You keep redefining faith as obedience itself. The Bible never does that. Scripture consistently says obedience flows from faith, not that obedience is faith.
Not all works are faith, but the way to experience having faith is through our works. Take a scenario where you are observing a guide who is leading a couple people through a jungle and they come to a rope bridge that he assures them is safe. One person (P1) responds just by just standing there and mentally affirming that it is true that it is safe while the second person (P2) responds by crossing the bridge. P2 is experiencing what it means to have faith in the guide in a way that P1 is not and biblical faith (pistis/emunah) is P2. For example, in Romans 1:8, Paul was thanking God that their faith was being reported all of the world and the way to report someone's faith is by speaking about the actions that they did that embodied their faith as is done in Hebrews 11. If you were looking at P1, then you couldn't tell whether or not they believed that the bridge was safe and you would have nothing to report, but if you were looking at P2, then you could see what it means to have faith that the bridge is safe and you would have something to report.
This is why the Bible repeatedly connects our faith in God with our obedience to Him. In Romans 1:6, we have receive grace in order to bring about the obedience of faith. In Romans 3:31, our faith upholds the Law of God. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that faith is one of the weightier matters of the Law of God. In Psalms 119:130, he chose the way of faith by setting the Law of God before him. In John 3:16-21, it connects believing in the Son with our works. In John 3:36, it equates believing in the Son with obeying him. In Hebrews 3:18-19, it equates disobedience with unbelief. In Numbers 5:6, it describes disobedience as breaking faith. And so forth.
Paul states it plainly. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” ~Romans 4:5. That verse alone shuts the door on the idea that faith is embodied obedience. Faith trusts. Obedience follows.
Works can be done for a variety of reasons, so it is important to recognize that the Bible can speak against being required to be doer of works for incorrects reason without speaking against being required to do them for correct reasons. While Paul denied in Romans 4:1-5 that we can earn our righteousness as the result of our works even as the result of perfect obedience, he also affirmed in Romans 2:13 that only the doers of the law will be declared righteous, so there is a reason why our righteousness requires us to choose to be doers of the law other than in order to earn it as a wage, namely faith insofar as the faith by which we are declared righteous apart from works also upholds the Law of God (Romans 3:28-31). We become someone who has faith, someone who will be declared righteous, and someone who is a doer of the Law of God all at the same time and anyone who is not one of those is also not the others, but we do not earn our righteousness as the result of our obedience.
James 2 does not say works create faith or define faith. James says works demonstrate faith before men. Abraham was justified by faith in Genesis 15, long before Isaac in Genesis 22 ~James 2:21–23. The faith already existed. The works proved it.
While it is true that Abraham was declared righteous because he believed God (Genesis 15:6), it is also true that he was a doer of righteous works because he believed God (Genesis 15:6), ad that he offered Isaac because he believed God (Hebrews 11:17), so the faith by which he was declared righteous was also embodied through his works, but he did not earn his righteousness as the result of his works (Romans 4:1-5). In James 2:21-24, it quotes Genesis 15:6 to support saying that Abraham was declared righteous by his works when he offered Isaac, that his faith was active along with his works, and his faith completed his works, so he was declared righteous by his works insofar as they embodied his faith but not insofar as they were earning it as a wage. Abraham did not just mentally affirm the promise but embodied his faith in the promise by actively working to bring it about.
You keep appealing to Luke 10, but Jesus there is exposing the lawyer’s inability, not giving a method of salvation. That same Gospel later records Jesus saying, “That which is impossible with men is possible with God” ~Luke 18:27. If eternal life came through embodied obedience, Christ would not have needed the cross.
Scripture is explicit that the Law was never the means of life. “If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law” ~Galatians 3:21.
The content of a gift can be the experience of doing something, such as giving someone the opportunity to experience driving a Ferrari, where the gift intrinsically requires them to do the work of driving it in order to have that experience, but where doing that work contributes nothing towards earning the opportunity to drive it. In accordance with Galatians 3:21, we can't earn eternal life even as the result of having perfect obedience to the Law of God, but that doesn't mean that we aren't intrinsically required to be a doer of it in order to experience the content of the gift of eternal life (Luke 10:25-28). Jesus did not mention anything in Luke 10 about their inability to obey the greatest two commandments. In Romans 10:5-8, Paul referred to Deuteronomy 30 as the word of faith that we proclaim in regard to the righteousness that is by faith proclaiming that the Law of God is not too difficult for us to obey and that obedience to it brings life and a blessing while disobedience brings death and a curse, so choose life! So it was presented as a possibility and as a choice, not as something that we have the inability to obey.
In Deuteronomy 32:46-47, the Law of God is our very life. In Proverbs 3:18, it is a Tree of Life for all who take hold of it. In Revelation 22:14, those who obeyed God's commandments are given the right to eat from the Tree of Life. In Proverbs 6:23, for the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life. In Matthew 19:17, Jesus said that the way to have eternal life is by obeying God's commandments. In Hebrews 5:9, Jesus has become a source of eternal salvation for those who obey him. In Romans 2:6-7, those who persist in doing good will be given eternal life. In Romans 6:19-23, we are no longer to present ourselves as slaves to impurity, lawlessness, and sin, but are now to present ourselves as slaves to God and to righteousness leading to sanctification, and the goal of sanctification is eternal life in Christ, which is the gift of God, so the experience of being a doer of the Law of God is the content of His gift of eternal life. I do not good grounds for taking the position that the many verses that repeatedly say that the way to have eternal life is by obeying God's commandments do not apply to anyone. In Titus 2:14, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so the way to believe in what Jesus spent his ministry teaching and in what he accomplished through the cross is by repenting and becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to the Law of God (Acts 21:20).
The Law defines righteousness. It does not impart it.
Indeed, the Law of God was never given as a way of earning our righteousness even as the result of perfect obedience, but rather the content of the gift of the righteousness of God is getting to experience embodying it in obedience to the Law of God.
You say repentance is obeying the Law. Scripture says repentance is a turning of the heart to God. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” ~Acts 3:19. Obedience follows conversion. It does not cause it.
Sin is the transgression of the Law of God, so the way to repent from not being a doer of it is intrinsically by becoming a doer of it.
Jesus did not reject the people in Matthew 7 because they failed to embody God’s traits well enough. He rejected them because they were workers of lawlessness who never knew Him. Knowledge of Christ comes through faith, not through moral imitation ~John 17:3, ~John 3:36.
The Law of God is His instructions for how to embody His character traits, the way to know God is through embodying His character traits, and the way to have faith in God by embodying His character traits, so anything that he would tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart from him because he never knew them is the same as saying that they were not doers of God's character traits while saying that knowledge of Christ comes through faith is the same as saying that it comes through embodying God's character traits.
The gospel order never changes. Faith saves. Grace justifies. The Spirit transforms. Obedience testifies.
Reverse that order and you end up with a religious system that sounds spiritual but quietly places confidence back in self. That is exactly what Jesus was warning about.
Please cliffy what you mean by reversing the order. Relying on ourselves does not involve relying on anyone else, so it would be contradictory to rely on ourselves by obediently relying on God's instructions.
