I don’t remember who posted this analogy, but it’s apt as well -
two guys are “training” to jump the grand canyon.
One sits on the couch eating junk food and watching Jeopardy reruns.
The other runs, takes supplements, weight trains, and practices jumping technique.
He’s still gonna plunge to his death.
HAHAHA! That was me. :-)
FWIW, I actually got the analogy from Discipleship Dynamics. A person “working their way to heaven” is no better off than a person breaking all of the commandments with impunity. In the end, neither can jump a chasm that wide. It takes the blood of Christ to bridge the gap.
It works great for any situation where those that try really hard are no closer to the goal than those that don’t bother trying at all.