How Are We Being Saved Right Now?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to this new week on the podcast.
00:00:06.800 | Well, the Bible says Christians have been saved in the past.
00:00:10.400 | We have been saved.
00:00:11.440 | And it says we will be saved in the future.
00:00:14.580 | And it says we are being saved right now, being saved.
00:00:19.500 | We're gonna look at that last one, the present tense one,
00:00:21.880 | today in a question from a listener named Jessica.
00:00:25.440 | Hello, Pastor John, thank you for answering
00:00:27.000 | so many questions on this podcast.
00:00:28.560 | Here's mine.
00:00:29.700 | I recently read 1 Corinthians 1:18 with new eyes.
00:00:32.820 | I noticed that the word saved in my King James version
00:00:36.920 | is translated as being saved
00:00:39.400 | in many other modern translations.
00:00:41.540 | I've heard this explained by teachers
00:00:43.100 | with the following rationale for being saved.
00:00:45.420 | Number one, we were eternally saved
00:00:47.320 | from judgment of our sin,
00:00:49.360 | as Jesus paid it all on the cross, past tense.
00:00:53.560 | Number two, we are presently being saved
00:00:55.760 | from behaving sinfully by walking in the spirit.
00:00:59.360 | And number three, we will be saved
00:01:01.300 | from a world filled with sin
00:01:03.600 | after our life on earth is over
00:01:05.000 | and we are given our glorified bodies.
00:01:07.760 | The church mainly addresses the fact
00:01:09.520 | that we have been saved, past tense.
00:01:13.300 | But can you explain to me the second one
00:01:15.200 | in 1 Corinthians 1:18 that we are being saved right now?
00:01:20.200 | - Let's nail down past salvation and future salvation
00:01:26.920 | and then focus on what the Bible means
00:01:31.920 | by our being saved in between those two acts of salvation.
00:01:37.040 | But let's be clear from the beginning
00:01:40.700 | that all three stages of salvation were secured,
00:01:45.700 | purchased by the decisive act of God in Christ on the cross.
00:01:54.840 | All three, not just the past.
00:01:57.520 | Now here's the utterly glorious foundation
00:02:00.800 | for that statement, Romans 8:32.
00:02:03.480 | Maybe my favorite verse in the Bible.
00:02:06.240 | "He who did not spare his own son,
00:02:10.240 | "but gave him up for us all," now that's the cross.
00:02:13.680 | "How will he not also with him
00:02:18.240 | "graciously give us all things?"
00:02:21.440 | Now here's the meaning.
00:02:23.160 | Because of the cross, every aspect of salvation
00:02:28.160 | will most certainly come to God's people,
00:02:32.600 | past, present, future.
00:02:34.180 | So whether past, present, or future,
00:02:38.560 | we are not talking about three different foundations
00:02:42.880 | of salvation, but the different applications
00:02:47.000 | of the one achieved foundation, Jesus Christ,
00:02:51.840 | crucified for sinners.
00:02:54.080 | So first, past salvation.
00:02:56.120 | Ephesians 2, 8, "By grace you have been saved,
00:03:01.120 | "through faith."
00:03:02.240 | This is not your own doing.
00:03:03.520 | "It is the gift of God, not a result of works,
00:03:06.260 | "so that no one may boast,
00:03:08.220 | "for we are his workmanship created," that's past,
00:03:12.440 | created, your new creation.
00:03:14.720 | You were created.
00:03:15.960 | That was a point in time at the new birth.
00:03:18.120 | Created in Christ Jesus for good works,
00:03:21.320 | that's ongoing, which God prepared before him
00:03:23.960 | that we should walk in them.
00:03:25.160 | So the decisive work is done the moment we believed
00:03:29.760 | we were united to Christ, we're justified in him,
00:03:34.120 | we're forgiven, adopted, we became new creatures,
00:03:38.160 | and we're once for all saved, to the uttermost,
00:03:42.640 | as Hebrews 7, 25 says.
00:03:45.520 | Now that past salvation, Paul says,
00:03:49.680 | is the absolute guarantee of our future salvation.
00:03:54.680 | And usually that future salvation is spoken of as a rescue
00:04:00.960 | from the future wrath of God.
00:04:05.920 | So here's Romans 5, 9.
