Justification is not of works, because if it was, boasting would not be excluded, as scripture declares that it is Eph 2:9
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
And yet Faith is an act and work of ours, for Faith or believing is an act of the mind, and so it cannot be the reason for ones Justification before God.
The elect are Justified by the obedience and death of Jesus Christ, and so not by their Faith or believing.
Paul clearly writes that the elect are Justified by His blood Rom 5:9,19
9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
19For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Now regarding Rom 5 :19, whether we are sinners or righteous depends not on our own actions but on our inward constitution.
By the fall [of Adam] all the elect received a inner being or nature that is corrupt, and void of original uprightness before God Ecc 7:29
29Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
The word upright in the hebrew is the word:
yashar and means:
straight, upright, correct, right
a) straight, level
b) right, pleasing, correct
c) straightforward, just, upright, fitting, proper
d) uprightness, righteous, upright
e) that which is upright (subst)
Its also translated righteous as in Prov 3:32
32For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.
BTW, this is why I believe that Adam was an elect, because He was made righteous and upright.
And that is why Christ was revealed to Him immediately after the Fall.
But back to the point, by the fall Adam and His posterity received a corrupt nature, a nature that is born under the operation of satan and his kingdom of darkness, it is also the same nature that the non elect [the devils seed] comes into this life with, so we are by nature [depraved nature] children of wrath even as others [ The others means the none elect, the seed of the serpent] we have the same nature as they when we are born. Eph 2:2-3
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Does that sound like freewill ?
We are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners, born sinners, constituted sinners.
Now get this , for it does not matter while we are in nature, if we do that which is good or that which is evil [ from the worlds standards] all is evil before God [Gen 6:5], because we are still constituted sinners before God.
The prophet said this of his righteousness by nature Isa 64:6
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
This is because of our constitution more so than our actions, for a corrupt tree just cannot bring forth good fruit. see Matt 7
This means living a decent moral and upright life [ from men's standards] and without being a new creation, this is still a wicked, sinful life before God, void of any righteousness, because the actions of that life style proceed from a corrupt nature, being born only of corruptible seed of Adam 1 Pet 1:23
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed [Adam], but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Now this living reality is because of one mans sin or disobedience, Adam