So here is my question: Is salvation a miracle? I mean, when a person is saved for eternity because they believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, is that a miracle? Before you answer, let me tell you what I mean by the word “miracle”. A miracle is an event originating from a source beyond or apart from any human effort or intervention, or even understanding. A miracle has its effects among humans or upon a certain human, but does not come from that human or any other. So what do you think? Is salvation a miracle or not?

I must confess that for years I was taught and believed that salvation was not a miracle. Of course, no one said specifically that it was not a miracle, but they implied it because I was told in no uncertain terms that believing in Jesus Christ was a conscious decision. I was told that I possessed faith, and that I needed to place my faith in Jesus Christ. But I am writing this to tell you that to believe this is to proclaim salvation by works rather than by grace. The moment we include human activity or efforts in our description of something–anything–we are not talking about miracles.

I realize there are things that take place in this world all the time that humans are involved with and that we call miracles, but they are not. The miraculous sports plays and unbelievable upsets are not truely miracles. But they are so surprizing that we look for words to describe the emotions they invoke. Miracle is one of those words that is often misused in this manner. Some of our human inventions, our surgical accomplishements etc, are all examples of nonmiracles, though I am not denying they may be “great” moments in human history.

The truth is, there are only two kinds of miracles: those done by God and those done by Satan. In both cases the terms of the definition are met because humans are not the actual force behind what happens, though they may be affected by what happens.

So the question comes before you again. Is salvation a miracle or not? You answer implies a great deal about who you think God is, who you think you are, and what you think Christian living is all about. More on that next time.–Pastor Scott

Eph 1:4 For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.

Let me begin by saying that Scripture must interpret Scripture. In any faithful analysis of the Bible, it must be true that the interpretation of a verse or set of verses is supported by what other verses say. Moreover, when certain verses are unclear, God has provided various clear verses throughout the Bible to give us understanding regarding the same subject. Though the Bible does not read like a novel, nor is it meant to be read in that way, it is a single document, provided for us by the inspiration of God and it does not contradict itself. Where apparent contradictions are found, it is the understanding of the reader that is in question, not the integrity of the Bible.

You, if you are my brother or sister in Christ, were chosen by God to be saved. Before you were ever conceived on this earth, the Lord knew you and He foreknew that He would save you from your sins and sinful nature. This foreknowledge of God’s has nothing to do with any character traits you possess, nor do you have anything to offer God in the way of service. He does not “need” you. As the Apostle Paul described to the Greeks, “And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything” (Acts 17:25). In every relationship between the saved and the Savior, we humans MUST always be on the receiving end of everything. God is the giver. It is an improper thought to suggest that there are times that we can give something to God that He lacks or needs. Remember that He is the Creator, and we have been created.

A very important verse which is related to Ephesians 1:4 comes later in this same book. Eph 2:8,9 says this: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” Clearly, the truth being declared in both of these verses is the complete work of God in the process of salvation and the absence of any human involvement. In fact, if you want to know the truth, the only role a human ever plays in their own salvation is to resist it.

Does that last comment surprise you? Have you believed for many years that you chose to accept God into your life? Did someone tell you to pray the “sinner’s prayer” (which is not in the Bible) and then ask Jesus to come into your heart? If these things speak to your own understanding and experience thus far as a Christian, please read on.

What has happened to so many in the Christian faith is the hijacking of their salvation through deception to get you to believe that it is something it is not. The enemy does this in order to turn it into something hollow and void of any power for living. The true power of God for the salvation of all who believe is in the knowledge that He did it all on the cross. Jesus is the only Truth.

The true description, given by God, of every unbeliever is this:

Rom 3:10-18
10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now, no one would deny that choosing God to be their Savior would be a “good” thing, in the eyes of the Lord, right? Yet verse 12 says, “there is no one who does good, not even one.” Furthermore, would you agree that when someone decides that they need to be saved, they “seek” the Savior, and ask Him to come into their hearts, right? Yet verse 11 says there is “no one who seeks God.” And in case you think that maybe you were the exception to the rule, God says, “ALL have turned away” and “not even one” does good in His eyes.

