Here is a submission for the rubric Insights. Something edifying!

Just as Jesus is the complete savior for us, redeeming us, and he is the complete savior in us, delivering us, so he is also the complete savior through us.

You know, the baptism form is so beautiful, beloved. In the first part of that doctrinal part of the baptism form, we have God’s part. Remember? God makes an eternal covenant of grace with us. The Father makes an eternal covenant of grace with us and adopts us for his children and heirs and provides us with every good thing and averts all evil or turns it to our profit. The Son redeems us, satisfies in his blood for all our sins, makes us righteous before God. And the Holy Spirit dwells in us, regenerating us, renewing us, and sanctifying us to the very end! That’s all God’s part of the salvation in the baptism form. All God’s part.

And then comes our part. Yes, our part. Not our party. And, beloved, there are people who also do not understand this, and they say this: “I believe that Jesus is a complete savior for us. I believe that he is a complete savior within us; but now when it’s finished, now comes our part.” And then they say, “But we must do this: that we walk in a new and holy life and bear fruits of thankfulness. That’s for us.”

Well, beloved, those that say so are still Arminian. Still do not understand the truth. Because the truth is this: that Jesus also bears the fruit. And that we are privileged to be instrumental in showing forth the fruits of Jesus Christ in our lives—that’s our privilege. That’s the truth. Jesus for us. Jesus in us. And Jesus through us.

Christ is the vine, and the vine bears fruit. We are the branches, and we bear the fruits, beloved. Christ is the head, and we are the members of his body, and it is our privilege that we may bear the fruits of Christ, the head, in our good works. So that it is not so that God becomes beholden to us because we do good works, but we are beholden to God because we have the privilege of doing good works and walking in a new and holy life.

It’s all of God and none of us. That’s salvation, beloved. That’s salvation. Christ for us, in us, and through us. All of Christ as the revelation of the God of our salvation.

Believe? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are saved, beloved.

Amen.³