mailmandan,
Christ's finished work of redemption is sufficient to save every human being on this earth, but not every human being receives the gift of eternal life through faith. A gift must be received and is not automatically given to those who refuse to receive it through faith (Ephesians 2:8).
but now you have changed the terminolgy but still confused.
Christ finished work of redemption is not only sufficient for every thing in this world, it actually saved everything in this world from death and sin. Eph 2:8 is NOT addressing eternal life, but it is addressing salvation. Which is why it is not up to us, no works can defeat death and sin.
However, part of that gift is that one shall recieve eternal life through faith. All faith is doing is getting us in the door, into Christ. It simply differentiates and makes the difference between a believer and an unbeliever. Faith has no content.
But eternal life must be accomplished with God which we do with that faith, belief IN Christ. We are to perfect ourselves as human beings which is all works. Works were created for us to do. Eph 2:10. They are the prerequiste to achieve eternal life with Christ.
Faith, faith only does not grant eternal life absolutely. It permits one to enter so that one can be saved and can be perfected, and thus attain eternal life absolutely.
You are believing in the very opposite of the deception that Satan used on Adam and Eve. The created purpose of man was to attain to the Likeness of God, maturity, perfection and attain immortality. Satan told Eve that they could do that by eating the fruit and attain the same thing, which meant by themselves, they did not need God to help them be like Him.
Now, Satan has you believing that you don't need to do anything to perfect yourself as a human being because God supposedly has already done this for you which you call salvation.
When in Truth in both instances, the work was to be done together to be perfected.
Perfected then saved through faith or saved through faith then perfected? You put the cart before the horse.
It is neither.
Therefore your confusion.
Salvation is from death and sin. Something no man could accomplish which is why Christ was needed in the first place. But man has never had a problem being united with God. That was the reason we were created, to be in union with God, but man was created good, not perfect. He was to attain in Adam's case immortality.
The faith part merely gets us in the door. Adam fell out of a relationship, we also need to first get back into the relationship and that is what faith accomplishes, Justification by faith, made acceptable to God. That is NOT attaining eternal life. Now that we are IN Christ, in a relationship with HIm, just as Adam was in the beginning, we are to perfect ourselves as human beings and IF we are faithful, endure to the end, we shall be given absolutely eternal life with Christ.
If we have salvation do we have eternal life? If we have eternal life do we have salvation? Can we have one without the other?
NO, you have simply been saved from death and sin. Which constitutes the fall of man through Adam. That is not what we were created to do, save ourselves from death and sin. We were given salvation from death and sin,in order for God and man to be reunited again in a union, but also for an eternity if we work with Him to perfect ourselves.
You can have one without the other. Unbelievers also have salvation from death and sin. You are not saved form death and sin as a potential believer. Christ needed to defeat Satan as well, who held the world captive through the power of death and sin. It precluded God ever having a relationship with man and surely not for an eternity.
You are dead wrong here. In James 2:19, nobody is questioning the fact that the demons "believe" that there is "one God" (and so does Satan) but where in this passage does it say that demons believe/trust in Jesus Christ for salvation?
Actually it is opposite. They believe that Christ defeated them by giving salvation to the world. But that has nothing to do with attaining eternal life. Eternal life is about working with God through faith.
YOur explanation is that you trust in Christ for salvation and nothing more in needed from you. Satan does not need anything done more to defeat him either. But neither is addressing attaining eternal life which is why Christ saved you,gave you salvation from death and sin.
The word "believe" can describe "mere mental assent" (James 2:19) or also include "trust and reliance" in Christ for salvation (Acts 16:31). Saving belief is more than just an "intellectual acknowledgment" to the existence and historical facts about Christ. Saving belief/faith completely trusts in Christ's finished work of redemption as the all sufficient means of our salvation (Romans 1:16; 3:24). Simply believing "mental assent" that the death, burial and resurrection of Christ "happened" and "trusting solely in what happened to receive eternal" life are two different things.
This is a very confused statement. Saving faith has nothing to do with actually trusting in Christ's finished work. You have it whether you trust or not, just as an unbeliever has it, and he does not need to believe.
Believing is that you actually believe that Christ is the Savior of the world. That He is who He says He is, and thus you can trust HIM to be able to work with you toward attaining eternal life. Then you have all of His promises to assist etc, etc, but NEVER is there a promise that man has a guaranteed existence or eternal life just because he believed.
If I may, permit me to divide up the elements of the difference between "eternal life" and salvation.
Adam was created good, not perfect. He was to work with God in this creation which is also a gift to man. We were to use it for his glory and work to bring creation and oneself back to God as a living sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. If Adam had remained faithful he would have attained immortality. Eternal, perfected existence with God.
OK. Adam failed in this vocation. Satan decieved and took man captive through death. (Lets leave adams actual sin out of the picture as it has no direct relevance to us) It was the condemnation of that sin, namely death, physical death, the cessation of the human existence as well as the world. Decay, corruption and death was the end of man and the world. Each would be dissolved into dust. Well, that kinda precluded God ever having an eternal relationship with man.
One note, it is death that is the primary problem for man. It ended any eternal existence, but it is death that makes us sin. I Cor 15:56.
Second note, God, of course knew that Adam would sin. In his great love, mercy and justice God permitted Satan to capture man through death by using his nature. Because man is so intrinsically connected to the material world, the world was also effected by that death. Christ also knew that Christ would be the solution and the solution would also be accomplished through the nature of man. Christ was Incarnated, assumed our fallen mortal nature, and by death, defeated both death and sin, the power of Satan through His resurrection.
NOw, that is the gift of salvation from death and sin that is given to all men, the world.
Now, God can again have an eternal relationship with man, now and in eternity. The sacrifice for sin, enabled God to forgive man of his sins, since man will still sin, and to remain in Christ, man cannot have sin. To be perfected means to be able to sin less, doing the work of Christ who is our perfect model and example. As long as you are fulfiliing the law of Christ, love, you will abide IN HIM. But when love stops, sin is at the door. If sin becomes our mode of living again we have fallen from that relationship. One needs to be faithful to the end, do the opposite of Adam and attain eternal life with Christ. All men will be raised(because of His resurrection - giving life to the world) in the last day to stand in judgement to give an account of what they did with the Gift of salvation and God's call to union with Him.
That in a nutshell is salvation and eternal life. It is the created purpose of God in creating man,
Man fell precluding eternity and any relationsip.
Salvation from the fall, and reunion with God, and doing what we were created to do to attain eternal life with Christ.
That is a very elementary synopsis to say the least, but it puts scripture in perspective.
Who said that I am not working "out" my salvation? (which is not the same thing as working for your salvation). You seem to think that you are daily constantly working for your salvation. What are you trusting in to save you? Christ's finished work of redemption or your works? If you were standing at the gates of Heaven right now and Jesus Christ asked you why He should let you into Heaven, what would be your exact answer?
Again, see above. again a misunderstanding of scriptural terminology.
Now, you don't need to believe this, but this is what scripture has meant from the beginning, as the Apostles taught it to the early Church.