They absolutely do say that but I can’t force you to believe that or understand them.
If you’d rather try to work your way to heaven, thinking that there’s actually some good work to do that would please God and pay your sin debt, have at it.
But it’s not going to work out so well for you.
But then it’s not a gift, it’s wages due. And if it’s wages due, then it’s not grace, it’s what God owes you.
And besides, God doesn’t need our good works. He doesn’t need anything. All the good works we do for each other, God could miraculously do Himself.
And besides, God doesn’t need our good works. He doesn’t need anything. True; but what does HE require???
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
John 6:28-29
Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?
Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
1 John 3:21-23
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.