I am also a former Christian, and one who sat around reading Systematic Theology books and conversing with various pastors and Christian leaders (i.e. stuck deep in the mud). "Faith without works is dead" is straight out of the Bible.

"You were saved by faith, and not by works, lest any man should boast" is also straight out of the Bible.

Christians are placed into the interesting position of holding a belief that is equally contradictory.

They believe that they are saved by faith (and not by works), but they also believe that faith is dead without works. Therefore, the works are required. If the works are not present, they are not saved. Therefore, if they do not do the good works, they will not get in to heaven, because their faith is not a living faith. While you're totally right that the "saved by faith" and "God's grace" business is uttered a lot, the practical reality of the matter is that they're just doing something Christian's are great at -- doublethink. They get to pretend like they can have their cake and eat it, too.

If I told you a car without wheels is a dead weight, you would assume that the wheels were necessary for the car to run. If I told you a faith without works is dead, you would assume that the works were necessary for the faith to be alive. You need the works to have a saving faith, and if you don't have the works, you don't have a saving faith.

Waff1es is not "quite mistaken on christianity." In fact, here's something else straight out of the Bible: "Do you know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." And this: "Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven."

And also, there's this from right there at the end of the Bible: "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." And the consequences were pretty straightforward: "Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."

If you can't get your car to heaven without wheels, that means the wheels are required.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

"“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’"

Not only is faith without works dead, and not only will people be judged according to their works in order to determine the state of their eternal souls, there will be many who have gone so far as to have driven out demons and performed many miracles who will still be told to depart.

So not only are works as necessary to salvation as wheels to a car, there will also be a number of cars that have great wheels, but still don't make it in. How many Christians today have driven out demons and actually performed miracles? They ought to be at least a little concerned about this, I think.

At the very least, Waff1es is justified in his observation that Christians often do not (and biblically cannot) "just do a nice thing without attaching something to it." All of their good works are necessarily connected to this cosmic game with the awful game over screen, and part of those works is the mandate to spread the gospel to the four corners of the world, so doing good works without sharing the gospel isn't an option, unless the plan is to be building up respect and relationships to increase your chances of changing their beliefs.