The Three Tenses of Salvation

Saved by His power divine, Saved to new life sublime! Life now is sweet and my joy is complete, For I’m Saved, Saved, Saved!

We talk about being saved. It’s almost cliché in some circles, but it is biblical if it is understood in the light of the scripture. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Rom 1:16) It’s inclusive of: Justificaiton, Redemption, Grace, Imputation, Propitiation, Forgiveness, Sanctification, and Glorification. There is definitely something to being ‘saved.’ But what does it mean to be saved? New Testament salvation is three-fold and confounding the different tenses will keep you messed up in the way you understand your relationship to the Lord.

When we speak of salvation we must understand that that word encompasses the whole of God’s plan toward us sinners that have believed on his son.

I. We are saved from the guilt and penalty of sin.

• The Problem of mankind. Romans 5:12 (sin singular)

John 3:18, 36

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

• This salvation is accomplished by the blood of Christ and carried out by the preaching of the cross, which is to us that believe the power of God. It is a one time operation and it is complete to the uttermost based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. (guilt vs. shame)
• Romans 5:1

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

• Notice this is peace with God. (Different from the “peace of God” that passes all understanding in Phil 4.
• Illustration:

• Salvation from sin means our deliverance from the ultimate punishment for sin based on Christ’s substitution in our place (2 Cor 5:21).

II. We are being saved from the habit and dominion of sins.

• Read Romans 6:6-14
• Day by day the Lord desires to carry out in us a salvation from the power of sin.
• Philippians 1:19

For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

• We have by the life and cross of Christ, been saved from the dominion of sin (freed from sin Rom 6:7,18,22) and yet it is a process that we must work out.

• Philippians 2:12-13

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

• The progression of our knowledge of our own sinfulness:
• Paul writes in 1 Cor 15:9 saying I am not meet to be called an apostle.
• Just six years later he says “I am less than the least of all saints.”
• And finally about five years after that he says in I Tim 1:15 “I am the chief of sinners.”
• Paul isn’t getting worse all the time he’s just getting closer to the Lord all the time and the closer he gets to Christ the more he realizes how sinful he actually is.
• This process will not be complete until we at last lay down this body of death, but it should be progressive from now to that point.
• We have victory when we submit to our death on the cross in Christ, reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord so that he might will and do of his good pleasure through us.

III. We will some day be saved from the presence and influence of sin.

• This takes place in part at our departure from the body, but in a larger since this occurs at the rapture. I honestly don’t ever expect to be saved from the presence of sin by the death of my mortal body.
• Romans 13:11

11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

• Romans 8:23-25

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

• Your soul was redeemed fully and finally by the blood of Christ at the moment you received the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. That’s what it means to be saved from sin, past tense. That word redeemed means to buy back. Did you realize the blood of Christ bought more that just your spiritual man (1 Cor 6:19-20). Right now you’re only 2/3 saved. The price has been paid for the other third, we just haven’t cashed in yet.
• Ephesians 1:14

Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

• Romans 6:5

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

• Romans 8:29

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

• 1 Corinthians 15:49

And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

• Philippians 3:21

Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

• 1 John 3:2

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.