I accept. Bring on the iocane powder... (jk)
Let's keep this civil please.
No problem with me there, I hope you can live up to it.
Also, as opposed to posting a huge barrage, which is often a tactic to try to innundate one's opponent, lets take things one point at the time, agreed?
Faith and works, is like a man and wife... neither is one whole without the other, in the Lord.
While that is true, there is a context for it. It is faith that saves and works follow salvation as a result of that salvation.
Salvation is by faith.
Romans 3:
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
You see, the purpose of the law, and commands of God is to convict everyone of sin, as a guilty lawbreaker.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
No man is made righteous by his own works, for each and every one is made a guilty lawbreaker by his/her failure to keep the commandments of God, which God requires be kept perfectly. For if one expects to be justified in the eyes of God by his own works, then he/she must be as perfectly righteous as God is.
Are YOU as perfectly righteous as God is?
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all[h] who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, who did keep the commandments of God perfectly as the stand-in for God's people, was a sacrifice that satisfied the Just Wrath of God against sin, and by the sacrifice of Christ are sinners made righteous by the very Righteousness of God which is applied to them through faith. It is a foreign righteousness, which is not the righteousness of a man, but God's Own Righteousness applied to the account of the redeemed sinner.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
Justification, whereby a sinner is made to be in the position of just in the eyes of God on account of the sacrifice of Christ, is salvation from the eternal wrath of God which is reserved for unredeemed sinners.
Romans 4
1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?[a] 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”[b] Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
Abraham was not saved by his works, but through faith, whereby belief, which in this context means an exclusive trust in God, and not a mere intellectual assent or acknowledgement of a fact.
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
7 “ Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”
It is God who justifies the sinner, by accrediting the righteous of Christ to their account, just as an accountant marks down a received payment in the credit column in an accounting ledger. That accounting language is exactly what Paul is talking about here.
Mormonism teaches that you are saved by grace after all you can do, which is the direct opposite of what the Bible teaches.
Ephesians 2:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
So, you see, that salvation, the redemption from the eternal wrath of God against sin is by God's Grace, not of works that men will try to boast about before God on Judgment Day, saying, "Lord, Lord, didn't I do this, didn't I do that, etc ?", yet their works can never overcome their own sin nor make anyone righteous before God, unless their works are done perfectly throughout their entire lives. Have you become perfect yet?
However, as the Bible teaches, works are the result of that salvation and are a work of God's Grace themselves for God prepared them for the redeemed to do.
So, your statement:
Faith and works, is like a man and wife... neither is one whole without the other, in the Lord.
while true, is true within the context of works being the result of a salvation/justification which has already taken place, just as a born baby is the result of the joining of sperm and egg.
But those works play no part in the salvation of the sinner, that is the act of God, by His Gracious Mercy which God puts the sinner in the position of right standing by virtue of the Atonement of Christ and His applied righteousness credited to the account of the redeemed sinner.
James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
The devils believe in Christ. In fact, they do more than believe, they know Christ and the apostles.
To "believe" is not an intellectual assent or acknowledgment of a fact, as is the context in the citation from James.
To "believe in Christ" in context of salvation is an exclusive trusting in Christ, the Eternal Second Person of the Triune God, and His Atonement to have paid the entire debt owed the Wrath of God for your sin.
Why did Paul write so often to Christian congregations admonishing them to abandon their sinful ways?
Why did Paul have to tell believing Christians that those who committed various sins could not be saved in the kingdom of God?
Why did Paul teach that Christ is “the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe?”
Why did Paul say that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation?”
Why did Paul tell the Philippians to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling?”
When discussing “the grace of God that bringeth salvation,” why does Paul say that it teaches “that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world?”
Why does the epistle to the Hebrews say that Jesus was “the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him?”
Each of these passages suggests that grace alone is not sufficient for salvation. Consequently, when reading the epistles of Paul, one must keep a much broader picture in mind. For example, Paul told the Romans,
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
From this passage, it is clear that grace alone is insufficient and that it must be coupled with rightousness, faith and confession.