All salvation is by the grace of God. Not by anything we do. Not by our choice.
Adam was the Son of God. Luke 3.
When he sinned and lied to God about his responsibility for eating of the forbidden fruit, blaming her for his disobedience, and God cursed them for disobeying his first commandment, the holy spirit within Adam departed. Adam had a spirit still, but without the holy spirit within he was considered 'spiritually dead'. Meaning, there was a separation from God who is holy spirit.
However, and many of us forget this, in God all things are created, all that exist are both of and from God. Colossians 1.
Therefore, we are never truly separated from God because our very being exists in God, and is of and from God.
"No one comes to the Father but
through me."
When Jesus, Immanuel (God with us), was God his teachings then become very clear when considering that single verse from John 14. God is the way, the truth, and the life.
Realizing we are temples of that holy spirit , 1 Corinthians 6, that holy spirit returns to us when we accept Jesus as saving us from the illusion, the trappings, of this material world where Satan is let to be lord. And this is not of our own choice or doing but it is the work of God's holy spirit.
John 6:65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Don't believe you are spiritually dead. You have a
spirit and a
soul. Your spirit is made alive to the things of God when he as holy spirit enters in. Your soul is that which is the "skeleton" you might say, that is also from God but that is the vehicle by which you as a fleshly being, made in the image and likeness of God always, reside in this world.
You are
eternal, no matter what because you are of and from the source of all that exists.
When you die you return to God. And your flesh returns to the dust from which it sprang. Ecclesiastes 12:7
The grave, is the death of the soul. That vehicle of the flesh. It isn't the end of all that you are however. Because when all that you are is of and from God, all that you are returns to all that is God. Which is all that is, was, or ever shall be. Remember be ye holy as I am holy. 1 Peter 1
If you never were something, you cannot be implored to remember your place as something.
You are holy because you are more than that illusion this world imparts. Veniality. Materialism. Illusions, all.
What is salvation really? Realizing all that. You cannot consciously be aware in this life of that what is more than this life, if you are not open. (Behold I stand at the door and knock)
No one
comes to the father but
through me.
Jesus was God. God was Jesus.
Revelation 3:20
The door is a portal of awareness. And God knew before he created anything at all who would be open to his grace because he made it so. That's why there is no doorknob depicted in that traditional image. Parables. Figurative language.
The door is your consciousness. There are two sides. One is aware and active in this material world. On the other side is the immensity of the spiritual realm. God comes to the door because he knew your address before the foundation of the world.
What is salvation? Realizing you are more than "this".
You are holy, born of and from God. Act like it.