Some people have faith in God.
Some people have faith in self.
IF you believe salvation can be lost, in any way, shape, or form, then you believe in self.
If you believe it is God that saves us and keeps us saved then you have faith in God.
May I be able to translate this language into a different frame of reference.
God saves us, but asks us to respond.
Our response needs to be driven from a cleansed, purified heart.
So if the believer is not purified, then it is sin which responds and therefore fails.
If the believers is purified and dwells in Christ, it is Christ responding through them.
So here the distinction is response from the action of God on the heart of the believer.
Another faith says, we are saved separate from a heart change, and any connection with
our actions, is a statement of unbelief in the need for God alone to act.
So in this world self, is seen as innately evil and incapable of anything good even when
cleansed. So with this view, anyone claiming to be purified and make clean so acts
of righteousness can be performed is denying God and being self righteous.
This is a view, but not of scripture. Paul declares we can be Holy and walk Holy.
For God did not call us to be
impure, but
to live a holy life.
1 Thess 4:7
Holiness is only achieved by being cleansed and purified, and having Christ move within us.
The excuse that is used for these verses is it is referring to Christ in us, while we are fallen
sinners still sinning, we have a dualistic experience of life, some actions driven by Christ,
holy and some by the flesh, sinful, so we can be viewed as two different people.