It was to those “carnal” Corinthians, who had jealousy and strife in
their midst, that Paul by the Spirit wrote: “I thank my God always
concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ
Jesus; that in everything ye were enriched in him, in all utterance and
all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our
Lord Jesus Christ; who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may
be unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful,
through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ
our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:4-9).
This surely is a picture of the fulness of blessing in Christ, and it
is stated that this grace had been given to the Corinthians because
they were Christians. Similarly in the eighth chapter of Romans the
life of victory is described: “For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:2).
This freedom belongs to every believer in the Lord Jesus. So throughout
the New Testament it is made clear that when God spared not his own Son
but delivered him up for us all, he freely gave with Christ all things
that a Christian needs.
But while there is but one salvation, and one plan of salvation, this
salvation has a two-fold aspect. God has indeed only one standard for
Christians, the standard of his Son, that is complete holiness. But
God’s message of salvation comes to two distinct classes of people, to
lost sinners, and to saints――sinners saved by grace.