John 1:12 is attached with "a personal surrender to Him" in Vine's definition. John 1:12 - But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the
right to become children of God, to those who
believe in His name. There is the personal surrender to Him. When we choose to believe in/have faith in Christ unto salvation (Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8) we are entrusting our spiritual well being to Christ, along with placing confidence, trust and reliance in Him for salvation.
That would be a personal surrender to Him, resulting in justification (Romans 5:1) and that is the ROOT of salvation.
The FRUIT of salvation would be living by or "out of" faith, as we see 2 Corinthians 5:7 attached with "a conduct inspired by such surrender" in Vine's definition, which reads - For we walk/live by faith and not by sight. This is our continued walk with the Lord by which by or "out of" faith believers bear fruit/produce works.
So faith in Christ is the ROOT of salvation and "a conduct inspired by surrender" which FOLLOWS and produces good works would be the FRUIT. You are misusing the Vines to mix cause with effect and the end result is salvation by works.
The Greek words for "pistis" and "pisteuo" are two forms of the same word. "Pistis" is the noun form, "pisteuo" is the verb form. Nothing in the root meaning of either word carries any concept of works. If you believe in Christ for salvation, then you are trusting in Him alone to save you. This belief results in actions appropriate to the belief (to one degree or the other/all genuine believers are fruitful, yet not all are equally fruitful) - but the actions are NOT INHERENT in the belief.
The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon
Strong's Number: 4100
Browse Lexicon
Original Word Word Origin
pisteuo from (
4102)
Transliterated Word
TDNT Entry
Pisteuo 6:174,849
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
pist-yoo'-o Verb
Definition
- to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in
- of the thing believed
- to credit, have confidence
- in a moral or religious reference
- used in the NT of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul
- to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith 1bc) mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith
- to entrust a thing to one, i.e. his fidelity
- to be intrusted with a thing
NAS Word Usage - Total: 243
believe 118, believed 73, believers 3, believes 29,
believing 10, do 1, entrust 1, entrusted 6, entrusting 1, has faith 1
Pisteuo Meaning in Bible - New Testament Greek Lexicon - New American Standard
It doesn't take years of study to figure this out, but only to explain it away.