Understanding Biblical Salvation

Here are some of the key points of Biblical Salvation.

1) “For by grace you have been saved through faith," (Ephesians 2:8) teaches our salvation is through or by way of faith. Any faith? Nope, only our individuals faith in Christ Jesus, and only if credited as righteousness by God. Thus some individuals, in their unregenerate state seek God some of the time, such as when they put their trust in Christ.

2) The lost cannot do anything to merit or earn salvation, as our faith is a filthy rag to God. When a person puts their trust in Christ, that does not earn or merit or in any way contribute to God's gracious salvation. Salvation depends of God alone. (Romans 9:16)

3) Our faith is based on God's revelatory grace, but God crediting our faith as righteousness is a pure gift of grace. (Romans 4:23-25)

4) The work of the Holy Spirit is to convict humanity of sin, righteousness, and judgement. Christ's birth, sinless life, death, resurrection and coming judgment convicts humanity because of testimony of the New Testament. (John 16:8)

5) Faith alone refers to faithful faith, the faith from which faithfulness flows, or using James illustration, live faith not dead faith. Thus actual faith, of the kind God might choose to credit as righteousness, includes a commitment to stop going our own way and to strive to follow Christ upon the paths of righteousness. (1 Peter 2:21)

6) The call to repent and believe is simultaneous, not sequential. Two sides of the same coin. You don't believe if you don't repent, and you don't repent if you don't believe. (Mark 1:15)

7) Yes, eternal life begins when we are made "alive" together with Christ. And our spiritual eternal life is a prelude to our bodily redemption and physical eternal life. (Ephesians 2:5) (Romans 8:23)

 

Being saved by grace through faith necessitates our faith existing before being chosen individually for salvation. Other wise the verse would read "saved by grace then given faith..." 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says individuals were chosen for salvation by utilizing our faith in the truth. Thus a conditional election!!