Not hearers are justified but doers are justified. This is so basic to the faith. Hearing in the verse means to take seriously.
It's kinda like this. The difference between a rowboat and a motorboat.
The would-be motor boater receives the free gift of a motor. He then goes down to the boat, throws out the oars (works) and places the motor gently in the seat behind him. He then casts off and drifts around the lake.
When someone (like me) tells him he needs to fix the motor TO the boat then fill it with gas...he shrugs and says that is too much like works and that he is instead relying on the "done deal" of the motor.
So his state his worse than at first, drifting aimlessly but seemingly contentedly, as those who kept their oars are doing circles around him.
God did all that was necessary for a person's salvation on the cross. Paul said salvation was not of works least any man should boast.
Recently I was in a Sunday school setting and going to heaven was brought up. A person said, and many seconded what was said by the person;
that they hoped they were good enough to get into heaven. Their witness was for their works; not the work of God on the cross.
This is the result of the gospel of works. The person had placed their hope in their works, and not in the work of Jesus on the cross and that will not get a person into heaven.
As for your analogy of works I think mine is more true to the gospel of grace.
It is said that faith is not faith unless it has works as a result. Many use the statement “you have to reach out and take it” as an example of having to do the work of taking the free gift of salvation. --- That is the way a religious man might see it. However;
“Faith is the substance of things not seen:” Heb 11:1-2
1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. NKJV
How can you reach out, with human hands,, and take something that is not seen with the human eye? A child of God does not reach out and take the free gift of salvation, by God’s grace, by physical human actions (works).
An example: ----- A friend of mine knows I need a car to get me to the store and back so he puts his car in my driveway with gas and keys in it. He then calls me to tell me about it. --- I don’t have to look in the driveway to see if there is a car there because I trust in my friend. He wouldn’t tell me it was there if it wasn’t. In other words I have faith, trust, and confidence in my friend. --- The car is a gift, given to me by a friend. It is there ready for me to use. But I don’t need to use it right now. My friend has been a wonderful friend and now I am going to tell everyone I know about him.
----- My friend is Jesus. The car is His salvation and it is not a physical thing that can be obtained physically. --- I will not tell everyone how I got the car by my works.
Two important things to think about:
1. What if my wife tells me “how can I be sure the car is there unless I go and see.” If I listen to her, and go see, then I have lost my faith, trust, confidence in what my friend told me.
My efforts to go and see has not proved my faith, “”It has proven my lack of faith.””
2. What if my wife tells me I need to go and pay my friend some money for the rental of his car and I do as she asks?
Now I have replaced my friends offer of a gift with a payment and that makes his gift a paid for item. It is no longer a gift. I have put him in the car rental business.
I believe, I have faith, I trust, I have confidence, in the work that God’s Son, Jesus, accomplished on the cross. When I pass from this life into the next, His work on the cross will allow me to be in heaven with my heavenly Father. It is then that I will need to use His free gift of salvation. It is always mine to use when I pass from this life into the next.
If a person thinks that God owes them something for what they do, then to them, God owes them a payment. It is a work that creates a debt that they think must be paid by God to the worker. This is law. If a person does a work and DOES NOT expect a payment in return then that is a gift. This is grace.
Jesus’ work on the cross was under law and has resulted in God giving Him all power and authority. That is the payment for the work that Jesus did on the cross. Jesus did that work for us, so that we can become children of God “”by faith in His work.””
Today we are not saved under the law of debt and payment. We are saved by God’s grace given to us by the work of His Son on the cross. Given to us by Jesus because He loves us enough to make a plan of salvation that saves sinners
and all men are sinners.