Bible Verses About Grace and Salvation by Faith vs. Works - Colossians 1: 27 -28
“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.”
Colossians 1: 27 – 28
A good portion of the New Testament is comprised of letters, written by Paul to churches. Colossians is one of them. Others include Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Thessalonians. As we read through the letters, we see that one of Paul’s major pushes was reiteration/emphasis of Gospel fundamentals. In today’s verse we see him pound home the name of Christ. Salvation, after all, requires a savior. Can’t lose sight of that.
Although the Christian church was in its relative infancy, Paul already had grave concerns that believers were beginning to stray from the Gospel message. Man, in his characteristic way, had begun to make edits to what was originally sound and without flaw. Inclusions and exclusions. Members of the early church had been brought up in a former tradition which emphasized prideful adherence to the law, so they had a tendency for fashioning the Gospel message into a works based covenant as opposed to a free gift based on grace through faith: by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.
And we have insisted over time in self-assigning the role of co-contributors to our salvation. God does His part, we do ours, and all is good. Paul saw the same thing going on, and worked diligently in his writing to keep the church on track. On track with the pure and unadulterated Gospel, which tells us salvation is a gift of God. A gift, by definition, which is unearned by the recipient. 2000 years later, we see many different twists, turns, additions to and subtractions from the Gospel. How can we identify what is legitimate? Prayer and Bible study are two good places to start.
