Someone has said, “The gospel does not demand faith; it supplies faith.”
Colossians 1:19-22 NASB
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, [20] and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. [21] And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, [22] yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—
The Greek word “peace” is “eiro,” which means – “one, to join, tied together into a whole – wholeness when all essential parts are joined together.” It carries a similar idea of the Hebrew word “shalom,” which is God’s gift of wholeness and welfare, but the New Testament word also carries the idea of this wholeness and welfare coming as a result of being joined together with God which results in wholeness.
God reconciled us to himself through Christ and His finished work, and in doing so, we are at peace with God, but to be at peace with God also joins us to the peace, or well-being, of God in Christ. At the cross in Christ, our debt of sin was paid for, because in him we were taken to the place of execution, and the person we were who was at enmity with God was crucified and buried. In the resurrection and ascension, we are now one with Christ, and therefore we share in His innocence before the Father. Verse twenty-two says because we have been reconciled to God through Christ, we are now presented before the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Faith always begins with what God believes first, and Jesus is convinced of our innocence because of His perfect work. Jesus has total faith in what He accomplished on our behalf. When you realize that Jesus did all of that, without our adding one thing to it, then because faith simply becomes our hilariously joyful response to His grace. The gospel is so complete the finished work of Christ is so perfect, that it provides the impetus to trust. Faith simply COMES when you hear the good news of the finished work of Christ on the cross on our behalf. Faith is just trusting in what He believes about who we are because of what He did.