But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (8) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, lest anyone should boast. (10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. He has just finished describing the natural state of men as alienated by sin from God and now unfolds the manner in which those to whom he writes will be delivered from that terrible condition. Believers are saved by God’s grace alone when He made us alive together with Christ. God and nothing else is the cause of salvation; the believers are totally identified with Christ. Christ, who knew no sin, made full atonement on the cross for us. God has made all who believe on Him sharers of His life and nature. We are saved by grace through faith.
The spiritual death from which the Christian is delivered includes condemnation (judicial death), pollution, misery. The state of man was one of helplessness in spiritual death. Man neither deserved to be saved nor could men redeem themselves. God and not man was the author of change. This rebirth in faith in Christ is not because of any good in natural man but is all of the Lord. Believers are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. They are freed from condemnation of the law, the dominion of Satan, from lethargy and the pollution of spiritual death. In Christ they are reconciled with God, made partakers of His Spirit and as a principle of everlasting life they are adopted in Christ in God’s family.
Justification is by faith, not by works – The simple act of accepting Christ justifies the believer. Now as a result of the Word of God in the gospel believers are made new creatures in Christ. In an AA meeting I attended last week it was said that in our faith what we are doing is walking each other home.