These scriptures about Salvation by Being Good are inconvenient for those who believe in salvation by believing something. Let’s take a closer look at these scriptures that teach Salvation by Being Good:

1. Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous. (1 John 3:7)

1. This is the closest thing to a definition you will find in the Bible.
2. A righteous person is defined as one who “does what is right”.
3. When we see this phrase “does what is right” in Scripture, we can know that Scripture is about righteousness, even if it doesn’t use that word.
4. Notice that actions determine righteousness, not belief.
5. The idea that righteousness is gained or legally transferred to a person by what he believes does not fit this definition.
6. John doesn’t want us deceived into thinking righteousness is anything other than good conduct, since he starts by saying, “Be not deceived…”.
7. Doing what is right is what good people do, naturally.
8. In the context of 1 John, doing what is right is not an impossibility.
9. Doing what is right is expected of all humans, especially Christians.

2. God spoke to Cain: “If you do good, won’t you be accepted?” (Genesis 4:7)

1. This is the first verse about eternal salvation in the Bible.
2. Following the Principle of First Mention, it sets the stage for the rest of the salvation scriptures in the Bible.
3. In a verse just before this (verse 5), it says: “On Cain and his offering [God] did not look with favor.”
4. Even though Cain’s sacrifice did not give him favor with God, God did not abandon him.
5. Cain would be accepted (justified/saved) by simply not killing his brother Abel.
6. His salvation, or lack thereof, was tied to his conduct, not his belief or the nature he was born with.
7. Both Cain and Abel were born with the same human nature.
8. Cain had no control over the nature he was born with.
9. Cain did have control over his behavior towards his brother.
10. God, being just, judges us for what we have control of, not for what we have no control of, such as the nature we are born with.
11. Job 34:11-12 defines justice as judgment for our actions, not our nature: “For he repays a man according to his work… Surely God will not act wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.”
12. To say God judges for our nature that we have no control over would be a perversion of justice.
13. His choice to kill his brother, not his nature, is what condemned Cain.
14. Good people do good, not bad, naturally, and are therefore righteous and accepted by God.

3. If a wicked man turns from his sins and does what is right, he will live. None of his former sins will be remembered. The righteous who turn to wickedness will die. (Ezekiel 18:21-22, 26)

1. Judgment is based on conduct, not belief.
2. A person’s conduct, or walk, when he dies, determines his eternal state.
3. God loves the righteous enough to forget their former wickedness, if they were formerly wicked.
4. God doesn’t love the wicked enough to remember their former righteousness.
5. Your past won’t save you or condemn you. What matters is how you are today.
6. If you turn from your wicked ways and become a good person, God will let you live.
7. Being good, or righteous, worked before Christ, and still works today.

Those are in the Old Testament. Let’s look at what the New Testament has to say about Salvation by Being Good.

4. Both of them (Elizabeth and Zechariah, parents of John the Baptist and aunt and uncle to Jesus) were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly… “I have not come to call the righteous, but the unrighteous to repentance.” (Luke 1:6, 5:32)

1. Rather than saying the purpose of the Law was to condemn humans, or that righteousness is not possible by obeying the Law, as per Protestant dogma, Elizabeth and Zechariah were righteous because they followed the Law of Moses blamelessly.
2. “Blamelessly” here does not mean perfection or sinlessness; it means no one, including God, had any issues with them.
3. Jesus didn’t come and die for righteous people like his aunt and uncle, and the millions of other people in the Bible described as “righteous”, because Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous.”
4. As one example of millions of other people in the Bible  who were described as righteous, Isaiah 1:21 says of Jerusalem that it was at one time “full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her—but now murderers!”
5. If Jesus had come at the time when Isaiah described Jerusalem as a place where righteousness lived, he would not have come for all those in the city, only for the very few who were not righteous.
6. Jesus came and died for unrighteous people – murderers, thieves, rapists, etc.
7. Based on how the Scriptures describe an unrighteous person, we would describe them, using our vernacular, as “criminal”, or “bad people”, the kind most criminal justice systems try to deal with.
8. This can be seen only after synthesizing all 600 scriptures about righteousness, that is, making them so they don’t contradict each other.
9. In other words, we must understand Romans 3:10, which says, “There are none righteous, no not one,” in the context of everything else the scriptures say about the subject.

