In the synoptic gospels, Jesus never once says ‘believe in me.’ The most famous passage in the bible is John 3:16–and it’s the most important one for Christianity–and Matthew Mark and Luke somehow forgot to include it. (I think a good argument can be made that John’s Jesus is historically inaccurate, so I don’t think it’s fair to just ‘combine the gospel teachings into one.’)

There are some passages consistent with ‘grace’ in the synoptic gospels–there’s forgiveness of sins, but that’s always contingent on whether we forgive other people for their sins. (Mt 6:14, Mt 18:21ff, Mk 11:26)

There are however quite a few passages that, I think, clearly teach ‘works righteousness’

Mt 5:9–Peacemakers (an action) will be called children of God
Mt 5:44-45–Love enemies/pray for those that persecute you, SO THAT you may be children of God
Mt 13:40-50–Evildoers and those who cause sin thrown into lake of fire
Mt 18:8–Better to cut off your hand/eye (thus avoiding sin) than go to hell
Mt 19:16ff–Rich young ruler to follow law and give away possessions to inherit eternal life

Mt 25:31ff–Sheep go to heaven for helping others, Goats go to hell for ignoring others in need
Mk 2:15-18–Jesus–I’m here to call sinners, not righteous people, to repent
Lk 1:5-6–John’s parents are righteous in God’s eyes, following Law impeccably
Lk 10: 25ff–Love God and neighbor (Good Samaritan story) to inherit eternal life
Lk 15:7–More celebration in heaven for the one who repents, than 99 who have NO NEED of repentance.

Some people are already righteous. They don’t need to repent. They don’t need Jesus, just like the healthy don’t need a physician (Mk 2:15-18). You can be a child of God by having certain attributes, or doing certain things. You can avoid hell by avoiding sin. You can gain eternal life by helping others, following the law, or loving God and others. There are several other passages that echo these thoughts, but these I think are the most clear.

I’ve heard Christians try to harmonize these passages with grace, but they’re all bad arguments. For example: Jesus is speaking hypothetically to the rich young ruler in Mt 19. You can hypothetically follow the law to gain eternal life. Then when he tells him all that he lacks is giving away his possessions (and he gains eternal life), Jesus is changing the subject (‘riches in heaven’ refers to leading a spiritually fulfilling life), without telling they guy (or us) that he’s changing the subject. (‘One thing you lack’ connects the two thoughts and makes this argument impossible; the guy came to ask about eternal life, and Jesus would be very disingenuous to answer a question he wasn’t asked.) 

Or, in Mk 2, ‘I have not come to call the righteous to repent but sinners’  becomes ‘I have not come to call those who THINK they are righteous to repentance, but those who KNOW they are sinners.’ (Read the NLT; this is how they solve this problem.) Obviously if Jesus was referring to ‘self righteous’ people, he would have said it. And, the analogy no longer makes sense…Healthy people (in reality) do not need a doctor–and therefore people who think they are righteous don’t think they need Jesus…what? They have killed a perfect analogy. Here is how the analogy goes: Healthy people don’t need a doctor–therefore the righteous don’t need Jesus. It’s inconvenient theologically, but it’s a perfect analogy.

OTOH, here are the passages (in the synoptic gospels) that are consistent with grace–unlike they above passages, I don’t think they ever teach explicitly that you (gain eternal life/avoid judgment/become a child of God/are considered righteous) by (faith/belief/Jesus’ death). Some do talk about forgiveness and being saved…but no one ever connects the dots. ‘Being forgiven’ and ‘being saved’ are gifts Jesus gives–but it is never clearly laid out what they mean. If you are not forgiven for your sin(s), do you avoid eternal judgment? Does ‘being saved’ refer to ‘salvation from eternal judgment?’ (I think this probably is the case, but I don’t know.) Even if Paul, in his writings, connected these dots, how do we know Paul and Jesus held the same soteriology? It would have been nice if Jesus had defined his terms. The ‘grace’ passages: (If there are other passages besides this, there aren’t that many, I have looked and looked.)