Thoughts on Salvation
Thoughts on Salvation
Colossians 2:13–14
"And when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings, having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." (NASB 2020)
When "we" or "you" were dead in your sins means that this is speaking to those who had once been lost in unbelief, but now are saved. They were dead, but now they are alive.
He has already forgiven "us" (we who have placed our faith in Him) of all our sins. Every one we ever did, are currently doing, and will ever do.
He (Jesus) canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees. That's the Law of Moses, which told the Hebrews that if they held up their end of the bargain by living right, God would bless them. Jesus nailed that to the cross and took it out of the way completely. Like the Hebrew nation, we could never perform our end of that deal, so He took it upon Himself to perform it for us and gave us the credit for it.
Those who reject this plan and think instead that they can somehow manage to be good enough to deserve eternal life do not benefit from this. John 3:36 makes this clear, "The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (NASB 2020)
Some have asked, whether the act of putting one’s faith in Him is different than taking His word that one’s sins were nailed to the cross.
My answer is that the two are exactly the same. Taking God at His word that your sins were nailed to the cross IS putting your faith in Him.
Rather than saying that people are already forgiven, and belief applies that forgiveness to them, scripture tells us that people were spiritually dead, as we read in Colossians 2:13 above, and the death and resurrection of Jesus made life available to all who will accept it. (see John 3:14-18)
2 Corinthians 5:18–21 says this is what happened, "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (NASB 2020)
When Jesus died, God was reconciling the world to Himself and not counting people's sins against them. This took out of the way the condemnation brought by the fact that we have all violated the written code (the Law of God). It meant that conduct was not the issue between us and God. It provided forgiveness.
Reconciliation is a two-way street, however. God has reconciled all people to Himself, and He doesn't count their sins against them. But notice that the passage goes on to say that He has given us the ministry of reconciliation and made us His ambassadors. We're told that this means we are to appeal to those around us to "be reconciled to God."
That's salvation. If people will decide to take God at His word, if they will believe Him about this, they receive forgiveness and eternal life. They are reborn. Placed into Christ. Made righteous and acceptable to God.
If, on the other hand, people decide not to trust God's word, they have refused reconciliation. Having refused His gift, they remain incompatible with Him and unacceptable, or as we read in John 3:36 above, God's wrath remains on them. They are still dead in their trespasses and sins.
