Faith or Salvation: Which Comes First?

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Does salvation come before confession of sin, remorse, repentance, faith and obedience?  Or does Christianity teach exactly the opposite? Reformed theology suggests man is so totally depraved that he cannot engage in: until he is saved by the monergistic work of the Holy Spirit.  In other words, faith is the consequence of salvation not the cause of salvation; you must be born again before you can believe.  Traditional Southern Baptist, Wesleyan/Arminian theology reverses the order and asserts that the depraved man will be led by the Prevenient Grace of God to a point in time when he will either confess sin with remorse in his heart, repent, believe, seek to be obedient and subsequently receive the gift of salvation or he will resist and reject the Prevenient Grace of God; you must believe before you can be born again.  Wesleyan/Arminians assert that: But is there any single passage of Scripture that appears to promote one view over the other?  At least one such passage appears in the New Testament.  Here is a summary of events surrounding that passage and a suggested exegesis.
Jesus began His ministry after returning from the temptation in the wilderness.  For several months He performed miracles and taught in Galilee.  The consequences of his miracles were clearly seen but His teaching was hard even for His disciples.  One day, while standing on a rise above a plain filled with thousands of people, He delivered the Sermon on the Mount.  Nestled in this sermon are eight terse statements we now call “The Beatitudes.”  Is it possible that the Beatitudes are like steps on a staircase which Christ has arranged in the exact sequence to provide a roadmap for the salvation message?  Is it possible that each step on the staircase builds on the foundation of the previous steps? Before examining the eight steps on the staircase of The Beatitudes, let us first examine critical words in the text.  The word “beatitude” itself comes from the Latin word “beatus” meaning blessed, happy, fortunate or blissful.  In the late fourth century, beatus was the word Jerome chose for his translation of the word “makarios” from the Greek. The English word “blessed” was chosen by translators in the seventeenth century.  It meant something consecrated to or belonging to God.  While most English Bibles use “blessed,” some modern translations prefer “happy.”  Unfortunately, “happy” isn’t good enough.  If you don’t like “blessed,” there is not a single English word to take its place.  You might use a phrase like, “on the right track” or “going in the right direction” but “happy” is too shallow.  In the context of The Beatitudes, “blessed” is best interpreted as “on the right track.”  Here are the Beatitudes (Mat 5:3-10): Here is an interpretation of the Beatitudes: First, the sequence of Beatitudes indicates the “right track,” which is revealed as a path of ordered steps on a staircase illuminated by God.  Second, the ordered sequence of steps is: confession of sin, remorse, repentance, faith and obedience.  These are, in fact, the steps you must take to receive the great gift of salvation.
The eight Beatitudes appear to be an instruction manual for receiving the gift of salvation.  Follow these steps in order and you will be saved.  If salvation came first, we would need only a single verse: “Blessed are the elect, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com http://www.articlesfactory.com/author/Bruce%20McLaughlin.html  .