Saved by works?

Are we?

It's actually a tough question, and there is disagreement even amongst Christians. My Sydney Anglican friends would answer this with a vehement no, my Roman Catholic friends would say maybe. Many religions would say straight up yes. In fact it is a common difference used to argue about how Christianity is completely unlike other religions. We go so far as to label the requirement for works, for doing things, in order to get into heaven/the afterlife as religion and look down on it.

So are Christians saved by works?
Actually... Yes. 

Just not their own. It is by the life, death and resurrection of the God-man Jesus Christ on the cross that we as Christians may enter into Heaven. We cannot do anything to get ourselves into Heaven, we cannot save ourselves from our sins, there is nothing we can do.

But wait, that seems to contradict itself. How can we be saved by works if there is nothing they can do, no work or deed that can get them into Heaven?

The answer is that works do get us into Heaven. But not our works, nothing we can say or do makes us right with God, or even more right with God. It is the works of Jesus Christ that enable us to enter into the Kingdom of God. I'm pretty sure that walking around the Jewish world, teaching, loving, doing miracles, being crucified, taking the sins of the world upon himself and then rising from the dead constitutes work by pretty much any definition you choose to use.

We are saved by the works of Jesus Christ, who's abundant grace and love shown on the cross is the reason that we don't have to. Nor could we if we tried—what good deed or kind word or lifestyle could possibly come even close to matching what Christ has done? 

This does not mean that we should not do good things, we most certainly should. But our motivation is not so that God will love us, but because He already does. (James 2:14-25)