What these verses are describing is the condition of the heart of mankind prior to salvation. It is called the sinful nature and we are all born with it—there are no exceptions. The heart I speak of is spiritual, identifying the true nature and condition of every man and woman on this earth. It is not physical, nor is it identified by behavior, though the two can be related. There are some behaviors which appear noble on the outside. They may seem helpful and generous to other people, but coming from any person with a sinful nature, they are nothing but selfish in the eyes of the Lord. This is why He can characterize the human race the way that He did in Romans 3. True goodness can only come from God Himself. Consider also the following:

Rom 8:6-8 [6]The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; [7] the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. [8] Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

I tell you these things because I want you to know that there is no way you could have chosen God as your Savior. You were in a state of complete rejection up to the moment that He saved you. And when He did save you—the moment you received the gift of faith to believe in His Son—you probably did not know it happened. Because of faith, you were only just beginning to be allowed to understand the true nature of this world, of mankind, of yourself, and of your salvation.

If there was a time in your life when you said that you wanted Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, I would like to explain to you what I think actually was happening. You had already received the gift of faith to believe, and probably had been under the guidance and instruction of the Holy Spirit for some time. When the proper time had come, the Lord Jesus revealed Himself to you as the Savior, and by faith you were ready to confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord (Rom 10:9). The problem was that through an incorrect understanding of Scripture, or perhaps false teaching, you were told that it was you who was choosing God at that very moment. In fact, it was He who chose you. And because He is God, He did so before the creation of the world, before you were ever born or could make choices.

If you think about what I am saying, faith will tell you it is true. And by the way, faith will also begin to show you how great it is to know that He chose you instead of you choosing Him. Again, there is not only freedom but also power from God for living which is based upon the foundation of this understanding.

Ephesians 1:4 does not imply that some are chosen to be saved and some are chosen to be sent to hell. The fact is that we are all born in a state of rejection through the fall of Adam and Eve, and mankind is free to continue resisting and rejecting the Father’s attempts to save. But this is our only choice. You cannot choose to accept because without faith, you cannot possibly know in truth, who it is you are accepting. Remember, “the sinful mind is hostile to God”. We are all born into the kingdom of darkness. We belong to the ruler of this world until such a time that God can rescue us. But trust me in this: your own rescue as well as mine, came amidst our kicking and screaming (spiritually resisting God but being overcome by Him).

These things can be difficult, I know. So I would like to leave you with a few more verses to ponder. Think on these things, and ask the Lord to give you understanding. He is faithful and He will do it.

Rom 5:6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit– fruit that will last. (Jesus speaking)

Gen 6:5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

John 1:12-13 [12] Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Rom 8:29-30
[29] For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. [30] And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Rom 9:15-16 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” [16] It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

Praise the Lord! Let all the glory by His! -Pastor Scott

So what does the baptized person become once they are free from the sinful nature? To be precise, the answer is “a new creation” (2cor 5:17). But even that name does not fully describe the benefits of baptism. If you are a baptized believer, consider yourself to have taken on a new identity–the identity of Christ! Once the sinful nature is dead and buried, the Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within the believer. You are possessed–once and for all–by your Savior. Thus Paul proclaimed,

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Understand that apart from the miracle of baptism, Paul’s statement makes no sense. There is no other provision within Scripture which for our own crucifixion. Neither is their another way to be crucified and still live. Nor is it humanly possible to “die to self”. That concept is another name for Baptism.

Your new identity is complete in Christ. Therefore, regard yourself to be as Christ says you are and as the Scriptures declare. Thus you are perfect, holy, blameless, sanctified, and a slave to righteousness. These are true of you at all times, because who you are is a spiritual truth which remains in Christ, who remains in you.

You may question the validity of my last statement, recalling your imperfect behavior at times. Well, because of baptism, Paul could make the following statement regarding himself, when he did the things he did not want to do (sinned): “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is the sin living in me” (in his flesh). Paul proclaimed that his new identity remained separate and established in Christ in the midst of sin. Baptism makes the death of the sinful nature so complete that it no longer exists to cause sin. The only thing that remains is your humanity, or flesh. Though the flesh is capable of sin, it is not who you are. It is only the tent in which you dwell. Note that Paul says, “it is no longer I myself”, again calling our attention to the fact that he is not who he once was.

There are those who read this theology and contend that this frees the believer to sin all they want, claiming that it is not them, but “the sin living in them.” Not true. Paul addresses this topic more than once, including Romans 6, 7 and 8, Galatians 3, Ephesians 4, and Colossians 2 and 3. The book of 1 John, chapters 3 and 5 also speak very plainly about sin and the new creation. But let me just say this. Faith is a gift from God given in order to save an individual. Only through that same faith is it possible to understand the spiritual blessings of the miracle of baptism. To understand them is to rejoice with God in our newly acquired freedom to live by way of the Spirit. True faith never rejoices in sin. Even when we know that committed sins bring no condemnation (Rom 8:1), faith would never allow us to pursue them. To do so would be to abuse God’s grace. One must wonder if the individual who does these things (rejoices in sin) ever really believed in the first place.

