Mr. Nagol, I can see that this conversation ended many days ago, but I don't believe our French friend there, Nihilma, was saying that salvation is works-based. As is the true case, salvation is from faith alone, and indeed, Nihilma was saying that, in that faith, it is a Christian act to still commit yourself to doing good works, even while knowing that only your belief in Christ itself is what will provide you salvation, rather than just rejecting good works (not that I'm saying you're doing that, but some people are misguided and do). So, think of it not like "works + faith = salvation" since that isn't a true statement, but instead think of it like "faith = salvation" followed by "guaranteed salvation through faith + works = good Christian life", since that would be true, as that's what James meant; works help your soul to solidify your faith in God, to ensure that your faith never falters in its belief. Pretty much, works are still good, and should still be encouraged in order to strengthen one's faith in God, but yes, your own statement is correct. Salvation is from faith alone. Works simply add to the strength of one's faith as an act of praising God by doing them. To end with a decent food analogy so that we can better understand this, faith is like a big plate of french fries (each fry represents a Christian's faith in God), and works are like ketchup, and God is the guy eating the fries (judging the Christians for salvation). God likes french fries (so all of them are already going to heaven). In addition, the ketchup makes the fries taste good too, and since God is also a fan of ketchup, it is even further entrenched that that fry will be eaten by Him, even while it already was destined for salvation anyway. It just makes the fry taste better in His mouth (so good works are a good way to praise God). Real-world analogies are bad at explaining the divine and unexplainable nature of God, but I thought that one was decent. Basically, works "add" to your faith by helping you to strengthen that faith in God. They don't matter to God in terms of salvation, and it isn't like your salvation is brinking upon if you hold a door for someone or if you donate enough money to charity, but by doing these works, your faith and dedication to God in this worldly life will help you understand God more, ultimately so that you can commit less sin, since you don't want to add another sin to Jesus while he was being crucified, as the active pursuit of sin with that in mind would make you want to hurt Jesus, which isn't true for either of us, I'd imagine. So, to end, as my little equations said earlier: "faith = salvation", and "guaranteed salvation through faith + works = good Christian life". I would really enjoy talking about this further if you're still interested in the subject.