OUR SALVATION IN CHRIST JESUS


Salvation is what God did for us through the finished works of Jesus Christ. It is the free gift of God, pure and simple; it cannot be earned, deserved or merited by one's efforts or works (Romans 4:4-5). Salvation implies a Savior; Jesus the Christ is the exclusive savior of mankind. Jesus is the Christ because He was designated by the Father from the foundation of the world to occupy the office of savior and the reason why He is called the Anointed of God. Salvation is a gift God offers Himself exclusively to humanity and must be received without works on our part. Jesus Christ as our savior means we trust Him for our salvation i.e. by virtue of His person, His work is all sufficient. “The mystery of our salvation lies in the inseparable union of God and man in Jesus Christ. This is known as the doctrine of the hypostatic union whereby in Jesus the true nature of God and the true nature of man are indivisibly united in His one person. Al of God and all of man thus joined together in His one person, Jesus Christ mediates the things of God to humanity and the things of humanity to God" Dr. Shawn Smith in his book Delivered? An Exegetical Investigation. pg. 30
" Christ on the one hand is one being with God the Father, in the communion of the Holy Spirit so that what He did, God did for He was none other than God Himself acting thus in our humanity. On the other hand, He is so one with us through His incarnation that when He was crucified and died we died with Him; for He did not die for Himself but for us, and He did not die alone but we died in Him as those whom He had bound to Himself, inseparable from him by virtue of His incarnation (1Timothy 2:5, 2 Corinthians 5:14, 19, Roman 6:6-7). When Jesus Christ rose again, we were equally raised in Him, and when He presented us also before God so that we are accepted of God and unconditionally received in him once and for all ( Ephesians 2:5-6, Colossians 1:22, Colossians 2:13). In effecting reconciliation, God acted from the side of humanity as man. The whole work of our salvation depends upon the fact that on person acts both from the side of God and from the side of man. Therefore our salvation is internally connected to the person of Christ. That is, we are saved through our placement in Him and by His Life in us (Romans 5:10). What Jesus did for us is efficacious because of who salvation in Christ comes into focus with multiple facets including justification, redemption, adoption, sanctification and glorification." Dr. Shawn Smith; Delivered? An Exegetical Investigation. pg. 32-33.
Brethren in Christ, in trusting Jesus Christ as our Savior, we trust that He has made us irreversibly righteous, that He has removed you from the effect and the influence of the curse of the Law and has blessed us with the blessing of Abraham, making us heirs of this cosmos. We trust that it's His nature that is in us, His genetic implant, that produces the fruit of His communion with His Father. We trust that He is the one who keeps us in eternal security, irrespective of our weaknesses and failures. God is satisfied in us based on the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We are free in the Son of God Jesus Christ and in Him we're free indeed. The more we know who Jesus Christ is for us, in us and as us, as our Mediator, only then will we become accurately acquainted with His saving work in our place, on our behalf and in our benefit.
 Blessed with all blessings in Christ Jesus!


Comments