Saved by the sacrifice of Jesus to be Holy

There are two major theological mistakes or deficiencies in our churches today. It's prevalent in churches this understanding that Christians are reconciled to God through their faith. But as we see in Colossians 1:22 and many other texts, the reason for our reconciliation is the atoning death of Christ. Faith is this Spirit-given assurance that Jesus's death was for my sins, and for this reason, now I have peace with God and can have a relationship with him.

And this is important because it gives us the correct understanding of our salvation. Our salvation was accomplished more than 2,000 years ago on that cross. The record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands was nailed to the cross (Col 2:14). Now, the Spirit applies this salvation that was conquered on the cross to our lives in our lifetime - in His appointed time - and faith becomes then the assurance that we are reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Jesus in our behalf. The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Rm 8:16) - and not sons of disobedience and children of wrath as we used to be by birth (Eph 2:2-3).

So, your salvation is not something that is pending (not finished), depending on your acceptance or rejection of the gift. If Jesus died for you, if your sins were nailed to the cross, you are saved, and salvation will be "manifested" in your life - starting with your positive response to the gospel proclamation through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Now, the second theological issue, which might even be a consequence of the prior, is that people think they can have Jesus as saviour without having Him as Lord. And I say a consequence because, as the first issue, it seems to come from an unbalanced emphasis on human responsibility without giving the correct weight to God's sovereignty in salvation. People think having Jesus as Lord is somewhat optional, as we are saved by faith alone. So, our obedience and submission to Him as master is somewhat optional or unnecessary for salvation. The problem with this way of thinking is that it overlooks the fact that the very purpose of our salvation - or reconciliation - as we see in Colossians 1:22 is to be presented before God holy, blameless and above reproach. In other words, we are saved to live a life of obedience to Jesus. So, even though your obedience is not what saves you, this salvation when applied to your life, will result in allegiance to your Saviour and King, Jesus Christ.

All the honour and glory be to God, who reconciled us to Himself to a life of holiness, fully dedicated to Him and truly abundant.

Nino Marques.