Are we not called to be apostles, to pick up our crosses and follow Him? Stop for a second and think: the Apostles believed, how did that affect their behavior? Was their preaching, their travel, their suffering, their teaching, their healing, their anointing, their baptizing etc. works of the law or works of grace? Did what they did in the name of Christ mean that the Crucifix was not enough to save?
Belief is not just trust, it is action, remember, we are to take up our cross and follow Him, that is action. The importance of cooperating with grace by doing the good works of Christ is reflected in the first non-Gospel book listed in the NT; Acts of the Apostles. Works are not a product of faith, faith and works are a product of grace. And if you don't think works of grace are necessary for salvation, you may find your self in the uncomfortable position of asking "when did I see You..."
The dangerous, man made, unscriptural notion of sola fide is one of the devils greatest hits. ( so is the notion that one can get to heaven by "being a 'good' person, with out all that 'silly religious stuff')
As I said in post 165: “So it’s an active trust - not merely mental assent. As you sit in a chair, you put your trust in it as you plop down. That’s a fairly good metaphor for the kind of trust “believe” carries with it. If one’s belief does not affect one’s behavior, it merely assent and not a true belief.” This is what James’ letter is talking about. Works do not and can not save one - Christ is the only One who was without sin and, therefore, eligible to save anyone (For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous). Our (Christian’s) works are the result of believing in Him and trusting in Him - similar to trusting in the chair to hold us up as we plop down on it. One might say he trusts the chair, but if never sits on it, he has only words.
Taking up the cross - die to self, mortify the deeds of the flesh, etc. - ARE the actions that one who has been saved by the Lord Jesus would take.
Faith precedes good works and is needful or else the works would be rubbish.
You mistakenly think that sola fide is of the devil. “faith plus works” for new birth is of the devil. Faith plus works for the sanctification of the Saint is of God. To be born again, as the Lord put it, is completely the work of God - as your physical birth was none of your work, neither is one’s spiritual birth. A spiritually dead man (Ephesians chapter 2) can do NOTHING of spiritual worth. God must take the initiative (Romans 3:9-18), He choses who will be saved (Ephesians 1:3-8), and He finished the work (Heb 10:1-14).
Romans 3:
“21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”