The thing is you cannot add one thing to what Christ has wrought on the cross.
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Heb 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Heb 9:16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
Heb 9:17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
Jesus died on the cross to establish the New Covenant through which the conscience is purged of dead works.
What are "dead works" ?
Dead works are any works done apart from "works of faith." In other words a "dead work" is when a human being walks their own away apart from the grace of God.
The Bible teaches...
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Grace - charis - G5485 [Strong's]
From G5463; graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude): - acceptable, benefit, favour, gift, grace (-ious), joy liberality, pleasure, thank (-s, -worthy).
Faith - pistis - G4102
From G3982; persuasion, that is, credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly constancy in such profession; by extension the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself: - assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.
Grace is the divine influence of God upon the heart. This is why Paul notes that "grace teaches"...
Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Faith is inclusive of assurance, belief, and fidelity. In other words both TRUST IN GOD and FAITHFULNESS TO GOD. When an individual yields wholeheartedly to the divine influence of God then the grace of God QUICKENS...
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved
Quickened us together with Christ - suzōopoieō - G4806 [Strong's]
From G4862 and G2227; to reanimate conjointly with (figuratively): - quicken together with.
G4802 - sunA primary preposition denoting union; with or together (but much closer than G3326 or G3844), that is, by association, companionship, process, resemblance, possession, instrumentality, addition, etc.: - beside, with. In compounds it has similar applications, including completeness.
G2227 - zōopoieōFrom the same as G2226 and G4160; to (re-) vitalize (literally or figuratively): - make alive, give life, quicken.
This is why Jesus taught...
Joh 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Joh 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Joh 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
"Saved by Grace Through Faith" is a DYNAMIC OF OPERATION by which God transforms and energises the spirit of an individual giving it true life.
This occurs through the New Covenant that Jesus established with His death. This is why we read...
Heb 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Heb 10:15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
Heb 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
Heb 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 10:18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 And having an high priest over the house of God;
Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
The New Covenant has NOTHING to do with any kind of legal swap like Martin Luther taught. The idea of "adding to the cross" is a fallacy wrought in the minds of those who believe in substitution theology.
Under substitution Jesus died to bring about a COSMIC TRANSACTION as opposed to dying to purge the conscience of dead works.
Under substitution that basis for reconciliation is a LEGAL EXCHANGE whereby God pretends that the wicked are righteous via means of a legal transfer. That is what Martin Luther invented.
The Bible does not teach substitution anywhere which is why not a single person can quote any such thing from the Bible.
As for 2Cor 5:21, that is speaking of TRANSFORMATION VIA THE QUICKENING. The context of that passage is this...
The transformed individual.
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Jesus was a sin offering made that we might be transformed.
2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
One must "work together" with God (ie. grace through faith) in order to be transformed lest grace is received to no working effect, ie. no quickening.
2Co 6:1 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
Work together - sunergeō
From G4904; to be a fellow worker, that is, co-operate: - help (work) with, work (-er) together.
We are "god's workmanship" and not our own hence the necessity for the quickening.
The result "saved by grace through faith" is...
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
A redemption (release and clearing) from all iniquity and a purifying of the heart. No release and no purity = no salvation.
A parallel to 2Cor 5:21 is Rom 8:3-4 which says...
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Jesus condemned sin in the flesh (overcame sin in a flesh body) for the express purpose that the righteousness of the law be fulfilled IN US who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
This is a message that the world hates because the world loves worldliness and sin, including Babylon Christianity. Babylon Christianity utterly rejects "saved by grace through faith" by redefining to to mean the "application of a POSITIONAL SALVATION by legal credit." These people actually believe that Jesus swapped places with them and that His righteousness is credited to their account and thus reject that the purpose was to transform them from wickedness unto righteousness in REALITY, not give them a cloak for their wickedness.
So many religious people "professing Jesus" are going to stand before God one day and be rejected because they continued to "work iniquity" (Mat 7:23) instead of "obeying from the heart" whereby they would have been set free from sin (Rom 8:17-18).
Anyone who is still sinning is not saved.
By sinning I mean "willful sin," ie. doing wrong KNOWINGLY. I do not mean sins of ignorance due to lack of wisdom or understanding. As Christian's we of course grow in grace and knowledge, but willful sin is out of the question for we have been purged and purified.
We do not have some kind of substitution cloak whereby we can sin and not surely die. Sin spiritually kills INSTANTLY, just one act of rebellion to God cuts one off to God. One cannot be in union with God and be in rebellion at the same time. The New Covenant is the means by which we may find union with God and be cleansed and purified, by which all our deeds are then done in God, for faith has purified the heart being that the love of God has been shed abroad within.
So reject these words in favour of a POSITIONAL SALVATION if you like. Call it "works salvation" or "self righteousness" if you like. But perhaps just think for a moment that the Pharisees of old were very deceived and their hearts were wicked...
Mat 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Mat 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Mat 23:26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Mat 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Jesus can truly cleanse that which is within. The farce of modern professing Christianity denies it in favour of a cloak and professes 1Joh 1:8 all day long as a defence for perpetual wickedness in salvation. A very sad state of affairs, yet willfull chosen by the simple whom want their ears tickled.
Too long a post to read for some I suppose. Perhaps that is a result of the microwave instant serve over stimulated tv society we live in.
Please consider.