no disrespect taken. my saying consider two people was a literary device.
"To trust and do is were a person receives righteousness." I think that's where we diverge. I think a person is considered righteous by God if they believe that Jesus died for their sins, was buried, and came back to life on the third day, and that he was seen by many witnesses. what a person does, the doing, doesn't enter into it. because a person is considered righteous by God, it is proper for them to do good works.
the path of trying to be considered righteous by God by trying to do good works, even if they are just part of the system, is the path to death, because no one does good, not even one, not you and not me.
if you feel that you are considered righteous by God based even in part on your actions, then you have something to boast about! You can be glad that you have received salvation because you have chosen to do good works!
The fascinating thing about your reply is the "works" part. You do works every day. As so as you wake up you do works. Every Saturday you do works, every Sunday you do works. You preach on this forum, that is works.
The Bible said we will be judged by our works.
Rom. 2:
6 Who will render to every man
according to his deeds:
7 To
them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality,
eternal life:
8 But
unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,
indignation and wrath,
9 Tribulation and anguish,
upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the
Jew first,
and also of the
Gentile;
10 But glory, honour, and peace,
to every man that
worketh good, to the
Jew first,
and also to the
Gentile:
11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
Since Abraham, Zechariahs, Caleb, Abel, Noah and the perfect Man Jesus, along with all other righteous examples of Faith in the Bible, chose God's Works (good, just and holy) over their own works (filthy rag), shouldn't we also choose God's way over the religious ways of man?
Doesn't the Bible say to love others "As Jesus Loved us". Doesn't the Bible say to "walk even as He walked"? Didn't He say to "be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect"? Are we not to mirror the "Faith of Abraham"? Are we not to by admonished by the Examples given us in his Word?
1 John 3:
7 Little children,
let no man deceive you: he that
doeth righteousness is righteous,
even as he is righteous.
So Jesus followed a lifestyle, created by the God of the Bible, and He was considered Righteous BECAUSE of His Walk, and He commanded that I "walk even as He Walked". If I "do as He says", when the Judgment comes, does God see "my work" or the Work's of His Son?
What if I have been convinced as Eve was, that God's instructions are a burden, that they are "against us"? Was Eve punished because she "chose" God's instructions? Or because she chose her own works, what she saw?
If I deny myself, and Follow Jesus as instructed, is this offensive to God or pleasing to God?
I think you are in error because you have been convinced that the argument is Works VS. No Works, when the Bible teaches the argument is between Man's Works VS. God's Works.
8 For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:
9 Not of (mans) works, lest
any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.