Doesn't a good life count for something?

The short answer Settled

Not toward being saved. Salvation is by grace, a free gift of God, and not by any works a person does. Grace is favor God gives freely to people who have not earned it, and adding works to it would turn the gift into a wage.

A gift

Paul writes, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Believers are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24). What is given freely is not paid for, and what is not of works leaves no one anything to boast about.

Gift or wage, not both

"Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt" (Romans 4:4). A wage is owed; a gift is not. Paul says the two cannot be mixed: "if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace" (Romans 11:6).

Hand a friend a twenty for the birthday present he just gave you, and it stops being a present. It has become a rather awkward sale.

Right deeds too

The works Paul rules out are not only religious ceremonies. He writes, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us" (Titus 3:5). Works of righteousness are right deeds, the best a person can do, and they are ruled out. God "has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace" (2 Timothy 1:9).

Abraham and David

Paul writes, "For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God" (Romans 4:2). Instead, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" (Romans 4:3).

David speaks of "the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works" (Romans 4:6): "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered" (Romans 4:7). To impute is to count or credit something to someone. God credits righteousness to the one who believes. He does not pay it to the one who works.

The usual objection

Many people hold that when Paul says a man is "not justified by the works of the law" (Galatians 2:16), he means only the ceremonies of the law of Moses, such as circumcision and the food laws. He does not rule out the good a person does with God's help. On this view God's grace enables a person to live rightly, and by that life he is finally saved: by grace and works together.

Paul rules out working itself, not one kind of work. Titus 3:5 rules out "works of righteousness which we have done," which are right deeds, not ceremonies. Romans 11:6 says grace and works cannot be mixed at all. Good works do have a place, but they come after salvation, not before it. Believers are "created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Ephesians 2:10). Good works are what salvation is for, not its price.

The words behind it