5. This is the judgment [that is, the cause for indictment, the test by which people are judged, the basis for the sentence]: the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19 – The Amplified Bible)

1. This verse explains John 3:16 and what it means to do the opposite of “believe in Jesus”.
2. “Believe in him” in John 3:16 is a poor translation since the opposite is to do deeds of evil.
3. A better translation of vs. 16 would be, “For God so valued the world he gave his uniquely-begotten Son so that all who are faithful to him would not perish.”
4. Being faithful to Jesus means to obey him, that is, to do what he says.
5. Hebrews 5:9 says Jesus “became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”
6. Six times in the Scriptures, Christians are called followers of “The Way”. They are never called followers of “The Belief”. (Acts 9:2, 19:9,23, 22:4, 24:14, 22)
7. Jesus said, “I am the Way…”, not, “I am the belief”.
8. The “Way” is to walk like Jesus walked, self-sacrificially in love for others rather than living for self.
9. Jesus said to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you do that, you won’t do evil to your neighbor (according to Paul in Romans 13:10) and forfeit your salvation.
10. According to John 3:19, the reason God judges people is not that they lack a belief, but because they lack good behavior.
11. The reason God judges people is not that they sinned at some time in their lives, but because they are committing evil deeds.
12. “Sin” and “evil deeds” are not the same. All people sin, but not all do evil.
13. Righteous people, by definition, don’t do evil; they do what is right. (1 John 3:7)
14. “Righteous” does not mean “perfect” or “sinless”, because righteous people still sin.

6. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29)

1. Salvation is dependent on conduct, not belief.
2. This echoes what is called the Ancient Jewish Hope for the Resurrection of the Righteous to Life.
3. The ancient Jews had this hope since even before the Law of Moses.
4. The Hope for the Resurrection of the Righteous to Life was first introduced in an early form in the book of Job, written before Abraham lived: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another.” (Job 19:25-27)
5. The prophets expanded on it, being more specific about who goes where at death:
6. But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise. Let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. (Isaiah 26:19)
7. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)
8. Besides the verse in John reiterating this Hope, other New Testament verses confirm this hope for the New Covenant era:
9. And you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the Resurrection of the Righteous. (Luke 14:14 )
10. For we through the Spirit, by faithfulness, are waiting for the Hope of Righteousness. (Galatians 5:5)
11. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:17)
12. The Law of Moses was given to produce righteousness and life, not to condemn the righteous:
13. It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us. (Deuteronomy 6:25)
14. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19)
15. If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. (Isaiah 48:18)
16. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (Romans 7:12)
17. All [Old Testament] scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16)
18. Though the Law produced righteousness and life in many individuals, it failed to produce righteousness and life on a national scale consistently, hence the need for God to provide a better covenant through faithfulness to Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
19. This is why Galatians 2:21 says, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
20. Paul is writing about consistent righteousness on a national scale, not individual righteousness.
21. If Paul was writing about individual righteousness, then he would be contradicting the purpose for the Law and the Hope of Righteousness
22. If Paul was writing about individual righteousness, he would be contradicting the many examples of the saints who were considered righteous because they followed the Law.

7. “If I be lifted up from the earth (crucified), I will draw all men unto me.” (John 12:32)

1. This is inconvenient because Jesus himself explains a purpose for his crucifixion that differs from the explanation commonly emphasized in Protestant theology since the Reformation.
2. That explanation is Penal Substitution Atonement (PSA), which teaches that Jesus died primarily to satisfy God’s justice by taking the punishment sinners deserved.
3. PSA has been the foundation of both Protestant and Catholic salvation theology for centuries, while the Orthodox Church rightly rejected it.
4. PSA is the only paradigm for salvation that many Christians are aware of.
5. PSA relies on wrong assumptions.
6. One of those assumptions is that God must judge every sin a person does, or in other words, that God must punish every sin we have ever done.
7. This is what we mean by viewing sin from a legal framework.
8. Jesus provides an alternative, non-legal, sin-as-sickness framework when he says that when he is “lifted up” (crucified), he will “draw all people” to himself.
9. Rather than describing a legal transaction between God and Christ, Jesus describes a healing INFLUENCE exerted upon humanity.
10. This is known as Moral Influence Atonement (MIA), which will be explained further.
11. Jesus’ willing submission to suffering reveals the character of God and the nature of true righteousness. It calls people to repentance, faithfulness, and self-sacrificial love.
12. The cross is presented as something that changes us, not something that changes God’s attitude toward us or judgment about us.
13. The word “draw” implies attraction, persuasion, and influence towards changed mind and behavior.
14. Even before he was crucified, Jesus ties discipleship to death to self: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)
15. Peter presents Christ’s suffering as an example to influence us: “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).
16. John reaches the same conclusion about Moral Influence: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16).
17. The Cross reveals what true righteousness looks like in practice: loving others more than ourselves.
18. The Cross therefore provides the greatest possible motivation and influence toward righteousness.
19. The greatest act of righteousness ever performed became the greatest influence toward righteousness ever given.
20. This fits naturally with Peter’s description of Christ’s influential mission: God sent Jesus “to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:26). The blessing is not merely forgiveness; it is transformation.
21. Throughout Scripture, salvation is consistently tied to turning from evil and doing what is right.
22. The crucified Christ is God’s greatest appeal for humanity to abandon wickedness and embrace righteousness.
23. In this sense, Jesus saves not by absorbing a punishment in our place, but by drawing people away from the very wickedness that leads to condemnation.
24. This understanding fits naturally with the rest of the Scriptures concerning salvation.
25. Of all the influences God has provided throughout history—Law, prophets, wisdom, conscience, and correction—the crucified Christ is the greatest influence towards Salvation by Being Good.
26. Remember scripture #5 which tells us why people are condemned: evil hearts and actions, not agreement with the propositions of a belief system.

8. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”  (Luke 10:25-28)

1. As hard as it may seem, even a lawyer can be saved.
2. He just needs to do something.
3. This lawyer was talking to the Savior himself, the Evangelist of Evangelists, asking how to get saved.
4. What was Jesus’ evangelistic message? Believe something or do something?
5. Jesus said, “Do this, and you shall live.”
6. If he did that, he became a “believer in Jesus”.
7. Jesus wasn’t preaching “salvation by works”; he was preaching Salvation by Being Good.
8. “Salvation by works” isn’t human effort to be saved, as is commonly misunderstood.
9. Salvation by “works” is doing the uniquely Jewish parts of the Law, such as circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, obeying food laws, tithing, etc.
10. The uniquely Jewish parts of the Law were not moral in character, so they did not affect one’s salvation.
11. It wasn’t wrong to follow the Law of Moses; for a Jew, it was one way to “love God with your whole heart.”
12. The issue Jesus, James, Paul, and others had with “works” was thinking that doing the Jewish parts of the Law was good enough for salvation while neglecting the “weightier matters of the Law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness.” (Matthew 23:23)
13. You have heard it said, by Calvinists, that we are so depraved we can’t even choose to believe the right thing unless God ordains ahead of time for a person to believe the Gospel. They call this Total Depravity.
14. The rest of us Protestants who are not Calvinists believe all humans are tainted, but not totally depraved.
15. In Jesus’ evangelistic message, he never said anything about the lawyer’s supposed “depravity” or inability to do the right thing.
16. He just told him to do the right thing.
17. Paul said, “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:10)
18. This is something anyone can do, and we are expected to make an effort to do it.
19. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will always be doing the right thing, because we won’t be harming our neighbors.
20. If we aren’t harming our neighbors, we won’t be accused of being wicked.
21. If we aren’t wicked, we will be righteous and saved.
22. This is why Jesus told the lawyer to love his neighbor to inherit eternal life.

9. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:41)

The context for Matthew 12:41:

When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he decreed:

“… let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:6-10)

1. Repentance works for salvation. It always has, and it always will.
2. Following the Law and sacrificing lambs was not required for their salvation.
3. “Faith in Jesus”, even symbolically through the lamb’s sacrifice, was not required for salvation.
4. Repentance works because of the nature of God – He is compassionate. Nothing else is required.
5. Even an evil, pagan king could understand the grace of God and pin his and his people’s hopes on God’s compassionate nature.
6. The grace of God wasn’t just for their lives in Nineveh; the Ninevites would rise in the Resurrection and be a part of the Resurrection of the Righteous to Life (the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it), while Jesus said some of his Jewish audience would be a part of the Resurrection of the Wicked to Condemnation.
7. It’s inconceivable to think God’s grace “ran out” by the time the Ninevites died, and they would rise to judge the evil Jews, only to be judged along with them and suffer the same fate. What kind of God would do that? What kind of God has grace only for us in this life but no grace after we die?
8. There is a principle that says God does not change his ways after we die. He rules with justice, love, and mercy, in this life and the next. Even after they all died, God forgave the Ninevites of their wicked ways since they repented. He didn’t withdraw the mercy they were banking on.
9. God did not judge Nineveh for another 200 years.
10. According to scripture, forgiveness is part and parcel to “justice”: “He is faithful and just (having a nature of justice) to forgive us of our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

10. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.  (Romans 2:6-8)

1. Paul quotes the Old Testament, which mentions rewards for what each has done.
2. It’s hard to say which scripture he is quoting since there are so many.
3. Paul holds out the righteous pagans as saved to provoke the unrighteous Jews to jealousy.
4. These pagans are “following Jesus” without ever having heard about him.
5. Rather than countering the message of Jesus in the Gospels, as some say, Paul confirms it.
6. Paul affirms judgment is based on conduct, not belief; Salvation by Being Good, in other words.
7. You have heard it said that man was created with an eternal soul, but that idea came from the Greek philosopher Plato, not the Scriptures.
8. Immortality and eternal life are not automatic; they are granted.
9. It’s granted to those who “do good” according to Paul, or in other words, to those who are being good.
10. The ones who are not granted eternal life but are granted “wrath and anger” are the ones who “are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil.”
11. “Following evil” is conduct, not belief.
12. “Truth” in the scriptures is never “doctrinal truth,” it’s always “true living”.
13. “Truth” is another word for “living righteously”.
14. “Self-seeking” means “selfish actions”, such as harming other people to get what we want for ourselves, such as killing for revenge or to get people out of our lives, raping women because we don’t get enough sex, and stealing because we are not satisfied with getting what we work for.
15. This distinction helps to understand the difference between the kind of selfishness we all have – and are born with – which becomes sin when we are old enough to know better, versus the kind of selfishness that the scriptures classify as “wickedness” or “evildoing”.

11. James 2:24 explicitly states, “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

1. Sola Fide, or Salvation by Faith Alone, is a hallmark of the Protestant Reformation.
2. James 2:24 is the only place in Scripture where the phrase “faith alone” appears.
3. Rather than affirming salvation by faith alone, James explicitly denies it.
4. James does not say that works merely prove a justification before men that was gained by faith.
5. James says works justify.
6. James uses Abraham as his primary example.
7. Abraham’s faithfulness was “completed” by what he did, which was to sacrifice his son. (James 2:22)
8. Abraham was not justified by merely agreeing that God would fulfill his promise even if he sacrificed his son.
9. Abraham demonstrated his faithfulness through obedience.
10. James argues that belief, or trust, by itself is insufficient because even demons believe true things about God.
11. Correct doctrine, or right belief, does not make a person righteous.
12. If having right belief alone were enough for salvation, demons would be among the safest beings in the universe.
13. James contrasts two kinds of faith: 1. Faith that includes faithfulness, and 2. Faith that does not include faithfulness
14. One is living faith; the other is dead faith.
15. The issue is what kind of faith saves.
16. James’ answer is simple: righteous action is living faith, and it saves.
17. This is entirely consistent with Jesus’ teaching that good trees produce good fruit.
18. It is also consistent with Ezekiel 18, John 5:29, Luke 10:25-28, Romans 2:6-8, and James 5:19-20.
19. Throughout Scripture, God evaluates people according to the lives they live, not merely according to the beliefs they profess.
20. James therefore presents justification as something connected to faithful obedience, not mere intellectual agreement.
21. This verse is inconvenient because it directly challenges the idea that a person can be justified while remaining unchanged.
22. James insists that genuine faithfulness always results in righteous conduct.
23. James teaches Salvation by Being Good—not because good deeds earn salvation, but because righteous living is what living faith looks like.

12. My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth of righteous living and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns the unrighteous person from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20)

1. Turning someone from the error of his way is what saves them.
2. Turning someone from the error of his way is what covers his sins, meaning it’s the reason he will be forgiven.
3. James perfectly echoes Ezekiel 18 above.
4. Both of them preach the same Gospel, even though they belong to different covenants.
5. As mentioned before, the purpose of the Cross is so that Jesus would draw people to him and give up their evil ways.

13. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faithfulness, and announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham:  “All nations will be blessed through you.” (Galatians 3:8, quoting Genesis 22:18) God raised up His servant and sent Him… to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways. (Peter preaching the fulfillment in Acts 3:26)

1. John the Baptist wasn’t the first one to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ; God first preached it to Abraham in Genesis 22:18.
2. The Gospel Abraham heard from God was that one of his descendants would bless all the nations.
3. Both Peter and Paul explain this Gospel more fully: In Acts 3:26, Peter preached, “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God… sent him… to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” Here Peter: 1. Identifies Jesus as that descendant who would bless his people, and 2. Gets more specific about the “method” by which his people will be blessed. That “method” is “turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
4. In Acts 26:20, Paul had the same message and method as Peter, explaining to the church his ministry: “I declared… that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.”
5. In Galatians 3, Paul quotes Genesis 22:18, where it says, “All nations will be blessed through you (Abraham)”, emphasizing that the Good News is: 1. God would justify. This justification was not just for Israel, but for Gentiles (all nations), and, 2. God will justify not through faith (belief) or by “works of the Law” (Jewish laws like circumcision and Sabbath keeping), but through faithfulness to Jesus.
6. It took some doing for God to convince the Apostles that the Gospel was not just for God’s Elect. See Peter’s Vision of the Sheet from Heaven in Acts 10.
7. Paul went to the Gentiles and considered himself to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. (Romans 11:13)
8. Peter was the Apostle to the Circumcision (the Jews). (Galatians 2:7-8)
9. Both Peter’s and Paul’s messages were about wicked people turning from their wicked ways.
10. This was the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy Abraham received about the one who would bless the nations. (Acts 3:25-26)
11. This blessing is also described as the Gospel of the Kingdom of God: “Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe (or be faithful to) the Gospel.’” (Mark 1:14-15)
12. The Gospel of the Kingdom is the Good News that God’s kingdom is here, and has been with us since John the Baptist, who preached repentance from evil deeds:
13. “In those days John the Baptist came preaching… ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”  (Matthew 3:1-2)
14. “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached…” (Luke 16:16)
15. That Kingdom is open to the righteous, including those who, through the influence of Jesus, turn from their wicked ways:
16. “Tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness… but the tax collectors and prostitutes believed (were faithful to) him.” (Matthew 21:31-32)
17. “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:22)
18. Of all that God has done to bring about righteousness and Christlikeness, Jesus has been the greatest influence.
19. That influence towards good has been because of Jesus’ willing submission to unjust crucifixion at the hands of evil people, demonstrating God’s and his sacrificial love towards humanity.

To summarize Galatians 3:8, Genesis 22:18, and Acts 3:26:

• The Kingdom was announced with repentance by John and Jesus. (Matt 3:2; Mark 1:15)
• The Kingdom was preached to all. (Luke 16:16)
• The Apostles’ divided mission – some to Jews, some to Gentiles. (Gal 2:7–8; Rom 11:13)
• The core message is to turn from wickedness. (Acts 3:26; 26:20)
• This fulfills the promise to Abrahyam. (Acts 3:25–26)
• Entry to the Kingdom is through righteousness.
• Repentance is needed for the unrighteous. (Matt 21:31–32; 5:20)
• “Faith in Jesus” is NOT enough for salvation.

What About Salvation by Faith?

Three New Testament scriptures quote Habakkuk 2:4, which says:

“The just shall live by faithfulness.”

• Many translations translate this verse as, “The just shall live by faith”, but the Hebrew word never means “faith”; it always means “faithfulness”.
• Protestant translators are biased towards translating it as “faith” to keep in line with Protestant tradition.

These three New Testament scriptures, two by Paul and one in Hebrews, which may have been written by Paul, quote Habakkuk 2:4. Since the Greek word used in these verses can mean either faith or faithfulness (and is translated as faithfulness when context demands it), many translators translate it as “faith”, because that fits their preconceived Protestant Soteriology. Here, I translate it as “faithfulness” to be consistent with the verse in Habakkuk from which they quote:

• Romans 1:17 – For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faithfulness from first to last,  just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faithfulness.”
• Galatians 3:11 – Clearly, no one who relies on the Law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faithfulness.”
• Hebrews 10:38 – “But my righteous one will live by faithfulness,” and I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.
• The context of each of these verses is about faithfulness, not faith or belief. It is poor scholarship to translate that Greek word as “faith”.

With the rest of the uses of the Greek pistis word group in these three chapters, it would make no sense to translate any of them as “faith” once you translate the ones in these verses as “faithfulness.” To do so would cause inconsistency and confusion.

Like a rock thrown in a pond and the waves radiating outward, or like a series of dominoes falling after the first one falls, translating pistis as “faithfulness” not only affects the Soteriology we derive from those verses and in those chapters those verses are in, but it also affects the theology in the books those chapters are in (Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews) but then also the rest of the books in the New Testament.

Fortunately, that brings our understanding in line with all the rest of the scriptures regarding Soteriology, specifically Salvation by Being Good.