. If I see no change in me, if I continue to behave selfishly, proudly, without compassion, without love I must ask myself the question: am I really trusting in Jesus ? Am I really putting my confidence in him and his teaching? Do I realy recognise that basing my life and choices on my own opinions instead of the opinions of Jesus is a negative way of living?
By the same score, we need to remember too that living our lives according to God's will, is sometimes a struggle. Somewhere, a part of us continues to rebel against God's rule, and that provokes an inner struggle, between that part of us that wants to live according to God's design and that part that wants no part of God's plan. The struggle is real, and sometimes the results that we see in our behaviour are not those which make us most proud. But that does not negate what God has done and is doing in our lives.
Salvation is given by God's grace, when we place our faith in him, and faith hopes and looks forward to the accomplishment of God's work. For now we continue on the road, sometimes stumbling, but with God at our side to help us back up and to continue the way.
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