Works may help deepen our faith, but it also is EVIDENCE of our faith, shown to others.
Another thought crossed my mind— If you believe in God, and in Christ as Savior, and you don’t do what God says to do, what does that mean? Is it not pure rebellion against God? Or is it a demonstration of a lack of faith, or too shallow a faith?
Romans 7: ...9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
In my own life it has been rebellion in some instances and in other instances a lack of faith (trust) in God.
But there is a third reason.
Paul talks about this in Romans 7. He said he does things he knows are wrong, things he doesn't want to do, and he doesn't do things he knows God wants him to do, things he wants to do. "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
He concludes that there are two laws at work in him. His mind desires to follow God's leading, but a different law in his flesh leads him astray. He says in Romans 8 that for this reason, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
The 8th chapter of Romans is a beautiful description of the man who is of the spirit and the man who is of the flesh. He says the REQUIREMENTS of the Law have been fulfilled in Christ for those of us who are not of the flesh but are of the spirit.
He talks of freedom from the law of sin and death that comes to the believer because of the Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Paul's testimony in Romans and my own observations indicate this doesn't come day one with salvation. It is something I had to be led into by becoming totally broken before my God over my repeated failure to overcome sin in my life. I was trying to follow his paths, but by gritting my teeth, drawing repeated lines in the sand, repenting until my repenter was plumb wore out. After many decades of this I told God He was going to have to do something because I was totally lost.
God has a grace he gives his children that offers freedom from bondage to sin.
"For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."