Friend, are you saved? Or are you trying by your good works and general demeanor to merit heaven at last? If your answer is YES to the latter question, then I can assure you that you have missed the mark woefully. Ephesians 2:8, 98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9) says: "By grace [unmerited favor] are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."
But if the first question warrants the answer YES, then you know that there was nothing you could do in the matter of your soul's salvation. Jesus, the Son of God, did it all nearly two thousand years ago when He bore your sins and mine on Calvary's cross; and having accomplished that mighty work, He said: "It is finished." Salvation must come first, and then works follow, to please Him who HAS saved us. We are not saved by our holiness, our good works, or our service. But, believing in Him who has washed us from our sins in His precious blood, we are saved to be holy, to do good works, and to serve because of the constraining love of Christ.
And yet such is the ignorance and perversity of poor, sinful man, that he tries to "lift hand or foot" in the matter of his soul's salvation. He does not see, or will not see, that God, at the cross of His own Son, saw that everything that He required for His glory, and man needed for his salvation, was done once for all there.
Look at Jonah in the great fish's belly three days and three nights. The waters compassed him about; the depths enclosed him round; the weeds wrapped themselves round his head; the bottoms of the mountains, the earth and her bars were about him forever! What could he do there? He could lift neither hand nor foot, but in conscious guilt and helplessness he cried, "SALVATION IS OF THE LORD." Immediately the fish vomited out Jonah upon dry land of God's everlasting salvation, where not a drop of God's judgment would ever be able to reach him.
Look at the penitent thief on the cross, and listen to his confession: "We receive the due reward of our deeds"; his vindication of Christ, "This man hath done nothing amiss"; his request, "Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom"; and hear Christ's answer: "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise." What a blessed case of conversion at the door of death, and on the verge of eternity!
What did that poor thief do towards his salvation? Nothing! His hands and feet were nailed to the cross, and he was therefore totally unable to lift either hand or foot. Jesus DID IT ALL, and the thief got the benefit by casting himself just as he was upon Jesus and His finished work. What a crown to it all! The Savior and the sinner that very same day together in the paradise of God!
"I would not work my soul to save,
For that my Lord hath done;
But I would work like any slave,
From love to God's dear Son."