It appears that I am being censored for some reason. I will try putting this all in this single post.
to dglang:
The average person must be obedient and do good works. However, there are some cases where it is impossible to do good works, like in the case you mentioned. In such cases, the willingness to do good works is sufficient.
to man_in_tx:
That verse references the story of Abraham, and I explained it in total context in this video:
link
In the video, I point out...
1. the importance of having an active faith (Abraham had to have sex with Sarah to have Isaac, which was key to God's covenant with humanity; Abraham also had to be willing to sacrifice Issac)
2. that Abraham seemed to already have some sort of faith in Genesis 12, and what changed between Genesis 12 and Genesis 15:6 was that Abraham had done good works (he had built three altars in honor of God and had done what God told him to do)
3. that people still had to do works at the beginning of God's covenant (e.g. circumcision), or risk being cut off from Him, and that baptism is, basically, the new circumcision
4. and what Paul meant when he denounced "works."
to HarleyD:
Your first point is flawed. The verse says "because their works were evil" ("their" referring to the "people [that] loved the darkness"), not because all works are evil. Therefore, to say that the verse means that "our works are evil" is quite a big stretch.
Question: How are we able to "give good gifts" if we are totally evil? Doesn't the ability to give good gifts indicate at least a small amount of inherent goodness?
You're missing the point of John 3:20. "For everyone who does wicked things" does not mean the same thing as "For everyone". In context, the verse sets a contrast between those who do "wicked things" and those who do good things.
You're also missing the point of John 3:21. It says that "whoever does what is true comes to the light". You're advocating the inverse of that -- the idea that we start out in the light before we do things. That contradicts the verse.
To understand Ephesians 2:10, you'll probably have to look at verses 8-9 in context (very short, straight-forward video on that
here). We are given graces, yes, but these graces do not simply give us salvation, but enable us to do good works and to have faith so that we can do our part of the process.