00:04:07.920 | "Since therefore we have been justified by his blood,"
00:04:12.920 | that's past, and that's the guarantee of what?
00:04:16.580 | "Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
00:04:20.480 | For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God,"
00:04:26.040 | past, "by the death of his Son, much more,
00:04:31.000 | now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?"
00:04:34.720 | And there are numerous other texts that speak in that way.
00:04:38.920 | 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, and 10, Romans 13, 11,
00:04:43.120 | 2 Timothy 4, 18, 1 Thessalonians 1, 10, Hebrews 9, 28.
00:04:48.120 | Now, what about the words, "are being saved,"
00:04:53.660 | in 1 Corinthians 1, 18?
00:04:56.140 | That's what Jessica is asking about.
00:04:58.020 | "The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,
00:05:01.900 | but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God."
00:05:06.900 | Same wording in Acts 2, 47,
00:05:09.920 | "The Lord added to their number day by day,
00:05:13.100 | those who were being saved."
00:05:15.840 | Same thing in 2 Corinthians 2, 15,
00:05:18.540 | "We are the aroma of Christ to God
00:05:22.720 | among those who are being saved."
00:05:27.200 | So in what sense is God saving us now
00:05:32.200 | between the past salvation of the new birth,
00:05:37.620 | and redemption, and justification,
00:05:39.320 | and forgiveness of sins, and adoption,
00:05:41.040 | which are all fixed, and firm, and unchangeable,
00:05:44.160 | and the future salvation of deliverance
00:05:47.900 | from the wrath of God in judgment,
00:05:52.400 | and the, as she said, complete eradication of sin,
00:05:57.140 | and the transformation of our bodies
00:05:58.860 | into glorious bodies like Christ?
00:06:01.120 | What is God doing now
00:06:04.600 | that qualifies as part of this salvation?
00:06:08.660 | And I think the key verse that launches us
00:06:12.200 | into our right understanding of this
00:06:14.200 | is 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13.
00:06:18.040 | "God chose you as the first fruits
00:06:23.660 | to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit
00:06:28.660 | and belief in the truth."
00:06:32.440 | Saved through sanctification by the Spirit.
00:06:37.780 | That is what God is doing now.
00:06:41.200 | He is sanctifying us, and that is salvation.
00:06:46.200 | A necessary part of salvation for three reasons.
00:06:51.680 | One, it says right here in this text,
00:06:55.880 | we are saved through sanctification.
00:06:59.160 | Sanctification is the work of God
00:07:01.200 | through which we make it to find our salvation.
00:07:05.040 | Number two, Hebrews 12, 14 says there's a holiness,
00:07:09.540 | a sanctification, without which we will not see the Lord.
00:07:14.540 | So God is at work saving us now
00:07:18.140 | by seeing to it that we attain the holiness
00:07:21.640 | without which we won't see the Lord.
00:07:23.860 | And number three, 2 Peter 1, 10 says,
00:07:28.580 | "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent
00:07:31.620 | to confirm your calling and election,
00:07:36.300 | for if you practice these things,"
00:07:38.220 | that is, if you're sanctified, as Paul said,
00:07:41.180 | "you'll never fail, you'll never fall."
00:07:43.800 | So I conclude that Christians are being saved now by God
00:07:48.800 | in that he is sanctifying us
00:07:54.500 | as the necessary confirmation of our election
00:07:59.620 | through lives of sanctification.
00:08:02.100 | God is doing that saving work in two senses.
00:08:05.840 | Number one, he's keeping us back
00:08:09.740 | from soul-destroying patterns of sin.
00:08:12.820 | As it says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13,
00:08:15.780 | no test, no temptation will overcome us to destroy us.
00:08:20.780 | Or Jude 24, he will keep us from stumbling
00:08:26.700 | and present us blameless to God.
00:08:28.940 | And number two, the other sense
00:08:32.700 | in which God is doing that sanctifying work,
00:08:37.420 | that saving work, is by causing us
00:08:40.620 | to positively walk in paths of righteousness.
00:08:44.200 | As Hebrews 13, 21 says, "He is working in us
00:08:48.500 | that which is pleasing in his sight."
