Is Salvation Past, Present or Future?

1/13/19            Gabriel and Karen

 Is salvation past, present or future? Are you “saved”, still “being saved” or is your focus on one day in the future when you “will be” saved?

This was a deep topic for people who had just met, not to mention to carry it on in the aisles of a grocery store, but there we were: myself and a couple named Gabriel and Karen. It helped remind me that salvation past, present, and future are all true, as Karen brought up various Bible passages about salvation in thr process, but it also made me wonder whether some of the different denominations within Christianity might be due to an unbalanced focus on any one of these to the exclusion of the others.

For example, If we only focus on a salvation experience from the past we could be ignoring a passage like 1 Corinthians 1:18, which says “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” We could experience a false “conversion” without the repentance and power of God that produces fruit, and/or we could falsely assure others of the same.

If we only focus on our ongoing conversion and change in the present, we might be ignoring or forgetting a passage like Ephesians 2:8, which tells us “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” We might forget that salvation is a gift we have already received and try to work for it instead.

Or we might only focus on our future salvation as described in Romans 5:9 “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” But if our focus is only on the future in this way we might miss out on the eternal life that can begin here, now, as described by Jesus in John 17:3: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

Philippians 2:12 tells us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” I’m kind of experiencing that as I attempt to write about the subject. Back in the grocery store, Karen referred to it as a great mystery, and I do believe that salvation past, present and future may be one of the great paradoxes of the faith.

But one thing I do know is that whether one is “saved”, “being saved”, and/or “will be saved”, all three agree on our need for the Savior, and the “fear and trembling” involved is due to the priceless and precious cost that God paid for the gift of so great a salvation.

Thanks Gabriel and Karen for allowing me to record our conversation! It can be viewed at https://youtu.be/txeR4Ia9648 on my YouTube channel.