This verse is qualified by Romans 4:2. Abraham's works justified him, just not before God. Before man. Look up the verse, please.
No, the verse is not qualified by another unrelated passage. You have to take the verse in its immediate context. You may compare Scripture with Scripture, but each Scripture passage stands on its own. Otherwise, you are just trying to divert away from Scripture.
James 2.14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
This is true all by itself.
There will be no additions or subtractions to the law of God, is what this is saying. However, Paul wrote that we were married to the law but that either we or the law died, or both; so that we are no longer under the law (Romans 6:14), are dead to the law (Romans 7:4, Galatians 2:19), and are delivered from the law.
I know what this is saying! I'm *not* saying we are still living under the Law as a covenant.
Matt 5.17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
The point is, the Law was something Jesus believed in for its time, and saw himself as its logical end. So for you to say the Law had nothing in itself to give, but that it only pointed to Jesus is disingenuous. The Law, all by itself, was a valid covenant system, replete with God's good pleasure for those who adhered to it. As such, it provided a spiritual life, despite the fact it could not finish the race as far as justification.
You have to take this verse in context of the entire epistle. From Romans 2:13, Paul goes from there down a line of reasoning that leads him to the conclusion found in Romans 3:28:
Rom 3:28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Rom 2.13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
You are diverting. It does not require the entire book to understand what is being said here. It is clearly stating that obedience to the Law brings righteousness, and therefore peace with God. That is, it enables a spiritual life under cover of temporal rituals of redemption.
We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to it. Obeying Christ is not the same as obeying a set of do's and don'ts. It is obedience to the promptings of His Spirit.
Following commandments, or do's and don't's, is not by default a matter of living by the flesh! Do you think Jesus followed the carnal flesh when he obeyed his Father in heaven? He was sinless, brother! And even we, who are sinners, can obey God's word without being "in the flesh." In the same way, those under the Law could obey the Law of God without being "in the flesh."
Those who seek to be justified through law-keepingb are fallen from grace and Christ is of no effect to them; Christ shall profit them nothing.
You're like a sounding gong! I've told you umpteen times that following the Law did not justify for eternity! Why do you keep reiterating what we both agree on? Following the Law was *not* an attempt at eternal justification. It was a temporary reprieve until Christ could bring justification.
So, this is speaking of the righteousness which is of God by faith.
As I told you, the righteousness that is by faith in Christ is different than the righteousness of the Law. Both were accepted of God, the Law as a temporary measure, and faith in Christ as the ultimate goal.
Both forms of righteousness required adherence to the commandments of God as a choice to embrace God's form of redemption. We obey Christ's word in order to accept his exclusive work of redemption for us. In fact, God's commandment is that we believe in His Son. And so, our salvation begins with a choice to obey God's word.
You have said that you believe that the law imparts spiritual life for OT believers. If it can do that for OT believers, then it can do that for NT believers. But this concept is foreign to NT doctrine.
A covenant relationship with God is, by definition, an impartation of spiritual life from heaven. The presence of God's glory in His temple is ample illustration of this. Having a spiritual life is *not* having eternal life. In Christ, our spiritual life becomes eternal life.
What do you mean by Christ's works? if you mean by that, things that we do in the power that Christ gives us, then I would have to disagree with you. But Christ's works, and only Christ's works, can justify us in any sense of the word justify.
Christ's works was the cross, whereby he eternally redeemed us. Nobody but Christ could do that. Our job is to obey Christ's commandments. One mandate was to preach the gospel to all nations. Another commandment is to love God supremely, and our brothers in the Lord.