Baptism is the foundation of this earthly Christian life. When we die or Jesus returns to claim His bride–the church–the benefits of baptism will not be necessary. As I said before, it saves you–in a way–from bondage to sin in this life. Peter declares,

1 Pet 3:20-21 [20]…God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, [21] and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also– not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ…

Just as the water caused Noah’s ark to rise above the death in this world caused by sin, so does baptism free us to rise above and leave behind, what we once were. This is true because when Jesus rose from the dead, He did not bring your sinful nature back with Him. He left it there, crucified and buried!

Praise the LORD!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

Now I would like to teach you something about the nature of true faith. True faith believes God. I know that sounds simple but let me explain to you what I mean. When you look at the verse above, you will note that it says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Do you believe that? Think about it for a moment. Is it possible that you have every spiritual blessing that God has to offer?

Most of us don’t think about our Christian lives this way. We don’t see the blessings Paul is speaking of, and our lives seem to be no different than the lives of the average person out there in the world. Even when we do realize some of the blessings we have received, it certainly does not feel like we have every spiritual blessing God has to offer. It seems as though we could surely receive more blessings, and be spiritually richer than we are. And some of us would dare to say that there are people out there in the world who do not have faith, who do not believe in Jesus Christ, and whose lives seem to be more blessed than our own, or of some of the Christians we know.

But this is the very point I am making. In spite of what you see and feel on any given day, if you have true faith, your faith wants you to know the truth. Your faith already knows that Ephesians verse 3 is true. It already knows that you have received every spiritual blessing God offers. Faith is God’s gift that allows us to know the unknowable. It teaches us spiritual truths that do not make sense in this world. Isn’t that how faith is defined in the book of Hebrews?

            “Now faith is being certain of what we hope for, and sure of what we do not see.”

            (Heb 11:1)

So when I said that faith believes God, I am contrasting that with the typical thing we Christians usually say, and that is that we believe in God. Not that there is anything wrong with the later, but there are many who say they believe in God but do not believe what He says in Scripture. They usually begin their protest to what He is saying with the word, “But…” And the “but” arises invariably from what they see going on in their lives. They contrast that with what they read in the Bible and then they say, “But…”

In truth, even if you don’t understand something, faith will teach you to say, “OK Lord, I see what You are saying. And though I don’t understand it, I can still believe it and just wait until you clarify this.” Remember, Paul told us that the “wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight” 1Cor 3:19. So don’t expect everything you read in the Bible to make worldly sense. In fact, it probably won’t. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world”.

These spiritual blessings, by the way, have everything to do with knowledge, and nothing to do with worldly wealth and prosperity. They don’t have anything to do with healing either. We are not talking about the things of this world that make us happy. Paul is referring to salvation knowledge.

This knowledge is not only what saves you, but also what sustains you in the Christian life. The knowledge that saves is the understanding that Jesus Christ is Lord. If you believe this, consider yourself blessed—really. That is not something you can truthfully say without faith. I am not saying that people don’t do so, but I am saying that only faith will allow someone to say that and know it is true. It is called revelation knowledge. If you believe Jesus Christ is Lord, with no conditions attached, consider yourself blessed.

The second kind of knowledge is the revelation of how Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross sustains you. He is your life. In fact, did you know that spiritually speaking, you died, you no longer live, but Christ lives in you? Did you know that you are a slave to righteousness? Did you know that you are holy, pure, and blameless? Did you know God calls you “free from accusation”? Did you know that your salvation is guaranteed? These are all things that sustain us in this life and allow us to rest in the knowledge that Jesus is in charge.

When Paul stated in verse three that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, he means that when you received God’s gift of faith, along with it came all these truths. You got the whole package, as they say. God held nothing back from you. Everything that He intended to accomplish through His Son on the cross was completed. And when He saved you, that completeness became attributed to you through faith in Jesus Christ. His perfection became yours!

Now, whether you know these things yet or not does not change the fact that they are true of you. The purpose of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and my letter to you is that we both hope that the Spirit will take our words and turn them into revelation knowledge. Paul hoped that the Ephesian church could believe that they really do have every spiritual blessing, even if they can’t see them. This is my hope too. In the weeks and months to come, through Paul’s letter I will  show you many of these blessings. That is why I told you this is a love letter from God.                                            -Pastor Scott

“To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Jesus Christ.”

