I was attempting to discuss this on another board, but I never got an answer so I am asking it here....please advise. Thanks
Is the Lord Jesus Christ the one and only mediator (i.e. means, medium, instrument) of salvation, or is salvation mediated through the agency of gospel preaching, the sinner’s exercise of faith and repentance, or participation in the sacraments?
Great Question!
Of course Jesus is the only mediator. 1 Timothy 2:5
But does Christ's mediation start and end with Him becoming the propitiation or means of salvation for the whole world? No.
The idea is not only that He provides the propitiation for our past sins when we are baptized into Christ, but also that He continues to continuously propitiate our sins from then on. So unlike the High Priest who would sprinkle those with animal blood, to achieve a temporary atonement for sins, where the sinner would need to be sprinkled again and again, Christ's mediation is once for all, past, present and future.
Thus we are dependent on Jesus to provide our ongoing propitiation for our sins, after we are in Christ. So we are to be thankful for what He did, but also for what He does.
Salvation refers to more than one thing. When we are placed spiritually in Christ we are made alive together with Christ, and we undergo the circumcision of Christ where our body of flesh is removed (our sin burden) and arise in Christ holy and blameless and perfect. But then we stumble, and so we sin, but the fount of living water washes us continually so that the penalty of sin does not accrue to us. This "positional" (in Christ) sanctification occurs at conversion, when we are created and born anew.
However, another part of Salvation is called Progressive Sanctification, and this occurs during the time we physically live on earth after conversion. In this part of salvation we grow more like Christ, and if we build with stuff of eternal value, we accrue rewards, such that we enter heaven abundantly. If we do not build with stuff God rewards, then we still enter heaven, but as one escaping from a fire.
Finally, the third part of Salvation refers to our adoption at Christ's second coming where we are raised in glorified bodies.
So when someone says we play no part in our salvation, they may not be referring to God crediting our faith as righteousness, but to God alone placing us in Christ and causing us to be born anew. And they may not be referring to us either earning rewards or failing to earn rewards, through faithful service to our Lord and Master.
