Many people are confused about whether or not doing good works is necessary for being saved, or becoming justified with God. They wonder whether cooperating with God by doing good works, instead of doing evil works, or doing both, is a vital part of being saved.

Being "justified" (or saved, but relating to atonement, with redemption following) is a "legal" declaration by God [who Himself alone determines what "legal" is] upon not simply "the sinner" but instead the penitent sinner who acknowledges the historicity of the crucifixion of Christ on a cross and accepts that as the reason why his or her sins against God have been completely cancelled. That declaration is a crucial part, although not the totality, of "being saved" or "justified" - in that both seemingly-synonymous semantics of that aspect of "justification" are a combination of the work (yes: work!) of Christ on His cross, plus the work (yes: work!) of a penitent sinner who conditionally accepts such sacrifice by crucifixion as absolving all of his or her sins.

And what is the condition on the part of the sinner who does accept and claim such crucifixion sacrifice of the Lord being applied to themself for justification, or being saved? Is it the intention, while starting to be justified or continuing to be justified, to simultaneously and thereafter disregard, and even spite and willfully disobey the Law? Is it the intention for the person claiming first-time justification or salvation to perhaps later on and/or occasionally do the same sins they repented of and for which they claim crucifixion-sacrifice absolvement?

IS a person justified by faith [not in whatever nor in whoever, and not simply in the past existence of Jesus, but trusting that His sacrifice for sin by His crucifixion] alone apart from [themselves doing good] works of [obeying] Law, as Saint Paul inferred in Romans chapter three in the New Testament....or justified by [themselves doing good] works [of and defined by Law], not by faith [not in whatever nor in whoever, and not simply in the past existence of Jesus, but trusting that His sacrifice for sin by His crucifixion] alone?

Both, is the necessary answer, regarding "being justified" which is more or less synonymous with "being saved" or "made right with God."

The word "justified" is a completely different word than the words: "atoned for," and when a person substitutes the words: "atoned for" with the words: "justified" or "saved" they are using the rong wird (or: wrong word, if you prefer).

When it comes to "being saved" (and note that that word was used instead of the words: atoned for), we are indeed saved by our doing good works (rather than us doing evil works) and our good works (not our evil works) added to the sacrifice of Christ. Our works, our good deeds, have go-or-no-go effects upon our salvation. We doing good works is essential in Christ Himself qualifying us for and receiving from Him salvation and both of us mutually doing what it takes to keep our salvation, rather than regarding the free sacrifice-by-crucifixion gift of Christ as a license to casually and irresponsibly sin "under grace" against Law and "live in the spirit by exhibiting works of the sinful nature."

And it would be both illogical and blasphemous to call doing good works of obeying the Law doing filthy-rag wicked works against the Law. Our righteousness is based on and defined by if we obey the Law, and want to perfectly obey the Law...in contrast to our righteousness not being based on and defined by if we disobey the Law, and want to perfectly disobey the Law.

John 8:34 Jesus answered them: "Truthfully, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin."
First John 3:4 Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness [and desire to disobey the Law].
First John 3:6 No one who resides in [Christ] sins; no one who sins has either seen [God] or known Him.
First John 3:8 He who commits sin is of The Devil; for The Devil has sinned from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of The Devil.
First John 3:9 No one born of God commits sin; for God's nature resides in him/her, and he/she cannot sin because he [or she] is born of God.

Be perfect?

Psalm 139:22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
Song 6:9 My dove, my perfect one, is only one, the darling of her mother, flawless to her that bore her. The maidens saw her and called her happy; the queens and concubines [married-and-not-adulterous concubines yes! - not masseuse/escort harlots] also, and they praised her.
Matthew 5:48 You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
Romans 7:22 For I delight in [retaining and obeying] the Law of God [instead of delighting in throwing away and disobeying the Law of God], in my inmost self....
Second Corinthians 7:1 Being that we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of [being afraid of, not merely "respecting"] God.
Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.
Hebrews 10:10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering He has perfected, for all time, those who are sanctified.

"But we cannot be perfect, and no one is or ever has been perfect, except Jesus."

A lame excuse, and invalid irrationalization. The demand yet stands: "YOU be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." No naysaying nor contradicting such command. It is, in one sense, irrelevant how and when you are and are to be perfect. Just DO it. For me too.

If our righteousness would have been based on us wanting to completely and perpetually disobey the Law, Christ died needlessly, whether or not we defined our sinful misbehavior by Law or our own concocted and corrupt values system, or consider whatever we did not "sinful" at all, and a sacrifice-by-crucifixion gift would then seem to us, at the same time, insinuating deficiency, prejudicially discriminatory, abusively defamatory, absurdly ridiculous, embarrassing and humiliating, and despicably useless.

So, as mentioned before, let's revise some wording to clarify the situation.

We are saved by us doing good works and works added to the sacrifice of Christ. However, we are not atoned for personally by either Christ alone or us alone doing good works (with "good" defined by Law, excluding - of course - doing the good work of us believing that Christ's sacrifice by His crucifixion cancels the completely penalty of all our sins).

