Paul clearly said saved through faith, not works in
Ephesians 2:8,9. It doesn't get any clearer than that.
That’s right - Paul says we are not saved by works - ie, works alone - ie, works without faith - as in “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb 11:6). He is not referring works with faith - as has been explained to you many times, but you keep making the same dumb mistake and keep misinterpreting the same Scripture. Paul makes it clear in his letters that we are not saved by faith alone, but by faith and works. If Paul preached salvation through faith without works, he is clearly contradicting other NT writers, just as James, who says “a man is justified by works and NOT BY FAITH ALONE” and “faith WITHOUT WORKS is DEAD”. It doesn’t get any clearer than that.
If Paul preached salvation through faith without works, he would have contradicted John, who described the “saints” as “ those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev 14:12). John also said, “And by this we may be sure that we know Him, if we keep
His commandments. He who says ‘I know Him’ but disobeys
His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in Him …” (1John 2:3-5).
If Paul preached salvation through faith without works, he would also have contradicted Peter:
“As
obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy,
be HOLY yourselves in all
your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy
, for I am holy’. And if you invoke as Father Him who
judges each one impartially
according to his DEEDS, conduct yourselves
with fear throughout the time of your exile” (1Peter 1:14-17).
In Gal 5, Paul says to believers, “Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). Paul is clearly warning believers that their sins can result in them not making it to Heaven - in other words, Paul is preaching faith and works.
In case, you haven’t noticed, good “works” is obeying God’s commandments, which is “sanctification”, which leads to “justification”, which leads to salvation (Romans 6:15-22). To not obey God’s commandments is practise sin (aka evil “works”), which leads to eternal death (Romans 6:23).
In
1 John 3:9, we read -
No one who is born of God practices sin..
Surely you haven’t interpreted this verse to mean that believers don’t sin? No, of course you haven’t - no one could possibly be that stupid.
Besides, 1John 1:8 says “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”. Believers have free will and so they can choose to practise sin, and they often do. Faith doesn’t turn believers into robots that don’t sin - all believers sin.
1 Corinthians 6:11, Paul goes on to say - And such
were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Here we have a
CONTRAST between the unrighteous and the righteous and it's not hard to find the unrighteous (who may even look like the righteous) mixed in with the righteous, hence the warning.
In 1Cor 6:9-11, Paul uses the word “unrighteous” in the context of those who practise sinful DEEDS (aka WORKS). He is not referring to non-believers - there is no mention at all of faith or a lack of faith in this passage. You completely miss the point of the passage - Paul is warning believers (“Do not be deceived”) that their DEEDS - aka their WORKS - can destroy their hope of salvation - in other words, he is preaching salvation through faith and works.