There is a simple yet profound point that needs to be made here. Actually, I would like to pose it to you as a question. Who are these saints? If you, like myself, were at one time raised under certain types of teachers within the Christian church, or are still being taught from certain traditions, your answer to my question will be wrong. I say this not to point out the errors of my readers, but to simply point out the misconceptions and false teachings that have found their way into the Christian church. So again, my question is, “Who are these saints?” and even broader than this arises the question,  “What is a saint”?

When I was younger I was always taught that a saint was someone who had gotten “it” right. The “it” I am referring to is their behavior. They had attained a level of obedience to God that bordered on perfection. And in fact, I was lead to believe that they had died in perfection and that is how they became saints. Their earthly lives were devoted solely to God, as evidenced by their behavior and their service to mankind. Of course, for all of us, the primary example of a saint was Mother Theresa. But there are many others as well. Just about every major character in the Bible who was a believer or did anything miraculous for God is considered a saint by many in the church today. And in the not too distant past, just a few years ago, the Catholic church voted to declare sainthood upon a few more that had given their lives in service to God. (These people had died centuries ago).

Does this match your idea of a saint? If so, you are not alone. But I want you to know that according to the Bible this definition is incorrect on several levels. I would like to clarify the truth about sainthood, which will in turn begin to reveal something shocking about the nature of God’s grace.

According to the Bible, a saint is anyone who believes that Jesus Christ is Lord. Which is to say that you, oh believer, are a saint. But if you are going to believe what I say then you must have patience to hear me out because at the moment I am sure you have questions.

To be sure, the one thing we all thought was true of saints really is true–that a saint is one who has attained perfection in God’s sight. But what we all got wrong was how that perfection was obtained. There is no one, including you or myself, who has perfect behavior. Not the Pope, not Mother Theresa, nor any one else who ever lived. If you have trouble believing this, just read what the Bible has to say in this matter:

             “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:9-12.

These verses apply to all people. They were not just directed at the nation of Israel at the time they were spoken but to all people. To emphasize this point, I will include another verse:

        “God saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5.

This verse was written before the nation of Israel ever existed. So again, I stress that it is directed at the state of all mankind. But now I must make another point. The Lord, because He is God, can see and know things that mortal man cannot see and know, right? So I want you to know that what He is talking about here when it says that He “saw” how great man’s wickedness had become, is not the behavior of people. No, what He saw was the condition of their heart, also known as the “sinful nature” of man. To be sure, everyone was not running around doing evil things every minute of every day. I am sure there were people who were “nice” some of the time. Yet the first verse I quoted to you says there is “no one who does good, not even one” and “there is no one who understands”. So how is it that God judges good and evil? He judges these things not based on our behavior, but based on the condition of the heart.

The reason He wrote in Romans that “no one understands” is that we all want to put a human definition on what is good and what is not. But of course that does not work because different people will have different definitions and, of course, their own definition will always include things that they do as “good”. No one wants to look bad or think of themselves as bad. But God wants us to “understand” that it is His definition that counts–only His. And we already know what God thinks: He says there is “no one who does good, not even one”.

The prophet Jeremiah was given these words to say, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard change his spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” Jer 13:23

One more thing to tell you before I explain how you became a saint. God once said in the Scriptures that “My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts”. This is the easiest way to understand why God does not look at what we humans do the same way we do. Ask yourself, “Is it possible that God is so muich greater than I that I really have no idea what good really is? The answer is “yes”. Furthermore, is it possible that God is so great, that He is actually the defining characteristic of “Good”? The answer again is “yes”. Since that is true, do you realize that all things that exist apart from Him must by definition be described as “evil” because there is no “goodness” or “Godliness” in that person? That is why all who do not believe in Him are considered evil. It is also why “there is no one who is righteous… no one who does good, not even one”.

SO how does “good” happen to a person? Or to put it another way, how does a person become “Godly” in God’s sight? Well, let’s look at what God says about “good”.

“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all me to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1Tim2:3  You see, goodness has nothing to do with being good as far as behavior is concerned. Goodness has to to with knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

The fact of the matter is that in order for salvation to come to a person, God does not demand goodness, He demands perfection. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. Matt 5:48  This perfection, I hope you have already agreed with me, is not humanly possible.

But pefection is possible through Jesus Christ since He died on the cross to forgive the sins of the whole world.Your sins have all been forgiven. Even before you believed all your sins were forgiven and God says, “I will remember them no more”. There was only one sin that Jesus could not take away when He died on the Cross–the sin of unbelief. That is the sin that all mankind is guilty of. That is the reason “there is no one who does good”.

