“I’d be careful what one calls vain as our every word is being recorded in His Book of Works that we are going to be judged by.”
You will be judged by that, and you shall die in it. I don’t think there is a man on this planet who does not spend more time frustrating God with his sins that a person who self-righteously believes he is pleasing God.
Isa_64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
I am judged by the law of grace, as promised by the scriptures, being dead to the law.
We put on Christ for the exact reason that we CANNOT “look like Him” by our own willing and working.
Rom_3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Therefore our righteousness is not imputed by our working, but by our faith in Christ, who ordained us in His plan of election before the foundation of the world.
Rom 4:2-7 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. (3) For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (4) Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. (5) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (6) Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, (7) Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
You cannot reconcile your insistence on following the law, and “maintaining” and pursuing, on a doctrine which states it is a free gift, through no working of your own, by the unmerited grace of God. It’s completely alien to the scriptures.
Grace is grace because it is NOT works:
Rom 11:5-6 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (6) And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
One who disregards authority is one who has no fear of the one in authority. And where His authority is shunned is where darkness abides. Yeshua’s light comes from the Father, he does not give it to the Father and it is the Father's light that Yeshua came to give to us. You know that light and that lamp thing that Christianity boasts all the time but then they turn their backs on it as having any value.
The Father and His Word made flesh as One, not two, but One for all time, everlasting, unchanging, eternally bonded together as a light to the world for all the world seek in order for the all the world to walk in the Father's light as Yeshua walks in the Father's light.
The greater light for the day and the lessor light for the night. The greater that the lessor light reflects. It is all embedded in his creation for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. Man was made in His likeness to reflect Him, not walk opposed to the way He walks.