Is Faith a Work?

This is going to be written lazily.

Some Reformed thinkers try to defend the idea that faith is not a work by saying that "it's a gift." The idea is that being a gift and being a work are exclusive options.

But that's not quite right.  All of our works are gifts. So something can be a work and a gift.

WLC and some Arminian ilk also try to hold that faith is not a work.  They defend this claim along different lines than that given above, given that they think faith is a synergistic product. WLC has said that Reformed thinkers tend to think of faith as a sort of virtuous deed, or act, or something that is worthy--and that this is why they hold that it must be produced by God, for otherwise it'd be an example of us working for our salvation.   WLC responds that faith is merely an acknowledgment, passive in its nature, not a work or virtue.  

Now as Christians we *must* hold to some sort of mutual exclusion between faith and works, as Paul's writings assert it repeatedly.  So what do I think? What's the best way to maintain Paul's dichotomy? 

I think WLC is *more* right.  Faith can be contrasted with works insofar as faith is a passive, internal recognition/acceptance.  Faith's passive nature allows for its contrast to works, and not its being a gift.  So the Reformed answer along those lines just seems wrong to me.

Still, I think WLC is wrong to think that faith isn't a commendable trait.  Now, I don't think he'd just outright say that "faith is not commendable."  But this is the struggle of the Arminian system; if you say faith is commendable and that it is not entirely a gift of God, then we have works-based salvation.  If you hold instead that faith is not commendable, you run counter to Christian common-sense.

That last paragraph may seem contradictory with what I said in the earlier paragraphs.  I again appealed to the givenness of faith as excluding it from being a work; something I rejected a moment ago.  To disentangle this, we need to see that there are two tiers to this:  First; all of works *and* our faith are gifts from God for the Calvinist.  If we, synergistically, offer something to our salvation then salvation isn't entirely from God.  That's the level on which I think the Arminian conception falters.  On the second level, in the believer himself, faith is passive and is contrasted with active works.  Faith is not a work in that sense, either.  I think the Arminians can properly maintain this second level, but not the first.  And I think that Paul appeals to both levels to safeguard the pure graciousness of salvation.