Faith is the Instrumental Cause of Our Salvation

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may 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).

The anti-gospel which runs through every false religion and every false heart is the “gospel” that says “can do” instead “is finished” by Christ. We are saved by faith alone, not because of any works. What’s more, faith itself is a gift. Faith is not the ultimate good deed that saves us but the instrumental cause of our salvation—grace flows through the channel of faith, but the channel is itself of God’s construction. We are saved by Christ; faith simply acknowledges and rests upon who he is and what he provides.

Because salvation is entirely by the grace of God, we ought never to boast of our spiritual insights or accomplishments. Instead we should rest in Christ our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption (see 1 Cor. 1:30).

Faith alone justifies, but, the Reformers would say, the faith that justifies is never alone. Good works are not the root of our redemption, but they are the necessary fruit. If God has prepared good deeds beforehand, we must consider how and where we will walk today in order to fulfill his eternal purposes for us in Christ.

Adapted from the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible