[ealgeone]

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; it is a gift of God. Not as a result of works lest any man should boast.

[johngrace]

He is talking about old Testament works temple. The Temple sacrifice was still going on as he wrote those letters. It was comparison mainly for that time.

[rzman21]

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: James 1:23

(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. Romans 2:13

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. Revelation 20:13

While faith leads to our justification, it only is worth something to God as long as it is a living, breathing faith evidenced by works.

Works alone cannot save apart from faith. Faith and works cannot be set against each other.

[aruanan]

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; it is a gift of God. Not as a result of works lest any man should boast.

Note, though, that the "it" in this verse is not referring to "faith" nor is it referring to "grace." The punctuation (and translation) of this group of verses is a pretty good example of someone's theology altering the text to support the doctrine, at the cost of destroying some beautiful parallel structures in the text.

Except in that verse (τη γαρ χαριτι εστε σεσωσμενοι δια πιστεως και τουτο ουκ εξ υμων θεου το δωρον), "that (τουτο) not of yourselves" is not referring to faith, but to "the overwhelming wealth" (το υπερβαλλον πλουτος) of grace (της χαριτος) by which we are saved. The relative pronoun is neuter and refers back to the immediately preceding neuter noun and adjective of "the overwhelming wealth," as well as to its apposition, "the gift of God" (θεου το δωρον) not to the feminine gender of "faith."