You've been sold, like most Protestants, on the notion that you are saved "by faith alone."  

I once had a discussion with a Southern Baptist seminary student on this subject, and pointed out that the phrase "by faith alone" is used but once in the Bible, and then to say, "NOT by faith alone."  He looked at me like I was a blasphemer, and he had a certain fear in his face, as if to say, "Oh, God, what if he's right?"  Well, Luther had the same fear, because he tried to toss James 2:24 right out of the Bible.