Let me try my hand on this.
But what is not made clear here is whether righteousness is a consequence of good works or whether good works are a consequence of rightousness. I suggest that scripture indicates the latter.
There is something to be said for the idea that good works are a consequence of righteousness. But then we have "there is none righteous" so this might be an impossible requirement.
The usual argument is phrased in terms of faith vs. works. Those who emphasize faith would probably say that faith is the way toward righteousness. The "works" school would probably say that works is the way toward righteousness.
Let's try an analogy. No doubt you will say it is a bad analogy. All analogies look bad if you don't agree with the implication.
For my analogy, I want to consider the problem of obesity. Here, the basic principle is that if you eat too much and exercise too you will likely become obese.
The "faith" position would be to believe this principle. Believing it is all well and good, but you won't solve your obesity problem by merely believing the principle. That's analogous to "faith without works is dead".
You could instead go on a crash diet. A diet does usually result in the loss of weight. But many dieters, after losing some weight, go back to over-eating. And then they gain back all of the weight they lost, plus a little more. The diet method is analogous to the "works" position, and has the problems usually ascribed to that position.
The experts on weight control tell us that the real solution is a change in life style. You have to modify your lifestyle so that your normal way of behaving will usually involve more exercise and less eating than previously. If you occasionally go on an eating binge, that won't be very important, as long as you keep to your new lifestyle. For the effect of the eating binge will soon be corrected by the way you carry out your changed way of living.
So much for the analogy. My suggestion on the faith vs. works issue, is that the real solution is in a change of life style. You would need to develop a lifestyle such that doing good works becomes second nature to you. If you occasionally do something bad, or miss an opportunity to do a good deed, that will be largely corrected for by the way you carry out your changed way of living.
I suspect that when jar say the important thing is "trying", he is really talking about such a changed lifestyle.
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