Understood, allow me to share something with you my brother.
The Controversy Over "Final Salvation Through Works"
For the last several years writers identified with the broader Reformed movement have proposed that Christians are saved initially by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone but
finally through faith and works. There are two claims here: 1) salvation is in two stages and 2) the instruments in each stage differ. Second, some have alleged that these doctrines are the doctrines of the Reformed tradition. So we have exegetical, theological, historical, and practical questions: If one's present salvation is merely provisional, which is logically necessary if there are two stages, what is the basis of one's assurance? Of course assurance of faith or assurance of salvation is vitiated, and should these proposals stand, every Christian is, with Martin Luther, in a monastic cell in Eurfurt wondering if he will perform works of sufficient number and quality finally to enter heaven?
Galatians 2:
21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Galatians 2:
16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Galatians 3:10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
So, look when a sinners believes and trust in God who justifies the "ungodly". This justified sinners is declared right then perfectly righteous, because of Christ. This is a one-time act of declaration. We cannot add anything to it, because Christ fulfilled everything the Law required by his perfect law keeping. This is why Paul called it good news for sinners, even for a chief sinner like himself. This is we stand, on this solid rock, my brother. Christ "Finish it". By his wounds we are healed, by his chastisement we have peace with God. He was pierced for our transgressions, he bore our iniquities, he paid the price with his blood, whom God put forward as a propitiation. He became a curse for us, to free us from the curse of the Law. He is our redemption, salvation, justification, and sanctification 1 Cor. 1:30.
From this my brother flows our good works, fruits, because they are the effects of the cause.
We praise, honor, and live to God out of gratitude, knowing that he saved us from sin, death, condemnation, and punishment. Because of Christ our penal substitutionary atonement. The Righteous for the unrighteous 1 Peter 3:18.
. Ok, and I agree completely with your last sentence there.
