The Three Tenses of Salvation

I like the response J. Sidlow Baxter, the late English Bible expositor, gave to a stranger once when asked if he were saved: "I have been saved, I am being saved, and I shall be saved." As the saying goes, truer words could not be spoken.

As Baxter had learned from years of careful examination of the Bible, salvation comes in three tenses: past, present and future.

Past Tense of Salvation

Writing to his converts in Ephesus, Paul reminds them twice within the space of 4 verses that "you have been saved."(1) The more recent versions of the Bible are usually more precise, as in this instance, in accurately translating the grammatical tenses.

In this same Epistle, the apostle makes reference to a point in past time when his readers came to faith in Christ: "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, ...(2)

To be saved is to be "included in Christ" — to be "in Christ." Every human being now living dwells in the spiritual realm of one of two categories: he is either in Christ or outside of Christ.

When God saved Noah and his family from the universal flood that destroyed the rest of the human family then living, only those in the ark were saved, all others perished. If you were in the ark you were saved; if you were outside the ark, you were lost. So it is in our relationship to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are either included in Christ by grace through faith, or we have excluded ourselves from Christ through rebellion and unbelief.

To be saved is to be saved by grace. Salvation is God's gracious act influencing man's free choice: "it is by grace you have been saved."(3)

The benevolent kindness of our God towards His rebellious creation is unfathomable. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."(4)

It is grace from first to last. We didn't deserve it nor did we earn it. Salvation is a free gift from God granted to repentant sinners who look only to Christ as their Savior. This has all been made possible because of the Cross event some two thousand years ago. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself ..."(5)

To be saved is to have your past cleared. "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins ...(6)

Corrie ten Boom used to remind her audiences frequently of God's merciful attitude towards the forgiven sinner. "When God forgives you, he puts up a sign that reads, 'No fishing permitted.'" What she was saying was, that when we have come to faith in Christ and have been forgiven of our sins for Christ's sake, our sinful past record has been wiped clean through the mercy of God and neither the devil, nor any others, have a right to dig up the past.

Reader, have you been saved?

Present Tense of Salvation

Salvation is not only a historical-experiential event in the life of every believer, but it is also a present reality in the pilgrimage of each persevering Christian. The believer has been saved; he is also being saved. "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God."(7)

Whereas our conversion to Christ takes place at a point in time when we trust in Christ as our Lord and Savior, our salvation is maintained moment by moment by our merciful God through the same Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ is not only our Savior from sin; He is also our Advocate, Intercessor and Mediator. Forty days following the atoning death of Jesus Christ, He ascended to the right hand of God the Father. Why? In order that He might administer to believers the redeeming benefits of His meritorious death.

Jesus died an atoning sacrifice on Calvary's Cross to forgive all our past transgressions; He presently sits by the Father's side to keep us from falling. Jesus died a vicarious death in order that God could justifiably justify repentant sinners; He sits at the Father's right hand that He may sanctify hungry believers. Jesus died an ignominious death in order to bring sinners into a reconciled relationship with His Father; He sits at the Father's right hand in order to preserve that relationship. Jesus serves right now as the believer's High Priest, Intercessor, Advocate and Friend.

High Priest: "We have ... a high priest, who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens ..."(8)

Intercessor: "Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to make intercession for them."(9)

Advocate: "And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."(10)

Friend: "Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend ..."(11)

Thank God for the Cross! Thank God for the Resurrection! Thank God for the Ascension! Thank God for the present ministries of our all-conquering Lord, administered from our Father's very own side.

Christian, God is for you — all the time. Paul asks, "Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."(12)

Future Tense of Salvation

The one who has come to faith in Christ has been saved, is being saved, and shall be saved. In what sense can it be said that salvation is yet future for the believer? Whereas past and present tense salvation deals with our standing before God as well as our fellowship with God, there yet remains for the believer the final deliverance from the surrounding presence of sin and the out-poured wrath of God.

The Christian's salvation will not have been completed until Jesus Christ returns for His Bride. God's redemption plan includes far more than justification and the forgiveness of sins. It involves more than His present and powerful ministry administered even now by the Lord Jesus Christ.

There yet remains a Day for God's people when they will be saved finally and everlastingly by the return of the Lord Jesus for His own. Every justified Christian has received eternal life (see for example John 3:16f) But the believer must await the return of the Bridegroom before his inheritance is fully given. In the meantime the believer has been given a guarantee of his promised inheritance and final salvation: "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the promised redemption of those who are God's possession–to the praise of his glory."(13)

God's people will be saved from God's condemnation and wrath poured out on those who refused to believe on His Son. The believer is neither condemned by God today, nor will he be condemned by the Judge of all the earth in that Day. "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."(14) "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him."(15)

As with the Thessalonian Christians, each believer is called "to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."(16)

Dear reader, I rejoice with you if you have been saved. If you have, then you are called by God to heed the words of the beloved apostle: "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."(17) Don't live like Lot who barely escaped the cities of destruction. Instead, live like Noah, who walked with God and made wise preparation for his entire household.

Yes, Dr. Baxter, you were so right; salvation does indeed come in three tenses. For every true Christian has been saved, is being saved, and will be saved–all because of God's mercy given through the Lord Jesus Christ.

All Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version of the Holy Bible excepted as noted.

1. Ephesians 2:5, 8
2. Ephesians 1:13
3. Ephesians 2:5, 8
4. Romans 5:8
5. 2 Corinthians 5:18, NASB
6. Ephesians 1:7
7. 1 Corinthians 1:18
8. Hebrews 8:1, NASB
9. Hebrews 7:35
10. 1 John 2:1, NASB
11. Job 16:19-20
12. Romans 8:34
13. Ephesians 1:13-14
14. John 3:18
15. Romans 5:9
16. 1 Thessalonians 1:10
17. Acts 2:40