This is a good solid response.
But now, let me ask you from the perspective of what was retained in Christianity and what has not: The laws regarding things like circumcision were clearly no longer binding upon Christians, whereas everything falling under the greatest two commandments was. Paul used the qualifier good works regarding what we are called to, whereas there is no such qualifier in our text regarding works like circumcision, or ordinances such as the Gentiles not being allowed into the Inner Court of the temple. The Jewish temple was no longer the temple of God, so the entire set of ordinances related to it no longer applied where Christians were concerned, and thus keeping such ordinances in our text would not have been "good" in any sense, and not what were created in Christ Jesus for.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. 11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances,
The problem with taking the passage as referring to the same exact thing throughout for me is that it creates an unnatural reading. If he was not making a distinction between good works and works of the Law like circumcision, you have him saying the phrases "[we are] not saved by works" and then "[we were] created for good works" in rapid succession without delineating them as you did in your post. If one phrase is talking about one type of work and the other about a different type of work, you have a natural reading. But if he is talking about the same exact thing in both you have this strange opposition of the phrases against each other with no qualifying remarks explaining how the two principles relate. Circumcision is defined by Paul elsewhere as a work of the law no longer binding upon Christians, so clearly we were created in Christ Jesus for one type of works but not the other. As Paul says in Romans, both Christians Jews and Gentiles were called to be spiritual lights to those in darkness, yet no longer called to be circumcised, so in the following text he tis making a distinction between the two types of works again. Thus, there is clearly a distinction made within Christianity regarding two, one which we must still keep and one we are no longer bound to keep.
17 Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, 18 and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. 21 You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? 22 You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? 24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written. 25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.