Thank you for your letter, Muhammad, and your sincere engagement with the Christian faith!
You first ask, â??If our salvation hinges on faith in the risen Christ, why do we have to do good deeds? What is their benefit to us?â? You anticipate correctly my answer: because we have certain God-given moral obligations and prohibitions to fulfill! We have such moral duties simply in virtue of being human, independent of our religious beliefs. A person who does good simply out of self-interest merely shows that he has not properly understood the moral life. Why not ask instead about what benefit there would be to others by your good deeds and by your being a good person--for example, a devoted husband and father or an honest worker or a loyal friend?
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