God is With You All the Way
Are you working for salvation or from salvation?
So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
– Colossians 2.6-7
The proclamation of the good news of what God has done always precedes the call to human response. Dear brother or sister, God is the one rooting you, building you up in Christ, and establishing you in the faith. All of these verbs are passive. It is action being done to you as you walk in Him, v.6b. God, by His Spirit is rooting you, deeper and deeper in Him, building you up, and establishing you in the faith.
The only human response in Colossians 2.7 (the only action verb) is what is said in the last part of the verse ... we overflow with gratitude. So not only has God opened up the way of salvation for you & made you holy, faultless, and blameless, Colossians 1.22, — He is in you and with you all the way after salvation — transforming you — renewing you, 2.7; Titus 3.5-7; Ephesians 2.10.
Faith depends on God.
to save us from our past sins (through our response to the gospel, Colossians 2.11-14; Romans 5.1; you have been justified by faith)
to save us presently (we stand in grace, Romans 5.2)
to save us in the end (Romans 5.4-5; 8.11)
There’s more than enough power. You can’t sin enough to be out of God’s reach. You know … it’s really hard to be lost. Jesus is always intervening for the things we cannot do, Hebrews 7.25. And that should drive our hearts to immense loyalty (Colossians 1.23) and gratitude (Colossians 2.7).
So, how's your heart? Are you working for salvation or from salvation?