And now, beloved, do you think you have any good works? “Oh!” you say, “I am afraid I have not many myself–nay, I know I have not. But thanks be unto His love, He who accepted my person in Christ, accepts my works through Christ. And He who blessed me in Him, that I should be a chosen vessel, has been pleased to accept that which He Himself poured into the vessel, ‘to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made me accepted in the beloved’” (Eph 1:6).

And now, ye moralists, ye who have trusted in yourselves that ye are righteous: if what I have said be true, what has become of all your holiness? You are saying, “I am a charitable man.” Grant that you are! I tell you to go and appeal to your fellow-creatures, and let them pay you for your charity. You say, “Ay, but I am a consistent and moral man; I am a great credit to the country. If all men would act as I do, what a good thing for this world and generation!” Of course, you have served your generation. Then send in your bill, and let your generation pay you. I tell you, you have toiled for naught. You have only sown the wind, and likely enough, you will reap the whirlwind. God owes you nothing. You have not lived to His honor. You must honestly confess that you have not performed a single action with a desire to please Him. You have labored to please yourself–that has been the highest motive you have had…And as for your good works, where are they? Where are they? Ah! It is a figment and a fiction, a laugh and a dream. Good works in sinners? There are no such things. Augustine well said, “Good works, as they are called, in sinners are nothing but splendid sins.” This is true of the best works of the best man, who is out of Christ. They are nothing but splendid sins, varnished sins. God forgive you, dear friends, for your good works! You have as great need to be forgiven for your good works as you have for your bad ones, if you are out of Christ; for I reckon they are both alike, bad, if they come to be sifted.

–C.H. Spurgeon in a sermon delivered March 16, 1856, at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark