“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:”
Salvation is by faith. The question here is:
“Salvation is the result of whose faith”?
“Am I saved by my faith or are we all saved by the faith of Jesus Christ?
For me, there is no difference in any of us. We all are saved by the faith of Jesus.
We all have these things in common:
1. We have no faith in and of ourselves. As Ephesians 2 says, faith is not of ourselves, it is God’s gift.
2. We all have sinned. Paul is not interested in de-emphasizing sin. To Paul, sin is a huge problem and it is a problem every single person has. Furthermore, whatever form sin takes in a person’s’ life, it is a life threatening problem. It is capable of ruining our life here on earth and it is capable of killing us. As he says in Romans 6, “The wages of sin is death.”
3. God has solved our problem. Because of the faith of Jesus Christ, we have all been justified. Every person’s salvation is a done deal. Salvation is a fact of every human’s history. We have all been saved.
It is left to us to incorporate the gift of salvation so that our human life becomes something beautiful and wonderful. I have seen people with solid Christian doctrine and people with virtually no doctrine learn to take advantage of God’s salvation in a life transforming way.
My 12 step experience has allowed me to witness the life giving love God has put in the world
in every category of human beings. It is not a doctrinal salvation. It is in no way a performance salvation because it does depend on me doing anything.For me it is a salvation that is a gift to the world given to everyone, [There is no difference], by the faith of Jesus Christ.
George Caywood 