@Bruce-Leiter .
Salvation is Jesus shedding His blood and dying on the Cross.
This is proven by His Resurrection..
So, when we discuss Salvation, and Eternal Life.. and Redemption..........we only discuss The Cross of Christ as there is no other Salvation offered by God.
This is why Jesus said in John 14:6 that He is the "only way to the Father".
Notice that Jesus didnt include water baptism or self effort or confessing sins, or any type of daily repenting.
And always remember that Jesus is not a Calvinist, and that God hates Calvinism.
God makes : Christians
Calvin and his hoard of disciples, try to deceive them and turn them into TULIP-Heads.. or "Calvinists"..
Now, religions, cults, and deceived self righteous people, try to add to the Cross of Christ, their self effort, their water baptism, and their law and commandment keeping and sometimes their Church, or Cult........or
Calvinism.
Whereas ....God does not.
Now, subsequent to the believer receiving from God the redemption that is only found as "the Gift of Salvation" that is Christ's finished work on the Cross............we have now entered into our discipleship.....AFTER we have received SALVATION, from God.
So, we see that our SALVATION< is The Cross of Christ, the Blood Atonement, and the "GIFT of Righteousness"
And now that we have received these "GIFTS".. from God..........we are to behave as having them..
"present your body as a living sacrifice" to GOD............not to stay saved, but because we ARE Saved.
This behavior that is Subsequent to our Salvation.......is where the majority of Christians are confused, and stay confused.. and that is because they do not understand that their Discipleship is not God's Salvation.
Salvation is not discipleship.
This is why you find most Christians trying to stay saved.....by their discipleship, .. not understanding that they are already forever given eternal life and eternal forgiveness of sin.....the moment that they Gave GOD their Faith in Christ.
