Hi Rob,
It is true that it is just not in this flesh to do good, as Paul said.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I do not find.
How can we escape this body of death?
James 2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
v. 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
If the Holy Spirit is indwelling then we can produce good works/fruit, that Spirit will do it in us and through us.
John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
v. 5 I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Mat 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Now I do not believe that means that there is no other good works in the world, besides what the Elect do. Because God's Spirit moves and works throughtout the whole world 'with' (but not indwelling) people as He sees fit. Not all works will be burned up in the Lake of Fire either, the good will remain.
1Co 3:11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
v. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw--
v. 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
v. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
v. 15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
v. 16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
So it is only those Elect that is in Christ and He in them, that these works/fruit are being developed at this time towards them being prepare for the first resurrection.
John 17:20 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word,
v. 21 that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that you have sent Me.
v. 22 The glory that you have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one,
v. 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.
mercy, peace and love
Kat