Clearly, on Calvary’s cross, the blood of God’s perfect, only begotten Son, was shed for our sins! “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just [Jesus Christ had a right standing before God] for the unjust [we who had a sinful standing before God]” (1 Peter 3:18).

We, as believers have trusted in Christ’s finished cross-work, His shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection alone, to be the all-sufficient payment for our sins. Only His cross makes us acceptable in God’s sight, accepted in His Son. Jesus Christ’s performance not only saved us from our sins, but also His performance at work in us also makes our daily lives acceptable to God our Father.

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (Col. 2:6-7)

“Having this same confidence, that He Who undertakes a good work among you, will be performing it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phili, 1:6).

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Phili. 2:13)

Question: How did we receive Christ Jesus the Lord? Was it by our works? NO! It was by His grace through faith in His finished cross-work at Calvary. So, how then is our Christian walk to function? By our works? NO! By faith in His finished cross-work on Calvary and His ongoing work in and among us.

Sinful mankind could never please God, so God did for mankind what man could never do for himself: He paid for man’s sins in full.

“when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure [perhaps] for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:6-8).

Grace Bestows vs. Debt that Requires:

“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.”

“But to him that worketh NOT, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom 4:4-5).

As we look back at all the Old Testament ‘types,’ the physical metaphors, and the narratives, and the sacrifices, we should recognize that the cross was not an accident, nor an afterthought on God’s part: He had the cross in mind all the while. Christ is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8)

Thus Paul was correct when he said; “[God] hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our (good) works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9).

It is only on the basis of the cross, typified all through the Old Testament, that God now saves us by His grace through faith alone, the O.T. types show that this was indeed His eternal purpose.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: “Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9) “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5)

Furthermore, salvation should be by grace through faith, because as seen above; if man could earn God’s salvation, our works would be our payment for our sin-debt. That would be for debt, and not the bestowal of “the gift of God.” God will never be indebted to anyone. God can never and will never be in a position where He owes us sinners, a debt. Nor will He ever allow us to disgrace ourselves and annoy others by our boasting about how we earned eternal life. But He can, on the basis of the penalty being fully paid by Christ at Calvary, bestow salvation as a free gift.

This is why we read, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). “(salvation) is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8b-9).