You asked, "WHAT saves us?" And I say to you as it is written that "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." (Eph. 2[;:8)

Ah - so we will not die? Don't stop there. Does Christ's death save us? No. Rom_5:10 We were God's enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God's friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ's life! Mar_8:34-35 Then Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him. "If any of you want to come with me," he told them, "you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. 35 For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for me and for the gospel, you will save it. Christ died for us, but not instead of us. We are saved by His life. Gal_2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life, and His life becomes our life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah. {COL 311.4}

APL,
I'm not asking about Christ's life. I'm asking about His death. The passage says:

He stood as the substitute for man, who was under sentence as a traitor, a rebel. Hence Christ died as a malefactor, in the place of the traitors.{17MR 340.1}

What does EGW mean when she says that Christ died as a substitute for man? She's very clear here - He died in the place of the traitors.

If you read Ephesians 2, you would not ask, "faith in WHAT?" You would ask instead, "faith in WHO?"