Zoltan sent me some videos in which two very popular preachers criticize each other over the issue of repentance and salvation. These preachers are Ray Comfort (with 1,630,000 subscribers) and Ryan Hemelaar (with 147,000 subscribers). See this video by Hamelaar, criticizing Comfort’s view on repentance and salvation, and this video by Comfort, criticizing Hemelaar right back.

Ray Comfort made a statement that really jumped out at me:

We are saved by grace alone. Not [by] our belief, nor [by] our repentance.ⁱ He [Ryan] says differently. He maintains that sinners must believe to be saved. They have to do something. Again, it is grace alone that saves us (0:30-0:44).

That led me to wonder how many times the expressions by grace and by faith occur in the NT. And are we said to be saved by grace, by faith, or by both grace and faith?

Here is what I found:

The expression by grace occurs only five times in the NT (Rom 11:6; Eph 2:5, 8; 2 Thess 2:16; Heb 13:9). Three of those refer to regeneration by grace.

What about the expression by faith? According to Comfort, it is never used in the NT to refer to salvation by faith or justification by faith. Is he right?

The expression by faith occurs forty times in the NT! It occurs eight times more than by grace does.

And we read repeatedly that justification (e.g., Rom 1:17; 3:28, 30; 5:1; Gal 2:16; 3:8, 11, 24), purification of our hearts (Acts 15:9), and being set apart into God’s family (Acts 26:18) are all by faith! Here are a few examples:

• Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law (Rom 3:28, emphasis added).
• Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…(Rom 5:1, emphasis added).
• …knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ…(Gal 2:16, emphasis added).

Nowhere in the NT are we told that justification is by grace, though that is implied in verses such as Eph 2:5 and 2:8 that speak of regeneration by grace through faith.

While we are never specifically told that salvation is by faith, Acts 15:9 and 26:18 use synonymous expressions (purifying… by faith and sanctified by faith). Plus, in John’s Gospel we repeatedly read that whoever believes in Him has everlasting life and will never hunger, thirst, die spiritually, be cast out, or be eternally condemned (e.g., John 3:16-18; 5:24; 6:35, 37, 47; 11:26). That is equivalent to saying that one is born again by faith, apart from works.

Clearly, Ray Comfort did not study the NT before he said that we are not saved by faith in Christ. Had he done even a cursory study, he would never have made such a statement!

What does Eph 2:8-9 mean when it says we are saved by grace through faith? It means that it is by God’s favor that anyone is saved. His favor is seen in the witness of creation (Ps 19:1), the Incarnation, the miracles of Jesus, His death on the cross for our sins, His bodily resurrection on the third day, His post-resurrection appearances, the Scriptures, and His sending out people in every generation who proclaim the message of everlasting life. All of that exhibits God’s grace in our salvation.

By grace salvation is through faith. Faith is the means by which one is saved. Harold Hoehner comments,

Hence the basis is grace and the means is faith alone (cf. Rom. 3:22, 25; Gal. 2:16; 1 Peter 1:5). Faith is not a “work.” It does not merit salvation; it is only the means by which one accepts God’s free salvation (“Ephesians” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, p. 624).

Likewise, O’Brien writes,

Faith is usually understood here to denote the human response by which God’s salvation is received. If God’s grace is the ground of salvation, then faith is the means by which it is appropriated. And faith itself cannot be a meritorious work; it is the response which receives what has already been done for us in Christ. The further point is then made that what is asserted here about salvation is elsewhere declared in relation to justification, namely, it is freely given by God’s grace (Rom. 3:24) and received not on the grounds of legal works but through faith (Gal. 2:16; cf. Phil. 3:9) (Ephesians, pp. 174-75).

No. Ray Comfort is not correct when he says we are not saved by faith in Christ. The Scriptures are clear that we are indeed saved by faith in Christ.

We are saved both by grace and by faith. Both are Biblical expressions.

Keep grace in focus and you will never forget that salvation is by faith alone, apart from works.

ⁱ It is odd that Comfort would say this since he often says that people must repent in order to be saved.