Well said.
Well, I could be wrong, but your posts indicated that you had a choice to believe (have salvific faith) or not believe. Your posts indicated that you decided to believe in God to some degree via your own power (free will) independent of God. Thus, your salvation is not 100% of God's making, but a co-operative effort. Thus you can boast as, via your understanding of salvation, you did something to be saved. I grant you humbly deny it and give God all the credit.
I will go at it another way to clear the air.
First way:
Why are you saved and the guy down the street is not?
My answer: Because God changed my heart to cause me to have faith. ...not a work as I did nothing but exercise His gift
Your answer (IMO): Because God presented me with with a choice and I decided to believe (this is something you did and thus a WORK.)
Second way:
My answer: Regeneration by the Spirit logically precedes Faith (God gave me faith) ...not a work as I did nothing but exercise His gift
Your answer (IMO): Faith precedes regeneration (thus you are rewarded by regeneration for what you did (a WORK)
Third way:
My answer: Calvin's method of how we are saved
your answer (IMO): Arminian (SP?) method of how we are saved (thus you are rewarding by regeneration for what you did (a WORK)
Fourth way:
My answer: God picks who He will save with NO input from me ...not a work as I did nothing but exercise His gift
Your way (IMO): God looked into the future and saw I would chose to believe (this is something you did and thus a WORK.)
So, since the definition of work is SOMETHING YOU DO TO ACCOMPLISH A PURPOSE ... then 'your way' is a work by definition. Your way is something you did to accomplish a goal.
(apologies if I misrepresented YOUR WAY. YOUR WAY is pretty much standard amongst Libertarian Free Willers)
My definition of God saving a drowning person: "Lord, I don't want to be saved. I love my life of sin. My father is the devil". But it is God who decides (Eph. 2:8-9, Phil 1:29, Romans 3:12, 1 Cor. 3:12, John 1:12-13, etc. etc.) God comes and changes the drowning man's heart. Now the man of his own desire says, "Lord, save me a sinner." God's answer, "I already have".
Your definition of God saving a drowning person: "Lord, thanks for throwing me a life jacket. Hmmm ... not sure I want it." God says, "If you don't reach out to the jacket you will drown". Your answer, "well, I think I will do my part and grab the life jacket so I can swim to shore". God's response, "I looked into the future so I knew you, with my help, would save yourself. Don't call your swimming a work though, it can be our secret."
as usual you love to use examples but do not quite get all of the possible ways, you need To be more open and realise you may not know others as well as you think they do
romans 1 says the world not only knows god, who he is and what he did, but the also know they are in serious danger, and rightly judged for their sin, that is why they hide god, because they know coming to the light exposes so god gave them over to their passions and did not stop them,
so fatalism on its face is already in danger
as for the area where 100 people where drowning, God sent his son to all 100. He called all of them to salvation, but like romans 1. Many hated God so much they would rather die then have him save them, others wanted to save themselves (religion) others did not trust god completely so said yes lord save me but I have to help. While others like the tax collector, realized their situation, and called out for Jesus to save them.
as the old saying goes. Many are called, few are chosen, God wants to save all, but his will is not to force his salvation on anyone, his will is all who see and believe will be given eternal life. In John 6 many saw him, but only a few believed, even judas was called but never came to saving faith, in my example all saw him, but only a few believed, it is they who were saved, because instead of wallowing in unbelief, they listened to God and god saved them.
this regeneration before justification but is unnerving, it has those who are still dead in sin (not yet justified) and dead because of that sin, made alive while still in that sin, THEN forgiven of that sin after they are made alove
this is against Gods character, he has to penalize sin, he can not make alive until the problem of sin first is taken care of.
as for your 4 examples, I do not have time this morning i will try to get to them later