Our doing good works is essential pertaining to the validity of our salvation, which doing good works involves several things:

(1) our believing that Christ's sacrifice by crucifixion completely atones for the full penalty of all our sins,
(2) our wanting to perfectly obey the Law, instead of us wanting to perfectly disobey the Law, and
(3) our actually obeying the Law, instead of us actually disobeying the Law.

Our doing good works (comprised of the three components just mentioned) are mandatory in getting us saved and keeping us saved.....but never have, are not now, nor ever will atone for our past sins we have committed, are committing now, or will commit.

Our righteousness is obviously based on Law, because it is obviously defined by Law, because obviously whatever is termed "sin" is defined by Law, and Christ's need to die is absolutely related to all such. In that sense, righteousness comes through our obedience to, instead of our disobedience against, Law. Either one or the other. If we want to disobey the Law, Christ's death and the sacrificial aspect relating to that is useless and non-applicable to us (although not to those few who really do want to perfectly obey the Law but because of sinful-duress temptation sometimes or often fall short).

We doing good works, instead of us doing evil works, does save us, but does not atone for our past, present, and future sins.

It is not that we are to "have" good works, but instead must do good works of the Law, instead of evil works against the Law. If we claim to be Christian and we do not do (instead of "have") good works of the Law (in contrast to doing evil works against the Law), we are not saved. Once we are saved, we are not simply "free" to be evil, but instead must NOT be evil.

Jesus reminded us that if we love Him, we will "keep" His commandments (and perhaps our English-language word is lacking, in that what is required is not simply to retain possession of a dusty Bible on the shelf which is never read, but keep it available and read it and obey it).

We are saved by us doing good (instead of evil) works which we can do, instead of cannot do. We have the choice, under all sorts of circumstances and situations, to either choose to do a good work in response to something, or instead choose to do an evil work in response to something. Are you pro-choice? It "goes with the territory" because as free-will beings we were born with the capacity to choose, regardless of whether or not we like or liked being born with it. If you do not like it, tough, and you're consequentially going to Hell.

How many good works must we do to be justified and saved (though not atoned for, which atonement is something requiring the two components of Christ's actual historical sacrifice, and us in faith trusting that that applies to the cancellation of the completely penalty of all our sins)? As many as we can, whenever the opportunity arises to do them...rather than doing as many evil works as we can, whenever the opportunity arises to do them.

Duh.

It is not enough to actually be saved by merely trusting in the finished sacrificial work (yes: work!) of Christ on His cross while disregarding the Law defining what our sins were or are or could be, not believing what the Law says about its definitions of "sins," and desiring to completely or partially disobey the Law relating to whatever the Law has defined as sin.

Once saved, a person is, in one sense, not fully changed. He or she may be yet be a non-acceptable-to-fellowship-with carnal Christian seriously needing growth in spiritual knowledge and awareness of what sin they are yet doing to cause them to be disassociated away from sensitive mature believers still susceptible to temptation.

Are the new baby Christians immodestly mopheaded with erotically-arousing loose long hair hanging down below mouth-level? Titillating and sexually harassing those opposite gender not currently married to them with visual assault of naked sleevesless arms, legs bared by shortened skirts or shorts, or flaunting bare toes and other parts of sockless bared feet in sandals? Do they stink with B.O. or strong perfume? For example, the true-color sharp photo of a nude female model pictured on a porn site on the internet may reveal her wearing a Christian-cross or crucifix necklace while she was photographed completely naked, but clearly the sight of her would be horrendously enticing and defiling to men not married to her who would view her (and understandably lust at her) that way.

So with new Christians, such cannot - in one sense - be completely new creations with old things passed away which have not really yet passed away, but need to.

And doing good works relating to how that is defined by Law is not necessarily done because we are saved, if we are not adequately aware of that part of the Law we are yet not complying with and thus we are still being a diabolical stumbling blocks, in whatever aberration, to others.

The confusing and oxymoronic (i.e. self-contradictory) statement of "we are not saved by doing good works of the Law, but we are not saved without doing good works of the Law" is rectified by distinguishing between being "justified" in the sense of being saved overall and ultimately (which is a combination, like James 2:24 states, of us doing good works defined by Law and us believing the gospel of Christ's sacrificial death and righteousness cancelling the completely penalty of all our sins), and being "justified" in the sense of being atoned for (with the requisite understanding that we have been and are being absolved of the total penalty of our sins as defined by Law relating to our holy and sacred intention to never ever again sin the sin for which penalty was eradicated, and henceforth obey the Law as much as possible and desire to do so, instead of wanting to disobey the Law and actually then disobeying it, 24/7).

To liberally paraphrase the words of John the Baptist literally recorded in Luke 3:8 = "Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves: 'We have Abraham/Jesus as our father/Savior'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up [obedient-to-the-Law/saved-by-works-through-Christ-not-licentious-grace-through-faithlessness] children to Abraham/Jesus."

We are saved by our doing good works and our having good faith, not us doing evil works and imposing faltering non-predictable faith. Once saved, we not only automatically do some and must do all-possible good works, but must go to the non-piecemealed/non-cherry-picked Law to find out what good works are - in comparison to what wicked works are - and then MUST do whatever good [works] without doing the evil, to get into Heaven and qualify for pardon when facing the Judge at our going to Him and at His coming to us.