This is how many read Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved by faith alone, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of obedience, lest any man should boast.” No scripture says we are saved by faith alone! And Ephesians 2:9 says nothing about obedience. It says not of “works”, e.g. sacrifices, meat and drink offerings, washings, cleansings, circumcision, etc. In Acts 5:32 we are informed that God gives His Holy Spirit “to them that OBEY Him.” And one cannot be saved without God’s Holy Spirit. Christ said, “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish! (See Luke 13:5). Faith cannot save you except you repent, so faith alone cannot save. Spiritually deceived men and women pervert the words and meaning of Ephesians 2:8-9.
The only time the Bible speaks of faith alone it warns that type of faith IS DEAD! (See James 2:14-26). True living faith, the faith imparted to a repentant believer, generates obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ much as fire generates light and heat. Read Hebrews chapter 11 slowly and carefully and notice how true God-wrought faith produces action, a trust in God so profound as to captivate the total self in service to God and His work on earth. True, living faith is never alone. It is God’s dynamo for accomplishing His plan of the ages. Nowhere in all the Bible does it say the redeemed are saved by faith alone! NOWHERE! The difference between God given LIVING FAITH and humanly generated belief in our Lord’s work of redemption is the difference between human life and immortality. God help you to understand is my fervent prayer.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley