Does St John Chrysostom really teach that faith in Christ alone is not enough to save a man? Yes he does. In his tenth sermon on the Gospel of John he writes the following:
For there is no small fear, lest, having sometime defiled that beautiful robe by our after sloth and transgressions, we be cast out from the inner room and bridal chamber, like the five foolish virgins, or him who had not on a wedding garment. Matthew 25; Matthew 22 He too was one of the guests, for he had been invited; but because, after the invitation and so great an honor, he behaved with insolence towards Him who had invited him, hear what punishment he suffers, how pitiable, fit subject for many tears. For when he comes to partake of that splendid table, not only is he forbidden the least, but bound hand and foot alike, is carried into outer darkness, to undergo eternal and endless wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Therefore, beloved, let not us either expect that faith is sufficient to us for salvation; for if we do not show forth a pure life, but come clothed with garments unworthy of this blessed calling, nothing hinders us from suffering the same as that wretched one. It is strange that He, who is God and King, is not ashamed of men who are vile, beggars, and of no repute, but brings even them of the cross ways to that table; while we manifest so much insensibility, as not even to be made better by so great an honor, but even after the call remain in our old wickedness, insolently abusing the unspeakable lovingkindness of Him who has called us. For it was not for this that He called us to the spiritual and awful communion of His mysteries, that we should enter with our former wickedness; but that, putting off our filthiness, we should change our raiment to such as becomes those who are entertained in palaces. But if we will not act worthily of that calling this no longer rests with Him who has honored us, but with ourselves; it is not He that casts us out from that admirable company of guests, but we cast out ourselves.
Elsewhere in this sermon he writes the following about Paul's conversion:
Consider; “He came to His own,” not for His personal need, (for, as I said, the Divinity is without wants,) but to do good unto His own people. Yet not even so did His own receive Him, when He came to His own for their advantage, but repelled Him, and not this only, but they even cast Him out of the vineyard, and slew Him. Yet not for this even did He shut them out from repentance, but granted them, if they had been willing, after such wickedness as this, to wash off all their transgressions by faith in Him, and to be made equal to those who had done no such thing, but are His special friends. And that I say not this at random, or for persuasion's sake, all the history of the blessed Paul loudly declares. For when he, who after the Cross persecuted Christ, and had stoned His martyr Stephen by those many hands, repented, and condemned his former sins, and ran to Him whom he had persecuted, He immediately enrolled him among His friends, and the chiefest of them, having appointed him a herald and teacher of all the world, who had been “a blasphemer, and persecutor, and injurious.”
What Chrysostom is saying is that even those who rejected Christ were not shut out from him so long as they repented and turned to Christ. As an example he uses Paul who he says repented of his sin of persecuting the Church and then Christ "enrolled him among His friends." But this is not what Acts says happens. In Acts Paul is going on his way to persecute the Church when he is struck down by a powerful vision of Jesus Christ. It is only then when confronted by Christ that he sees the error of his ways and repents. He did not run to Christ but Christ turned to him. Chrysostom has this incident totally backwards.
From these two passages it would seem that salvation is based on our effort as well as God's grace. But a littler late in Homily 14 he writes the following:
After having said, “Of His fullness have all we received,” he adds, “and grace for grace.” For by grace the Jews were saved: “I chose you,” says God, “not because you were many in number, but because of your fathers.” (Deut 7:7, LXX.) If now they were chosen by God not for their own good deeds, it is manifest that by grace they obtained this honor. And we too all are saved by grace, but not in like manner; not for the same objects, but for objects much greater and higher. The grace then that is with us is not like theirs. For not only was pardon of sins given to us, (since this we have in common with them, for all have sinned,) but righteousness also, and sanctification, and sonship, and the gift of the Spirit far more glorious and more abundant. By this grace we have become the beloved of God, no longer as servants, but as sons and friends. Wherefore he says, “grace for grace.” Since even the things of the law were of grace, and the very fact of man being created from nothing, (for we did not receive this as a recompense for past good deeds, how could we, when we even were not? But from God who is ever the first to bestow His benefits,) and not only that we were created from nothing, but that when created, we straightway learned what we must and what we must not do, and that we received this law in our very nature, and that our Creator entrusted to us the impartial rule of conscience, these I say, are proofs of the greatest grace and unspeakable lovingkindness. And the recovery of this law after it had become corrupt, by means of the written (Law), this too was the work of grace. For what might have been expected to follow was, that they who falsified the law once given should suffer correction and punishments; but what actually took place was not this, but, on the contrary, an amending of our nature, and pardon, not of debt, but given through mercy and grace. For to show that it was of grace and mercy, hear what David says; “The Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed; He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel” Psalm 103:6-7: and again; “Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will He give lawsto them that are in the way.” Psalm 25:8
Now he says not that our good deeds or pure life saves us but that we were chosen by grace. "By this grace we have become the beloved of God, no longer as servants, but as sons and friends."
What does he mean? Is this a contradiction? It seems not necessarily so.
In the first instance he is talking about maintaining our salvation. If we do not have a pure life then we defile the garments unworthy of our calling. We defile the robe of righteousness granted unto us by grace. In the second instance Chrysostom is talking about the beginning of our salvation. It is by grace that God grants us to become his sons and friends.
But if the beginning is all of grace then why is the rest of it not so? Why does any of our salvation depend on our purity of life? Who can even with a straight face say he has lived a pure life when all men are unclean before the Holy God? Even Isaiah, an eminently holy man, cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
So there does seem to be a contradiction in Chrsyostom's thinking regarding salvation.
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