For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
As an evangelical Protestant I emphasized the first two verses, which focuses on what I would have considered the main thing. Does it say “faith alone?” One could contend these verses imply this, especially as they include the phrase, “it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” It is clear that we are saved by faith. But genuine faith entails a life of good works, as we are His workmanship. A “faith alone” stance does not take into account this unbreakable connection.
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing. (St. John 15:5)
Later in this discourse Jesus speaks of keeping commandments, sacrificial love, and bearing fruit. But the passage above reinforces that we are saved by faith, by abiding (a continual reliance and trust) in Christ. Without this, we can do nothing good. The word “abide” connotes much more than mere intellectual assent to propositions. And the verses that follow presuppose obedience, acts of sacrifice, the fruits of the Spirit: faith followed by works, and not faith alone.
In his struggle against the circumcision party, St. Paul writes,
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6)
The kind of “works salvation” St. Paul was contending against was this very circumcision party which dogged his steps and sought to keep converts in the Pharisaic Jewish way of thinking and doing things. In this verse I found that faith works. Faith works through love. Again. this is not assent to propositions but a living, striving disposition toward God and those made in His image. “Alone” is not an apt descriptor of this disposition. Faith impels one to loving action.
But he who endures to the end will be saved. (St. Matthew 24:13)
Saving faith is a faith that endures to the end, through everything the enemy of our souls (as God allows) throws at us. Assurance of salvation based on a confession of faith is comforting to many, but I find scriptures which clearly confute this. (See also 2 Peter 2:20-22) Saving faith endures. It prays and keeps on praying; it hopes against hope. We are warned not to falter, not to let our seed of faith be received in a shallow way but make sure it becomes well rooted in us, and that weeds (distractions) do not choke it. (Christ’s parable of the sower and the seed)
Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His vioice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:28-29)
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)
We’re not saved by works, but by faith. But genuine faith brings forth good fruit. I can no longer affirm that we are saved by faith alone because I have found so much in the Holy Scriptures which makes it clear that faith abides and endures in perservering trust in Christ, works through love, and brings forth good fruit. Perhaps in historic Protestant polemics with the Roman Catholics and their conception of faith and works, the Protestant reformers had a rationale for the extra-Scriptural addition of alone. But in the entire scheme of God’s economy, it’s simply misleading.
See also Faith Alone and Faith and Works in the Scriptures: An Orthodox Christian Approach https://www.stpaulsirvine.org/pdf/Faith%20Alone%20and%20Faith%20and%20Works.pdf
“Scriptures taken from the New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by Permission. All rights reserved.”
Impelled by the Scriptures into the Orthodox Church 