Faith, Free-Will and Salvation

I am reading from Colossians this morning:

Colossians 2:9-15 NIV
[9] "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, [10] and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. [11] In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, [12] having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. [13] When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, [14] having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. [15] And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

I started reading at verse 13, and if read alone, it sounds like all the salvation and forgiveness in God is all done by Him, and done for us before we were saved, and even aware it has happened. This is absolutely true, for nothing we have done, or can do will bring us salvation and complete forgiveness of all our sins. However, the application of this gift into our life is through faith- see verse 12. Without our faith, which is also a gift from God, this glorious reality is not appropriated into our lives. God pours out faith to us, but we must willfully engage this faith and belief. It is this freedom of our will (free-will) that is critical in our walk with God. He has paid the price, has sacrificed himself for our salvation, but it is our willingness to accept this and believe it that determines our experience.

This also demonstrates the danger of reading verses out of context, or setting one verse as primary theological statement, that overrides or contradicts other verses. We must be careful and balanced in our approach, recognizing that the Bible is to be read and understood, and studied as a whole. It is not to picked apart and only certain parts kept or held to be true, which is something that Marcion, one of the first heretical teachers, did in wanting to throw out most of the Old Testament, and everything but Luke and the writings of Paul in the New Testament. We can study verse by verse, but must apply what we learn to the overall truth of scripture.

A nice analogy I just thought of is the restoration of a large painting. The restorer works on one small section of a time, analyzing and restoring the correct hues and colors exactly as they were meant to be by the original painter, buts its only in the context of the complete painting that the full affect of that little section, which is being restored, is fully appreciated. And it is always within the context of the complete work that decisions about how to restore the tiny section are made. I hope that makes sense.

Lord, we pray that You will guide us and teach us as You promised in John 16:12-13 NIV:
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. [13] But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."