One man looks for salvation through character or what he is; another trust in education or what he knows; while a third seeks it in service or what he does. He believes he can be saved through good works. He comes to God with self-confidence and says, “What shall I do that I might work the works of God?”

God answers his question by asking one that teaches that the natural man can-do no-good work to accomplish his salvation.

Jeremiah 13:23

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”

Please note that God does not say, “Can the Ethiopian powder or rouge his skin?” That has been done. The question is, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin?” The natural inference is that it would be changed from its natural color to another. Can that be done?

Suppose a girl from Ethiopia comes for the first time into the presence of a group of fair-skinned girls. Never before has she seen any color of skin but black. She wishes her skin was fair and determined to do something to make it so. Procuring water and soap, she lathers her face and rubs it vigorously. The process ends, and she goes triumphantly to the mirror, expecting to see a significant change. Instead, she confronts the same black skin, only a bit more highly polished. She decides that she did not do enough and failed to use sufficient water or soap or muscle, so she repeats the process of increasing the use of soap, water, and strength. But the second attempt ends in the same bitter disappointment. To change her skin is beyond her power.

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin?” We are compelled to answer God’s question, for His answer to ours depends upon it. If the Ethiopian can change his skin, then the natural man will be able to do something to change his sinful heart; he will be able to do good, who has always been accustomed to doing evil. But, if the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, what must we infer regarding the power of the natural man to change his evil heart? God’s Word gives a conclusive answer.

Jeremiah 2:22

“For though thou wash thee with lye and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me,” saith the Lord God.”

Through self-cultivation, self-discipline, and self-effort, many men and women have accomplished certain reforms within themselves, making them more acceptable to themselves and the world. Still, no living person has ever been able to make himself righteous; without righteousness, no man is acceptable to God.

Another way the natural man attempts his own salvation is to do something for God that will be acceptable.

This was Cain’s mistake; it was more; it was Cain’s sin. Why was Abel’s offering accepted and Cain’s not accepted? (Genesis 4:4, 5). Because Abel realized that he was a sinner and that the offering he brought to God must confess that fact and be an acknowledgment of his need for another to cleanse him. On the contrary, Cain brought an offering that revealed no sense of sin but complete self-sufficiency. He offered his best, the work of his hands, the fruitage of his toil. He needed not the help of anyone. And he expected God to accept his gift, the offering of a sinner still in his sins, and to call the account against him squared. Cain did not come to God “by faith” (Heb. 11:4) but “by works.”

There is no phase of modern teaching more ancient or pagan than the doctrine proclaimed so generally throughout the world today that we can be made acceptable to God by good works and saved through service. It is true that we will serve if we are saved, but it is altogether untrue that we are saved because we serve.

Jews in our Lord’s time who were unwilling to acknowledge Him as their Messiah and to accept Him as their Savior came to Him with the question, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” The reply of the Lord Jesus is very significant. “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” But this “good work” they stubbornly refused “to do.”

What God required was not that they should do something for Him but that they should accept what He had done for them. The foundation stone of salvation is not what man gives to God but what God gives to man; it is not what man offers to God but what he receives from God.

Romans 4:4-5

“⁴ Now to him that worketh, his reward is reckoned not according to grace, but according to debt.

⁵ But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

2 Timothy 1:9

“Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but in accordance with His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”

The Pharisees considered themselves the prophets of religion. They fasted and prayed; they paid tithes and “built the tombs of the prophets and garnished the sepulchers of the righteous.” They did countless good works, yet Jesus called them “hypocrites.” The apostle Paul prayed that they might be “saved.” So, in this twentieth century, many are deceived into thinking they are saved because they serve tables at a church supper; make garments for the poor or visit the sick; act as chairman of the finance committee to put over a big drive, or contrive schemes for the physical and social betterment of mankind.

Salvation through good works, either for God or man, is pure paganism. I have a friend in China whose dear old grandmother was an ardent Buddhist. At seventy-six years of age, she rose every morning at four and spent the hours until noon without food in performing the rites of her heathen worship. She walked long distances to the temple, burned her bundles of incense, lighted candles, and gave her money. Her days were spent mainly in religious works, but she was still an ignorant, superstitious, idolatrous, unsaved woman at seventy-six. But not one whit more unsaved than the man or woman, even though dressed in cap and gown, who offers to the Savior who died upon the Cross to redeem him “the stone” of philanthropy, good works, and social service, for “the bread” of faith, adoration, and worship.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.