If that is the case then faith is indeed a work inasmuch as it is something the sinner has to do in order to be saved, a sort of celestial game show. According to your view, God doesn't love anyone enough to save him but makes him work out for himself what he is supposed to believe with faithful preachers on one side giving him good information, and false teachers and the world on the other side trying to lead him away. The winner gains an eternal stay in a luxury mansion (of which there are many) and the loser ...... er ...... doesn't. God doesn't mind who wins and who loses.
I don't think so. I thank God that He loved me enough to save me.
Faith is knowledge that is received and accepted without sight. That is the reason God said faith as it relates to his salvation comes by hearing. We walk by faith, not by sight. If you do not have faith to believe what God has said through his prophets, then you are void of what it takes to receive his salvation, which is "Christ in you. the hope of glory.' (predestination).
I am fully aware that I was not elected by God until I believed his gospel and was immersed into the body of Christ by the Spirit, and in which I am safe because he, Jesus, was chosen before the foundation of the world and he has been through everything God's law demanded and my sin deserved in the way of punishment. His sacrifice was a one time sacrifice and I will never worry about being punished in him because I am accepted by God the Father in the beloved. Praise God.
God the Father through the apostle Paul said this about this wonderful truth;
Read this following and see that the church of Jesus Christ, Jew and gentile believer together in Christ, that is in his body, That he is forming in this age, is declared to be the wisdom of God. Included in this quote is a prayer of the apostle Paul for us, and if it is a prayer request of God for us, it must mean that the answer is not a sure thing.
Eph 3:6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9 And to make all [men] see what [is] the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
13 Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
The prayer:
14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Just WOW! What a prayer that is still going up for us today.