Well I'll get the party started:
So now, before considering James 2, you have in favor of "grace through faith apart from works":
1. The general theme of the Bible
2. The entire sacrificial system of the Torah
3. Virtually every epistle in the New Testament
4. The Cross of Christ itself...
Jesus died for your sins!
Considering
#4, which is Christianity 101 (what Paul literally called "of first importance"), why do so many denominations in technicality reject that? Jesus died for your sins, he literally took your sins in His body to the tree (1 Peter 2:24).
Tetelestai! It is finished, debt is paid, Jesus sat down (Hebrews 1:3).
Catholicism and Orthodoxy have developed entire systems of sacraments, indulgences, and intercessions to have man again go back to the stage of having to continually atone for his sins through his own works. It is like rewinding the Bible back to Leviticus.
If Jesus died for your sins (which again is Christianity 101), why are you trying to atone for them yourself?
Consider James 2:10:
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
James is exactly right and goes on to talk about mercy triumphing over judgment (12-13). It is amazing to me that even though Jesus died for our sins (Revelation 1:5) to free us from the James 2:10 predicament (1 John 2:1) that so much of Christianity through the centuries drifted from the simple Gospel message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, into a message of sacraments, indulgences, and other-than-Jesus intercessions.
Consider the current Catholic system. If you commit even once
any one of these sins without confessing before death you have a one-way ticket to Gehenna whether you believe Jesus died for you or not. In fact, every single time you commit a "mortal sin" in Catholicism you become unsaved and are "re-saved" upon confession and priestly pardon. Notice that this process completely decouples forgiveness from faith in Jesus' finished work. Instead, the Torah system of the endless sacrifices of bulls and goats is replaced with the Catholic system of the endless sacrifices of the Mass, and priestly confession, and other sacraments, because no one can truly live up to the Catholic standard just as no one could live up to the Levitical standard.
In light of the Catholic system consider also Jesus' standard where hatred = murder and lust = adultery. Are people so blind as to not see how at any given time the vast majority of Catholics would be unsaved under their own standard?
... the Torah system of the endless sacrifices of bulls and goats is replaced with the Catholic system of the endless sacrifices of the Mass, and priestly confession, and other sacraments, because no one can truly live up to the Catholic standard just as no one could live up to the Levitical standard.
>>>...Torah system of the endless sacrifices of bulls and goats is replaced with the Catholic system...<<<
Everything in the New covenant was pre-figured in the Old testament.
In light of the Catholic system consider also Jesus’ standard where hatred = murder and lust = adultery. Are people so blind as to not see how at any given time the vast majority of Catholics would be unsaved under their own standard?
>>>at any given time the vast majority of Catholics would be unsaved under their own standard?<<<
The Gate is indeed narrow - a vast majority of humanity (regardless of religious beliefs) will be unsaved.
So I sayeth unto thee, heed my warnings, repent all ye sinners, and sinneth no more!
This concludes today’s sermon...