So when you received the gift of faith to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, the sin of unbelief was taken away and you became perfect. Not by your behavior, mind you, but by the declaration of God. By the same God who declared, “Let there be light” and thereby created the world and everything in it, you have received the label of “perfect” in God’s sight. In other words, you have the perfection of His Son Jesus. And by the way, this became true of you from the moment you believed. There is no such thing as a Christian in the making, or a believer in progress. Once the gift of faith is received, you are complete in Christ–you are a saint.

There are thousands fo saints walking the earth today. Paul was writing to the saints of his time, those who lived in Ephesus and believed that Jesus Christ is Lord. I am writing to the saints of my time–people who believe in the Lord as their Savior. I hope this clarifies things for you. I hope it encourages you to know how the Lord views those whom He loves! I will write more soon.

What I am proposing is that you let me take you on a journey through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. If you are a fellow believer, or just wondering what Christianity is all about, read on. This blog will strengthen, encourage, and comfort anyone who has true faith. But be prepared, because this could take a while. I am not in a hurry and hopefully you aren’t either. Shall we begin?

Just a little context here, before we get into the actual text. Since this letter was written in 62 A.D. you might have already  guessed that some time has passed since the death and resurrection of Jesus–some 30 years. Christianity is in its infancy, if you will, and Paul is one of the chief instruments God has used to build His church in various parts of Asia. Paul wrote this letter while in prison. You should also know that the people of Ephesus believed in their own god whose name was Artemis. So being a Christian in Ephesus was not easy–it came with persecution.

Here is the beginning of Paul’s letter:

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.”

It is interesting to note that Paul understands how he got to be what he is, namely an apostle of Jesus Christ. It was by the will of God, not by his own will. This is important to see, and something that is sorely missing in the teaching going on in most churches today. If you know Paul’s story of his conversion, you know that he was actually a hater of “the way” (early Christianity’s name) and he persecuted those who followed it. He threw people in jail, traveled to various towns to find the Christians and bring them to trial, and even had a hand in the death of some! But God had plans for Paul and when the time was right, God revealed Himself. The story of Paul’s conversion is recorded in the book of Acts, chapter 9.

The point I am trying to make is that Paul’s story is not unique. This is the way salvation comes to everyone who believes. Though on the surface your salvation may not seem as dramatic, I can assure you that spiritually it was. You were in rebellion to God in much the same way Paul was. You see, his behavior was not the problem. Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the whole world (1John 2:2). There was nothing that Paul was doing that was not already forgiven on the cross. The problem was the nature of his heart which was in rebellion to God. He, like you and I at one time, was rejecting the Holy Spirit’s attempts to reveal Jesus to him as the Savior. Thankfully, the Spirit was able to overcome his rejection and not only save Paul but also use him to build the church. The same is true for you and I. If you are reading this, agreeing that you believe Jesus is your Savior, don’t allow yourself to think even for one minute that you decided to believe in Jesus. That is impossible. We are all born with a sinful nature that rejects God. Like Paul’s conversion, God was able to overcome your rejection by His power and will. There are those whom God will not be able to overcome. They love the darkness (John 3:19) so much that God will let them win the struggle to redeem them. Every salvation is a miracle from first to last. At the moment you were saved, you lacked the one thing necessary for salvation–faith. The letter we are studying–Ephesians–tells us that faith is a gift. It is not something you are born with. Therefore the only thing you had was the sinful nature which would never “choose” God. The sinful nature wants to be its own ruler. It bows to no one. So at the time of God’s choosing, He overcame your rejection through ways we cannot fully understand. He gave you the gift of faith, saving you through belief in His Son. Actually, your salvation occurred before you were even aware of it. The Bible even tells us that we were “chosen in Christ before the creation of the world”. So how can it be our own work or choosing that made us Christians? It can’t. This principle is built upon throughout the Scriptures and is the key to understanding the Christian life as well as salvation. I hope this sits well with you, because it is the truth! I will write more soon, continuing with the same verse.

As Pastor of Life Talk Ministries, I am called to preach this Gospel of the Kingdom of God. In doing so, God intends to strengthen, encourage, and comfort His church with revelation knowledge about what happened on the Cross of His Son and how that changes the way we live. Of course, I am speaking of how He changed our lives, not about how we are supposed to change ourselves. Everything that God the Father required in order for salvation and new life to become possible for all who believe was completed on the Cross. Thus, Jesus proclaimed, “It is finished”.