Most people seem to believe that you become a Christian by doing good deeds, and that you earn God’s approval by working hard enough so that on the Judgment Day your good deeds will have outweighed your bad, and you will be awarded a pass mark and an entry ticket to heaven. However, the New Testament tells us that salvation comes before godliness rather than after it. In the second chapter of his letter to Titus, Paul says:
The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, teaching us to reject ungodliness and worldly pleasures, and to live considerately, righteously and in a godly manner in this present world, in expectation of the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, to rescue us from everything that is evil, to wash us clean and claim us as people who belong to him, enthusiastic about doing what is right.
So first the grace of God brought salvation to all people, and then we were taught to reject ungodliness, to live considerately, to be people who belong to him, and to be enthusiastic about doing what is right. Thus enthusiasm about doing what is right springs not from a fear of the consequences of doing wrong and not from a hope of reward, but from the joy of knowing and wanting to do what is pleasing to Jesus.