Faith first- yes! When we forget the fact it says faith without works is dead, however, we call out God to be a liar if we use Scripture to try and reallocate God's Truth.. The thing is we have two subjects here:
Redemption - What has God redeemed? Everything that Sin and Satan have touched and blighted, God has redeemed, thru Christ on a Cross; Redemption, then, is complete. We are not working FOR the redemption of the world, we are working ON the redemption, which is a very different thing.
The second subject ; Salvation - I see many taking Salvation much too cheaply. Jesus Christ does not add one burden to the lives of men; He imparts the power to live up to what we know we ought; that is the meaning of His Salvation. But that is as real a conclusion as it gets, because it is Jesus who backs it up! The separation from the slavery of Sin and the world system, to the opportunity in Christ to live a pure and properly-aligned relationship with God, thru Jesus Christ has been availed to us thru Jesus, and, I get it, many are still learning that Salvation is God's grace to sinful men, and it takes a lifetime to say the word properly. The next thing we have to learn by contact with Jesus Christ is this, that if the whole human race - everybody, good, bad, and indifferent - is lost, we must have the boundless confidence of Jesus Christ Himself about us; that is, we must know that He can save (finishing His Workmanship in us) anybody and everybody.
God doesn't make us Holy, any more than He created Adam Holy. He created Adam innocent, without self-consciousness (as we understand the word) before God; the one thing Adam was conscious of was God and only of himself in relation to the Being Whose commands he was to fulfill; the main trend of his Spirit was toward God. Adam was intended by God to take part in his own development by a series of moral choices whereby he would transform innocence into holiness. Adam failed to do this, Jesus Christ came on the same platform as Adam and did not fail. The natural life is neither good nor bad, moral nor immoral; it is the principle within (which Spirit owns our soul now) that makes it good or bad, moral or immoral.
"There Jesus grew up, maturing in physical strength and increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God rested on Him." Luke 2:40.
The innocence of Jesus was not the innocence of a babe born into our order of things, it was the innocence of Adam as God created him, the innocence of an untried possibility of holiness. Innocence is never safe, it is simply full of possibility. The holiness of God is absolute, not progressive; that is, it knows no development by antagonism. Man's holiness must be progressive. The holiness of Jesus developed thru antagonism because He revealed what a Holy man should be.
God, thru Jesus on a Cross dealt with Sin, and with it our contract to him thru the sins of Adam. But God has given us the 'realness' of holiness, in a transformed life, in Christ Jesus that produces His fruit in us, to conquer sins in living in righteousness by faith, being abandoned to God, thru obedience to God's ways over our own, which will always result in good works because Jesus wills it in us! The fruit of a sanctified life, is good works. That's different than good works bear the Righteousness of man.
"God, give us all wisdom, (Understanding this will only be found thru the Holy Spirit) which translates to understanding Your truths over our own, empower us to fulfill Your good works to show Your glory and serve Your purposes and intentions. AMEN!"