Ecclesiastes

I would like to view the concept of works based salvation in view of Ecclesiastes. Let me first define works based salvation: It is thinking that you by your own merit might be able to gain favor with God so that He might have favor on you, the emphasis resting on you. However, such a saving merit is not the merit of one's works because a faith that would save you is founded and formed first by the grace and merit of God, emphasis on God. We must remember to make much of God and little of ourselves (John 3:30). This seems to be the problem with LDS Soteriology: "We do our best and Christ does the rest." This couplet puts man first and Jesus second with the idea that your works are prior to the works of God.

What I would like to take from Ecclesiastes is the idea that open and closes the book, "Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity." This statement is made by a man who looks back on his life and sees that all the great things he has done have meant nothing, "striving after the wind." Compare this with Matthew 7:21-23 which talks about people who will stand before God telling Him they've done many works in His name, but God will say I never knew you. What is important then is not the works of man, but the will of the Father. Bringing this back to Ecclesiastes we see the writer clearly understood this: The great things that men do of their own amount to nothing, but the works of God endure (3:14). What matters then if not works? It is the will of the Father or, to say it differently, submission to His divine authority. To answer the question of James which some take to mean a stressing of works. What you must remember when reading James is what comes first, Faith. These works don't produce salvation, faith produces salvation and such a faith produces works. So what is foundational is God the author of your faith and faith then produces salvation and works, not salvation by works. Finally, remember what the psalmist said, "[God] only is my rock and my salvation" and that it is He who saves you by His wondrous love and insurmountable grace.