I believe in one God revealed in 3 persons; the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.  Every Member of this Triune Godhead fully participates in every attribute of divinity (omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence)—one essence, yet Each is a distinct Person manifesting One God.  John 1:1 tells us that Jesus was both “with God” (a distinct person in the Godhead) and that He “was God” (partaking of One divine essence).  This Triune God existed from all eternity.  He initiated time itself, creating all that is (physical and spiritual) (Gen 1:1), endowing angels and men with free moral agency and the capacity to reflect God’s communicable attributes, among them are love and righteousness.  One-third of the angels freely rejected their purpose (Rev 12:4), the glory of God, and died spiritually as a consequence, no longer reflecting the love and righteousness of God.  Adam and Eve, made in the image of God, were called to represent God and rule over His creation as faithful stewards over God’s creation. (Gen 1:26-28), (Ps 8:4-8) But they also suffered immediate spiritual and subsequent physical death, upon disbelieving and disobeying God.  All of their descendants are born spiritually dead (Eph 2:1), shut up in disobedience (Rom 11:32), and incapable of reflecting the glory of God. (Rom 3:23) As a result, “those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Rom 8:8)

“BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.. and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…for by grace you have been saved through faith.” (Eph 2:4-8).  Paul’s summary statement of salvation is the reversal of the fall, and it’s entirely predicated on what the Triune God did, NOT the work of man.  The incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, together with the substitutionary death of Christ, and His bodily resurrection 3 days later are the basis of salvation.   The only ONE who could restore mankind is the Triune God Himself.  “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23)  God’s justice and righteousness require that all the wages of sin be remitted, resulting in physical and spiritual death.  Restoration initiated by man is impossible, for no man can pay the debt.  “BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us..”  The cross is the marriage of the seemingly irreconcilable attributes of God’s righteousness and love.  God must punish sin wherever it manifests, otherwise He would no longer be holy and righteous.   Yet “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8)  Christ’s assumption of mankind’s sin-debt at the cross is the solution to the apparent Divine dilemma, whether to give man what he deserves, resulting in eternal judgment in hell, or to give him an unmerited gift of salvation made possible by Christ’s bountiful sacrifice of Himself on our behalf and imputation of His righteousness to all those who put their faith in Him.  The forgiveness of sin and imputation of  Christ’s positive righteousness to all who put their faith in Christ is the divine remedy for mankind’s lost condition.

Every member of the Godhead is involved in the salvation of mankind.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jn 3:16)  The Father’s love initiated the plan of redemption and  the Son executed it. The Holy Spirit is indispensable in bringing people to faith in Christ.  He convicts the unregenerate of sin, righteousness and judgment (Jn 16: 9-11) and enables them to surrender to Christ as Lord (1 Cor 12: 3).  Repentance and faith in Christ are the conditions of regeneration (Jn 1:12, Gal 3:2) in which the believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, placed in the body of Christ, and sealed for the day of ultimate redemption. (Eph 1:13)  Being “born again” (John 3: 3-7)  or (using Paul’s equivalent) being “made alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:5) is the recreation of the image of God in man in which the believer now has the capacity to grow in the communicable attributes of God, particularly righteousness and love.  The Holy Spirit progressively conforms the believer into the image of Christ and the believer, secure in his position in Christ where the imputed righteousness of Christ is his own (Ps 32:1, 2 Cor 5:21), now builds on the foundation of Christ with practical righteousness and holiness culminating in divine agape love, the pinnacle of life in the Spirit. (1 Cor 13:13)

Holistic salvation then is not simply the forgiveness of sins and reception of the imputed righteousness of Christ.  These are the foundations upon which the edifice of the new man is built.  Everyone who comes into the kingdom is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17):  his slab has been laid, that of Jesus Christ.  With this fresh start, every new believer must actively use his free moral agency to cooperate with the Spirit’s work of conforming us into the image of Christ.  We put off the old self and put on the new. (Eph 4:22-24) We continue to repudiate Adam, our old federal head, as we identify with the last Adam, Christ. (1 Cor 15:45)  We build on that foundation with gold, silver and precious stone (1 Cor 3:12), which is the new self, “created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Eph 4:24) As partakers of the divine nature, we’re expected to grow in God’s communicable attributes, looking more and more like Him. (2 Pet 1:4-8) Indeed, our daily choices in this life will largely determine our capacity to be filled up with all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:19)

The salvation journey of all who put their faith in Christ, beginning with forgiveness and the imputed righteousness of Christ, is only the beginning of the Triune God’s restoration of those in Christ.  1 John 3:2 declares, “when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”  We will know just as we are fully known. (1 Cor 13:12)  And the very same love that the Father loves the Son will be the abiding experience of all who trust in Christ, for they partake of Christ.  Christ prayed for the disciples and all who would believe in Him that “..the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (Jn 17:26)

It is my prayer that you give your life to the Triune God Who truly loves you and paid the ultimate sacrifice for you.  And, as you grow in Christ, may you know the boundless, indescribable love of Christ, and be filled up with all the fullness of God.