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"Who has such a 'total commitment' ?
Would not such one be perfectly obedient ?
Know of anyone who is ?"

Good questions, Quester. Frankly though, I don't know of anyone who has faith even the size of a mustard seed, so perfection on the part of the believer may not be the appropriate standard by which to judge our theological formulations. I think all of us have been totally committed to Christ at one point or another in our lives, and most of us are committed to Christ right now, so it seems like a good place to start. As for perfect obedience, I didn't use that term myself, I simply referred to an obedience to the Will of Christ, and that would involve turning to God for mercy and forgiveness when we sin. That would be true obedience, wouldn't it? Judas and Peter both abandon Christ, to a certain extent, and Christ is fully aware that they will do so. Yet Peter goes to Christ after his fall and is re-habilitated, whereas Judas loses all hope and destroys himself. Which one was obedient to Christ? Frankly, it's the one who loved Christ, and he is the one who repented and went to Christ.

I would be happy with a formulation that said we are saved by Grace through faith, hope and love, or we are saved by Grace through a faith that works in love, but apparently it's a deal breaker when we go beyond the formulation "we are saved by faith alone." Given 1 Corinthians 13:2 and James 2:24, this puts Christians who do not hold to that formulation at pains when it comes to the issue of reaching agreement with our fellow Christians on this point, that we may, in accordance with Christ's prayer, all be one.

For now, we'll just have to work with what we have. Do you believe in the formulation, "we are saved by faith alone"? If so, what do you understand by the word "faith" in that statement?