Faith Credited as Righteousness

Ephesians 2:8 NASB
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this salvation is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

The Greek construction of "though faith" is "dia pisteos." The preposition "dia" has the instrumentality meanings of "by means of" and "by reason of" and "because of." Some claim the meaning of the phrase is "not through faith" or the opposite of what scripture teaches. But for those who believe scripture means what it says, then faith provides either the means by which we are saved or faith is part of the basis of why we were saved. In any event, God utilizes our faith. Since the means by which we are saved is the precious blood of Christ, it follows that our credited faith forms the basis of our election for salvation.

Romans 4:23-24 teaches God will credit the faith of those who believe - God raised Jesus from the dead - for the believer's benefit. Some deny that benefit is salvation, but it would be absurd to say God saves those whose faith He does not credit as righteousness.

Does our faith need to be spot on, containing all the right doctrine, and held in just the right zealous way? Nope!
God either chooses to credit our worthless, filthy rag faith as righteous, or not, based on His knowledge of our heart. Lack of our deeply rooted commitment to Christ or lack of Christ being our overriding priority does not bode well for accreditation. See Matthew 13.

A few key elements of our faith are revealed in scripture.

1) We must believe in Christ, as Savior and Lord.
2) We must believe in the One who sent Christ, God the Father
3) We must believe Jesus performed His miracles with the power of the Holy Spirit.
4) Thus by logical necessity we must believe in the Triune God, One God in three Persons.
5) We must believe God raised Jesus from the dead. ​

This is not to say that other elements of faith are or are not required, because God alone in His judgement alone, decides whom He calls into the Kingdom of God.

 

If Christ is our Lord, He is our overriding priority, we will follow Him, and override our devotion to earthly treasure, whether family, or well-being.

Lip-service faith allows us to be our own lord, and relegates Christ to a fire insurance policy.

 

John 12:44 NASB
Now Jesus cried out and said, “The one who believes in Me, does not believe only in Me, but also in Him who sent Me.

Who is the One who sent Christ? God the Father