Faith is action; Faith is dynamic not static. You must have Faith in the object of your belief before any actions make sense. If not then you would believe a Hindu following the commandments and Law has the same access than a Christian. We know this to not be true because Christ is the only way to the Father.
Christ is the only unblemished acceptable sacrifice. We cannot take our works which are blemished into the Holy of Holies.
The works we do as Christians are what is expected and are not salvific merits.
“...not salvific merits...
That is the crux of the matter. Christ IS the unblemished acceptable sacrifice.
It is what we DO with the information that matters next.
“... The works we do as Christians are not salvific.
That is the set up. Catholics DO NOT EVER THINK the works they do are salvific.
NOT EVER. It is His Grace.
We cannot take our works that our blemished. That is the thing that went wrong!!!! We were told that is what Catholics think - that OUR WORKS take the place of HIS.
Catholics do not think this.