In my Disciples of Christ course, I have lessons on each of these foundational teachings listed at the beginning of Hebrews 6. They are things like baptism and laying on of hands and the resurrection and final judgment.

The first listed is repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. This is the foundation. We can’t save ourselves. No matter how much good you do, you aren’t good. You can’t out-good your bad because one sin is enough to condemn you. God is holy. He doesn’t dwell with sin. If you have sin, He can’t welcome you into His presence. Heaven is a hopeless goal for anyone trying to be good. But we must be good. God is holy and we must be too. Only the perfect righteousness of Christ is perfect enough.

We repent. We repent of trying to be good, of trying to be good enough, of trying to earn our salvation, of trying to earn God’s favor.

We have faith. We believe Jesus took our sin on Himself, which He could because He had no sin of His own, and He took our punishment for it. The just God justly demands punishment for wrong done.

But that’s not enough. There would still be sin in our nature. Jesus took our sin, but He gives us His righteousness. This transaction is an act of faith. We demonstrate this faith through the act of baptism, laying down our lives in the grave, dying to sin, self, and the world, being crucified and buried with Christ, and then raising again out of the water, resurrecting with Christ in the power of His Spirit, His life in us.

We live each day by faith that we are dead and He is alive. When we get a glimpse of who we are outside of Christ, we confess, and repent, and ask God to remove it, and we remember He’s overcome it. It’s His work, our salvation. We look to Him for our salvation. Live by faith.

We don’t live in trying to be good after we are saved any more than before. We are saved by faith. But we live in our salvation. No one sees God without holiness. We will be judged by our works. There is a resurrection and judgment. Our works won’t save us, but the righteous works of Christ lived out through us are acceptable to God, the first and foremost being trusting Him for His forgiveness and gift of His Spirit, His perfect life in us.