00:08:51.500 | Now, if we ask how God is saving us
00:08:56.980 | in this sanctifying way,
00:09:00.580 | the answer given over and over
00:09:02.660 | is by the word of God, by the gospel.
00:09:07.420 | So Jesus prayed, "Father, sanctify them in the truth.
00:09:12.420 | Your word is truth."
00:09:14.220 | So God sanctifies by the truth.
00:09:18.300 | Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 and 2,
00:09:22.200 | "I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel
00:09:26.820 | I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand,
00:09:31.820 | and by which you are being saved,
00:09:36.060 | if you hold fast to the word I preach to you."
00:09:40.020 | In other words, the words of God, the gospel,
00:09:45.020 | God uses to, in an ongoing, present, saving,
00:09:52.400 | sanctifying work in believers,
00:09:55.680 | keep us, hold us, save us by the gospel,
00:10:00.080 | by trusting the promises of the gospel.
00:10:02.400 | Day by day, the power of sin is broken,
00:10:06.400 | and we walk in the freedom of holiness.
00:10:09.180 | James puts it like this, James 1, 21.
00:10:12.240 | He says to Christians, "Receive with meekness
00:10:16.540 | the implanted word which is able to save your soul."
00:10:22.260 | So daily welcoming, receiving, daily embracing
00:10:27.260 | of the word of God is the ongoing way
00:10:31.820 | that God keeps us from destruction and saves us.
00:10:35.980 | Peter puts it like this in 1 Peter 2, 2.
00:10:39.380 | After saying that we are born again
00:10:42.220 | by the living and abiding word of God,
00:10:44.700 | he says to new Christians, "Like newborn infants,
00:10:49.760 | long for the pure spiritual milk."
00:10:53.980 | I take that to be the word.
00:10:56.300 | "That by it, you may grow up into salvation."
00:11:01.300 | We grow into final salvation by living on the word of God.
00:11:06.660 | That's how the gospel goes on saving.
00:11:12.940 | Which leaves us now with one final question.
00:11:17.000 | Can we count on God's present saving work
00:11:20.820 | to be as infallible and as sure as our past salvation is?
00:11:26.680 | The past seems so firm, so fixed, so finished,
00:11:32.900 | it's wonderful to dwell on the past thought.
00:11:35.740 | I am justified.
00:11:37.500 | The past can't be changed,
00:11:39.580 | but what about the present ongoing work of God
00:11:43.620 | to save us through sanctification?
00:11:45.580 | And here's Paul's answer in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23.
00:11:50.580 | "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.
00:11:56.660 | And may your whole spirit and soul and body
00:12:01.140 | be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:12:06.020 | He who calls you is faithful.
00:12:09.260 | He will surely do it."
00:12:14.260 | So yes, yes, it is sure.
00:12:17.940 | Present salvation is as sure as the past
00:12:22.940 | because the past is in fact what secures it.
00:12:27.160 | So let's end where we began
00:12:31.220 | with the spectacular logic of heaven in Romans 8, 32.
00:12:36.220 | "He who did not spare his own son,
00:12:40.540 | but gave him up for us all."
00:12:42.860 | That's the past.
00:12:44.060 | How will he not also graciously give us all things?
00:12:49.060 | So yes, yes, our present and future salvation
00:12:55.740 | is as sure as God's commitment
00:13:01.500 | to the worth of his son's death, which is infinite.
00:13:06.500 | - Secure and sure in the blood of Jesus Christ, amen.
00:13:11.700 | Thank you, Pastor John, for that gospel reminder,
00:13:13.580 | and thank you for joining us today in the podcast.
00:13:15.940 | If you want to ask Pastor John, email your question to us
00:13:19.660 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:13:22.260 | We'll ask three people to explain
00:13:25.180 | what it means to be spiritual,
00:13:26.900 | and you'll get four different answers.
00:13:29.100 | That's a humorous way to state the problem.
00:13:31.500 | Definitions of spirituality are squishy.
00:13:34.100 | It means something different to everyone.
00:13:36.020 | So what is biblical spirituality?
00:13:40.180 | That's next time.
00:13:41.140 | I'm your host Tony Reggie.
00:13:42.580 | We'll see you back here on Thursday.
00:13:44.420 | (upbeat music)
00:13:47.020 | (upbeat music)
00:13:49.620 | [BLANK_AUDIO]