Except that works don’t save anyone.
The pharisees kept the Law meticulously and yet Jesus said about them,.....
Matthew 5:20 “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
How do you interpret that text to support your assertion? — seems to me to contradict it.
Really? Works done with an empty and calloused heart purely for compliance to the letter of the law won't save anyone, but works done out of love and beatitude will. If faith is not expressed in works, it is dead and cannot bear fruit unto eternal life.
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? - Jas 2:14-16