Understanding that sin makes you not just thick-headed but most important completely separated from God. Sin makes us unwilling to accept His truths on our own. The biblical authors repeat foundational doctrines so that the Holy Spirit might penetrate our hearts and minds with the saving Word of God. The man-made religions of this world prove that without the work of the Holy Spirit, people think that they are basically good and can contribute something to their salvation. This strips glory from God and gives it to us, thinking we can do even one thing to earn salvation, or that we deserve credit. All belief systems except biblical Christianity encourages us to believe that we contribute to our salvation, even if they deceitfully assert otherwise.
In Ephesians 2:8 God is very clear that nothing we do earns salvation. The Lord does not owe anything to us except His wrath. This is taught through the entire Bible. If we missed this point, Paul in Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us one more time that we bring nothing with us to our redemption, and that any good works we perform are not that ground of our status before God but the result from us having been given the Gift of God only Son on the Cross which with His blood paid the price for the sins which made us dead to the Father.
Of course faith is something that we exercise, and so some Christians think we bring this to the table when we are saved. They think we work faith up in ourselves and that all people are born with the ability to do so. But Ephesians show that this is impossible. Through the Holy Spirit He allows us to have faith in Christ, and with the love of God coming to die on the Cross for our salvation we can be comfort that we had nothing to do with our salvation.
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