Would it presumptuous of me to say I think we are all coming to the same thing from different angles. I have not heard any one on here say that by doing good works we earn our salvation. I think we all agree it is a gift, given freely when we accept the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, period.
We all have to now, run our race. Didn't Jesus say within the parable of earnings that those who worked all day earned a penny and those who were seconded into the work an hour before the day's finished also earned a penny? What Our God has and what He wants to give us is His business and His right to do with as He sees fit.
The thing is we had/were given our penny (Salvation) as soon as we agreed to go into the field to work, we didn't have to put any effort in to get it (grace), because we can't it was a gift.
Now we come to our lives, the working through the day. Some don't work for long and some work for years, some have an easy job and some have it hard, some spend their life in Jesus as a bright flame to be extinguished soon after ignition others simmer gently providing a more long term beacon of light.
But there is a work to do and now is when we do it. And going out into the world is where we 'do it', looking outwards, not inwards. Inwards has been taken care of it is the outwards that we have to do. I am very conscious of this "to do"; No it (to do) is not earning, it (to do) is being faithful to the command's of Jesus in that we love each other as He has loved us and showing (doing) this love to the world so all flesh will not perish.
There is no secret to this 'to do' , it is 'to be', to 'become' To let Jesus become in all of us. isn't it?
(reading this through I am not certain the parable I chose was the best one, but I am sticking with it as a God-incidence)