"You cannot have it both ways. Either it’s grace or it’s works."
The law he is talking about is the old Testament Law because the temple system(old) was still going on as he wrote those very words. He is comparing the old to the new not what works(fruits) are to a christian. It's old testament works of the temple and law system that is dead.
Its the grace of Christ which will show the fruits(works) of a Christian otherwise it is useless.
Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Matthew 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God: but in their works they deny him; being abominable, and incredulous, and to every good work reprobate.
Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another, to provoke unto charity and to good works:
Boy! Now he is talking works. Must be Christian works.
James 2:14 What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him?
James 2:17 So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself.
James 2:18 But some man will say: Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without works; and I will shew thee, by works, my faith.
James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac
James 2:22 Seest thou, that faith did co-operate with his works; and by works faith was made perfect?
James 2:24 Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only?
James 2:25 And in like manner also Rahab the harlot, was not she justified by works, receiving the messengers, and sending them out another way?
James 2:26 For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also faith without works is dead.
That passage is telling us how to distinguish true saving faith from intellectual assent, not to add works to try to make intellectual assent become saving faith.
That’s the path of deception because then the person can be deceived into thinking they have true faith because they do the *do’s*...
True saving faith will naturally result in works being manifest, not as a matter of conscious choice but just because one is walking in the Spirit.
Besides, read 1 Corinthians 13. All the works in the world are meaningless without the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit.
The actual evidence of the Spirit filled life is the fruit of the Spirit, not a certain set of works that some men has determined must be the evidence.
Find one time in all these threads that the claim was made that faith and salvation would not produce good works.
It’s interesting that in all the verses you quote the statements are made that show that faith saves but the proof of that faith is what a Christian does after. Yet you decline to either show that or articulate it. Once again it’s proven that works are only a result of being saved and not the cause of it.