"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:....
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall."
I see here, that any 'works'...is to be added to our already secure salvation. For the reason here:- " For if these things ( the things adding to our faith) be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
This is all for the privilege of learning more about Him that our soul loves...not to keep our salvation intact or to appease a God that just may chuck us out if we don't perform right.
So, salvation is through grace alone...yet coming fully into our 'calling and election' takes a 100% commitment...which will cost us. It will cost us the comfort of our flesh-man. ( who wants his own way)
And, because of God great love...He sent the Comforter to do all this through us, as we yield to Him. That's how I read it all.
So when Jesus said " Abide in Me" He was giving us very good advice...abiding in Him as we yield makes thing go much smoother and less painfully.
" To him that overcometh will I *make a pillar in the temple of my God, and * he shall go no more out: and I will *write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and *I will write upon him my new name.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I *give to eat of the hidden manna, and will *give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."//
As I see this, we can only overcome , the world, the flesh , and the devil "in and through Him" ...because He has already overcome, and sat down.
That is our "works".
John 6 28 "Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." Present tense.
Praise God!!