(upbeat music) - Welcome back to this new week on the podcast. Well, the Bible says Christians have been saved in the past. We have been saved. And it says we will be saved in the future. And it says we are being saved right now, being saved. We're gonna look at that last one, the present tense one, today in a question from a listener named Jessica.

Hello, Pastor John, thank you for answering so many questions on this podcast. Here's mine. I recently read 1 Corinthians 1:18 with new eyes. I noticed that the word saved in my King James version is translated as being saved in many other modern translations. I've heard this explained by teachers with the following rationale for being saved.

Number one, we were eternally saved from judgment of our sin, as Jesus paid it all on the cross, past tense. Number two, we are presently being saved from behaving sinfully by walking in the spirit. And number three, we will be saved from a world filled with sin after our life on earth is over and we are given our glorified bodies.

The church mainly addresses the fact that we have been saved, past tense. But can you explain to me the second one in 1 Corinthians 1:18 that we are being saved right now? - Let's nail down past salvation and future salvation and then focus on what the Bible means by our being saved in between those two acts of salvation.

But let's be clear from the beginning that all three stages of salvation were secured, purchased by the decisive act of God in Christ on the cross. All three, not just the past. Now here's the utterly glorious foundation for that statement, Romans 8:32. Maybe my favorite verse in the Bible.

"He who did not spare his own son, "but gave him up for us all," now that's the cross. "How will he not also with him "graciously give us all things?" Now here's the meaning. Because of the cross, every aspect of salvation will most certainly come to God's people, past, present, future.

So whether past, present, or future, we are not talking about three different foundations of salvation, but the different applications of the one achieved foundation, Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners. So first, past salvation. Ephesians 2, 8, "By grace you have been saved, "through faith." This is not your own doing.

"It is the gift of God, not a result of works, "so that no one may boast, "for we are his workmanship created," that's past, created, your new creation. You were created. That was a point in time at the new birth. Created in Christ Jesus for good works, that's ongoing, which God prepared before him that we should walk in them.

So the decisive work is done the moment we believed we were united to Christ, we're justified in him, we're forgiven, adopted, we became new creatures, and we're once for all saved, to the uttermost, as Hebrews 7, 25 says. Now that past salvation, Paul says, is the absolute guarantee of our future salvation.

And usually that future salvation is spoken of as a rescue from the future wrath of God. So here's Romans 5, 9. "Since therefore we have been justified by his blood," that's past, and that's the guarantee of what? "Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God," past, "by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?" And there are numerous other texts that speak in that way. 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, and 10, Romans 13, 11, 2 Timothy 4, 18, 1 Thessalonians 1, 10, Hebrews 9, 28.

Now, what about the words, "are being saved," in 1 Corinthians 1, 18? That's what Jessica is asking about. "The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God." Same wording in Acts 2, 47, "The Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved." Same thing in 2 Corinthians 2, 15, "We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved." So in what sense is God saving us now between the past salvation of the new birth, and redemption, and justification, and forgiveness of sins, and adoption, which are all fixed, and firm, and unchangeable, and the future salvation of deliverance from the wrath of God in judgment, and the, as she said, complete eradication of sin, and the transformation of our bodies into glorious bodies like Christ?

What is God doing now that qualifies as part of this salvation? And I think the key verse that launches us into our right understanding of this is 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. "God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth." Saved through sanctification by the Spirit.

That is what God is doing now. He is sanctifying us, and that is salvation. A necessary part of salvation for three reasons. One, it says right here in this text, we are saved through sanctification. Sanctification is the work of God through which we make it to find our salvation.

Number two, Hebrews 12, 14 says there's a holiness, a sanctification, without which we will not see the Lord. So God is at work saving us now by seeing to it that we attain the holiness without which we won't see the Lord. And number three, 2 Peter 1, 10 says, "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these things," that is, if you're sanctified, as Paul said, "you'll never fail, you'll never fall." So I conclude that Christians are being saved now by God in that he is sanctifying us as the necessary confirmation of our election through lives of sanctification.

God is doing that saving work in two senses. Number one, he's keeping us back from soul-destroying patterns of sin. As it says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, no test, no temptation will overcome us to destroy us. Or Jude 24, he will keep us from stumbling and present us blameless to God.

And number two, the other sense in which God is doing that sanctifying work, that saving work, is by causing us to positively walk in paths of righteousness. As Hebrews 13, 21 says, "He is working in us that which is pleasing in his sight." Now, if we ask how God is saving us in this sanctifying way, the answer given over and over is by the word of God, by the gospel.

So Jesus prayed, "Father, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth." So God sanctifies by the truth. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 and 2, "I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you." In other words, the words of God, the gospel, God uses to, in an ongoing, present, saving, sanctifying work in believers, keep us, hold us, save us by the gospel, by trusting the promises of the gospel.

Day by day, the power of sin is broken, and we walk in the freedom of holiness. James puts it like this, James 1, 21. He says to Christians, "Receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your soul." So daily welcoming, receiving, daily embracing of the word of God is the ongoing way that God keeps us from destruction and saves us.

Peter puts it like this in 1 Peter 2, 2. After saying that we are born again by the living and abiding word of God, he says to new Christians, "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk." I take that to be the word. "That by it, you may grow up into salvation." We grow into final salvation by living on the word of God.

That's how the gospel goes on saving. Which leaves us now with one final question. Can we count on God's present saving work to be as infallible and as sure as our past salvation is? The past seems so firm, so fixed, so finished, it's wonderful to dwell on the past thought.

I am justified. The past can't be changed, but what about the present ongoing work of God to save us through sanctification? And here's Paul's answer in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23. "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it." So yes, yes, it is sure. Present salvation is as sure as the past because the past is in fact what secures it. So let's end where we began with the spectacular logic of heaven in Romans 8, 32. "He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all." That's the past.

How will he not also graciously give us all things? So yes, yes, our present and future salvation is as sure as God's commitment to the worth of his son's death, which is infinite. - Secure and sure in the blood of Jesus Christ, amen. Thank you, Pastor John, for that gospel reminder, and thank you for joining us today in the podcast.

If you want to ask Pastor John, email your question to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. We'll ask three people to explain what it means to be spiritual, and you'll get four different answers. That's a humorous way to state the problem. Definitions of spirituality are squishy. It means something different to everyone.

So what is biblical spirituality? That's next time. I'm your host Tony Reggie. We'll see you back here on Thursday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)