If I say I will do a thing for you and then you help with it, can I really say I did something for you?

Of course not. I simply, to some degree, helped you. I cannot say that I totally did that thing for you.

If God does something for you and you say you helped, you lie, unless you really helped. No one can help in your salvation, which is absolutely impossible. You can neither save yourself nor can your help in your salvation. The sooner you face that, the closer you are to true salvation. God said that He will save you if you put your faith in Him. That means you acknowledge you need salvation and that means that you put your faith in Him, totally. This does not mean some faith in him and some faith in yourself. It does not work that way.

Worse, when you try to contribute to your salvation, you are doubting Him, saying that his work is not sufficient, that he needs help from you. Also, you are trying to say that you are good enough to help. That simply is not true.

It is an all or nothing proposition. You either put your total faith in Him or you have not any faith in him at all.

I find no place in the Bible that says as much, but it does seem a good way for God to deal with our pride. Those that go to heaven will not be able to brag about how they helped in their salvation. There will be no boasting, “I helped twenty percent” while another boasts I helped thirty percent. Those that go to heaven will all have to admit that they helped zero percent. If there is any bragging to do, it will be on our Lord Jesus Christ. It was upon his shoulders that all sin was placed. It was He who died and He who arose from the dead on the third day as prophesied. It was Him who took the scourging of the whips and It was Him Who died on the cross in our place. In no way did we help Him at any point along the way. And, in a thumbnail sketch, that is how we were saved.

Does anyone really want to boast that he or she helped. Did he hang on the cross with Jesus? Did he actually bear the penalty of his own sin? Did he die and then come back from the grave to live forever? Of course not. We none of us has anywhere near the power. That is why He did it for us. That is why we must put our faith in Him and not in ourselves.

Remember: faith plus works is not faith at all.