Works are not baked into faith.
There is no guarantee that a sincere faith regardless of the degree or object will produce works.
Sorry bro. But this is way out there
if You are going to tell me you have confident assurance in someone, You trust them, you are confident in them, yet your NEVER going to do anything they ask. or try to resemble them in any way?
I am not buying it. No one should. you should not either
Faith and works are not two sides of the same coin, they are distinct.
Actually faith produces works.. they are not the same. one empowers the other.
I do not have faith because I have works (works do not empower faith) I have works because I have living faith
They are two very different concepts that are not dependent on the other.
Actually works depend on faith. You do works based on what your faith is in self. If you trust self. you will have self righteous works or works of the flesh. If you trust God you will have works that represent God and come from him, empowered by him
that is why James said, if you CLAIM you have faith, but have no works. is your faith real? No, it is dead.
A dead faith can't save. because a dead faith in God is literally a faith is self.
Licentiousness and legalism all come from the same root source. The flesh
You seem to insist that all acts of obedience are meritorious. Why?
Why does one do the works.. Get the cause or the reason. and you will see what the context is
If I am doing works to save myself. keep myself saved, or keep from losing salvation. I am doing works of merit.. I am serving my own interest (trying to save myself) and not the interest of God (serving him)
If I state that a person must repent in order to be redeemed, why must you label this act as one of merit?
Repent is not a work. it is a change of heart. a change of mind, a change of thinking. Who causes our change of thinking? Is it self or is it God?