Spinnuh's diary, Belief got me thinking, especially his last paragraph, which pretty much sums up the teachings of Jesus, in my opinion. I was going to write a comment, but by the time I had finished, the diary would have scrolled itself away. So, here I am, writing an explanation of how my understanding of biblical history supports the theology described in that paragraph and how that paragraph can be embraced by even a skeptomaniac like myself.
Spinnuh, your last paragraph is closer to the teaching of Jesus than the faith that is so sacred to so many people calling themselves Christians today, many of whom live lives I believe to be foreign to the teachings of Jesus, but that's okay, because to them, anything can be forgiven except a lack of faith in Jesus' deity.
Such a life is not what the Apostle Paul envisioned, but it is the eventual outgrowth of the Christianity he preached, centered on the belief that Jesus is the son of God, and "works," while nice, are not necessary to salvation.
Your last paragraph describes those works, the importance of which you will find in the book of James. It is disputed whether or not James, the mortal brother of Jesus, actually wrote the book, but it is most likely that what the author says about works was the teaching of the Jerusalem church of which James was the leader after the death of his brother. In my opinion what James taught is almost surely what his brother believed as well.
There is a choice for Christians to make here. On the one hand they can believe what Jesus and his brother James taught, which is what you describe in your last paragraph, or they can believe what the Apostle Paul, who never met Jesus in life, said he was told (no witnesses) by the resurrected Jesus in a vision that occurred under circumstances which, theological considerations aside, resembled the physical symptoms of an epileptic seizure, or perhaps sunstroke.
The things Paul taught were Hellenistic in nature. The things Jesus and his immediate followers taught were Jewish in nature, which makes sense, of course, since they were in fact Jewish. Paul too was a Jew, but he lived in and was strongly influenced by the Hellenistic world in which he was reared and spent his adult ministry.
I am not a Christian, for at least two reasons. One, I don't think Jesus was a deity (and I'm not convinced he thought so either), and I think the god of the Old Testament was the invention of men who made him in their image, an image which frankly leaves something to be desired vis a vis my idea of a god who can credibly be admired. I have a great deal of difficulty worshipping a god who, if he were a mortal, any intellectually honest person would admit resembles a psychologically needy, genocidal sadist. If calling him "God" makes that okay for you, well, okay, but I've tried going there and you can't get there from where I am.
That is not to say I think there is no god. I'm not an atheist, although I will never be mistaken for a Christian. I know there is something far more magnificent than human beings, even if it's only the universe itself and its laws, and to my way of thinking the universe displays evidence of something I would describe as godlike, whether you worship it as god or not. I don't think it's a guy with a long white beard, and I trust science, but I keep an open mind, which I'm told is a necessary ingredient of science.
I respect those who disagree with me in favor of Jesus, however, and I am very interested in the choice they have to make. Personally, I think the future of Christianity, and perhaps mankind, depends on the choice of what is described in that last paragraph. The beauty of it is, you can live with that attitude whether you are a devoted Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, even an atheist. I think Jesus cared more about how you treat your fellow man than what you believe about him per se. He wasn't much of an egotist.
And if you live the life described in Spinnuh's last paragraph, you will more closely resemble Jesus than all the Jerry Falwells, Pat Roberstons and Creflo Dollars who will ever exist.
Now, if you would like to read an expert who agrees with my conclusion (but not much else) I highly recommend "It's All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian," by Samir Selmanovic.
Peace.