LukeBritt,
I'll try one more time to show the difference between the word "saved' past tense and the word salvation or "being saved" as used in Scripture.
One other caveat, in may places the word salvation is used to refer to the ultimate goal which is the salvation of man.
Then, to begin, one must understand the fall and the correlation between what was in the beginning and what happened at the fall. There is a direct correlation and it must be followed otherwise you will have the problem that generates this above question.
Let us leave out the whole concept of the fall as if the fall never happened. Adam was created in the Image of God which for this discussion includes having a will. A will that is independent of God's will.
Adam was made good and neutral. By that we mean he was neither mortal nor immortal. Adam had the propensity to achieve either. If he remained in union with God, in direct communication with God man would have achieve and fulfilled the purpose of God creating man in the first place.
This aspect of the purpose of man is the salvation of man. Adam was working with God, using his free will, to fulfill God's mandate for his creation in this universe. This is what we are supposed to be doing in the year 2000 as well.
If you can keep those to aspects separated for a moment, now let us throw in the fall.
Adam sinned. He used his free will to disobey a direct commandent of God and gave in to Satan. Thus the punishment to man and mankind, was death - mortality. Man died and this punishment was consubstantial with our natures. We would inherit this trait of mortality by birth. This is a physical death. This state of death also makes us sin. We sin because we are dead. Thus the phrase dead in our sins and treaspasses.
Thus Adam's sin brought death (mortaltiy) but also separation from God. God and man could not be in Union, nor commune as they had before the fall. Death for man was permanent. Upon death man's body and soul would be separated permanently and thus all human beings would cease to exist.
Thus the question comes, what could man do to move from a mortal state to an immortal one? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. A dead man cannot bring life to himself. As long as man was in this mortal state there would be no hope of ever attaining immortality, (for which we were originally created to be) nor could he ever have communion with God because it would all end in death. There was absolutely no eternal status to mankind or the universe.
What is the answer?
Christ would become man. God would assume man's nature in order to redeem it. To bring it back to life. To move mankind from a mortal state to an immortal state. How is this done?
By assuming man's nature, a consubstantiality with our natures, Christ can by His own death and resurrection, bring life to all of mankind. All of mankind would be eternal. Man thus moved from being mortal to immortal. Mankind now has an eternal quality which eliminates one reason that God could not have unioin with man. It now could last eternally. Also, none would be lost, or destroyed. All men would live.
That was the root problem of man. Death. However, man would still be in a mortal body in this life. Thus man would also still sin in this life. Christ needed to overcome the sin factor as well which He also accomplished by His death. He atoned for the world. He paid the penalty of our sins which would have been eternal death, the second death, or spiritual death. Man can be reconciled to God by forgiveness of his sins and thus God can have union and communion with man in the here and now as well as eternally.
We enter back into union, since Christ corrected the fall, by faith. That is all that is required, faith to overcome the fall which Christ did for us, for the world, for mankind. Man had absolutely nothing to do with it.
However, the union which is what we accomplish with this faith. is what man was supposed to be doing as created creatures. Man, as Adam, now has freedom to obey, to follow Christ, to be obedient to Him, to love Him, as God created him to be.
Those that do not believe are already condemned.
Now, I hope you can rephrase your question. The free will of man has absolutely nothing to do with being saved. All mankind were saved from the fall. BUT, man must make a choice who they will follow. They have been freed and restored in order that they can do this very thing. God has reconciled man so that man could again fulfill his created mandate which is what man fell from when Adam sinned.
Thus the whole thing is all Grace. The saving by Christ in overcoming the fall and being saved which is the salvation of man which is the purpose or reason for Christ's Work on the Cross. We do this all through God.
