I have a growing concern about how we view salvation in the evangelical church. Many people see it as simply a transaction that is slick, quick; no fuss, no muss. I pray a little formulaic prayer, get my spiritual barcode, and never think much about it any more since I know that now I will slide right through God’s “scanner” on judgment day.
Is this really how God intends us to view salvation? Hardly.
Biblically speaking, salvation is spoken of in three phases: past, present and future.
Speaking in the past tense it is appropriate to say “I was saved” meaning that God saved me from the penalty that my sins deserved.
Speaking in the present tense it is appropriate to say “I am being saved” meaning that God is increasingly saving me from the power of sin in my daily life.
Speaking in the future tense it is appropriate to say “I will be saved” meaning that God will one day save me from the very presence of sin in heaven.
Salvation past is justification.
Salvation present is sanctification.
Salvation future is glorification.
Insight for the Journey 
It is awesome to hear someone speak of Salvation from a biblical perspective. I’m tired of the one time transaction we have made salvation into, when clearly the bible speaks of salvation as continual and lived in front of others.
Well done on speaking the truth.
I certainly agree that simply repeating words that are a “sinners prayer” is not a “free ticket ” as if stamped and sealed for salvation.
And….Each of us came to speak and whisper and mouth words that were suggested to us by a pastor or a friend or on the TV or radio, or written on a tract….
Without those examples most of us would not have been able to conceptualize the HOPE of SALVATION.
Those words are certainly the beginning…..
We usually need an element of hope and trust to believe that Jesus is there, and cares to, and has the power to Save us.
Once we accept that Jesus is real and that he has the power to forgive us our sins and we speak, whisper, cry, call out that we are sorry for the mess of our lives, and hope for, ask for, beg for, Him to Save us…the process of working out our salvation begins….
People,places and things we had accepted before, little by little, or like a deluge …depending on the depth of our calling out to Jesus…are not OK anymore and we have to figure out what to do about many situations….some problems take a long time to bring into God’s will…
I truly believe that even a crumb of faith is pleasing to Jesus. A moment of knowing who he is even when a life is so affected by years of mistakes …or years of PRETENDING…we are… FINE…..is a moment of faith that can lead to salvation.
It may be a mistake to spend time wondering if a certain person is “truly saved” Certainly, once saved there is a change of heart, a turning away from past…
.for some of us it just takes a long time…….for the fruit to be recognizable..unless we also can rejoice in a crumb of faith…a single healthy decision, conversation, one single time , just one time… not to use, or go to bed with someone, or get high, or spend too much money… a person can loose hope. Encourage even a crumb.
The more we demonstrate our own brokenness, our own weakness, perhaps spoken about simply and almost disspationately..the more we encourage a person to Hope that Jesus really is here and cares and has the power and authority to heal every situation .
Be encouraged.
Rex,
I have heard your alliteration before. I first heard it taught by John MacArthur about 10 years ago. It makes for a nice, orderly sermon outline, but unfortunately its not biblical. You say: “Salvation future is glorification”, but Ephesians 2:6 says we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. Glorification is present and yet future. Paul calls the Corinthians those who are already sanctified (1 Cor 6:11). Yet you say that sanctification is present salvation. You say that justification is past, but 2 Cor 5:10 says that we will all be judged by Christ one day. Future judgment means condemnation for some and justification for others.
You say that the you are being saved from the power of sin, but Paul says we are already saved from the power of sin because the power of sin is the law and we have died to the law and the law has been fulfilled (1 Cor 15:56).
The point is that salvation has quite a bit more complexity than you give it here. It’s not laid out in this nice, neat order that you repeat it. There are both past, present and future realities of justification, sanctification and glorification. And there isn’t the nice distinction between penalty, power, and presence of sin.
I don’t blaime you for teacing it. There are many preachers who preach this sermon. I myself once preached it. But after further study I came to see that this is not how the Bible speaks about salvation.
this has been a point of my research and i think you are right because my study of the bible has revealed the three phases of salvation. thanks
@Fraiser- I think you are being subjective.study the bible objectively
i strongly agree with this. 3phases of salvation, now the seemingly hard to grasp_ about the tenses used for salvation is solved. For frasier, pray that you have the Holy Spirit when you study the Bible for no one can truly undestand it unless the Spirit of God is in him. Be like a berean christian, it wont mean that because your the only one who has a different interpretation that you receive a special revelation, the fact that many faithful ministers agreed, possibly they were rigth, because there is only one Spirit of God and so there should be harmony. This is a brotherly advice if youre a christian too.
@Frasier – I just bought a house… the whole thing is mine – fully, but I am discovering each area the more I live in it. When I looked at the house and bought it, I had one thing in mind. Now that I’ve been living in it for a couple of months, I am discovering what it actually is like, what it needs, and what a blessing it is. Yes, we have all of God – fully – when we are sealed by the Holy Spirit through our initial salvation. At the same time, we work our salvation out throughout our lives as we discover and understand more of what has happened inside of us. Our experience with salvation has phases. I’m not trying to put words in the author’s mouth. This is the first time I’ve heard it put like this, but as I read the author’s post, that is how I understand it and I find it very encouraging, stirring, and comforting all at once.
Thanks for the message, may the Lord continue to uphold you in Jesus’ name.
Thanks for the message am richly blessed, may the Lord continue to uphold you in Jesus’ name.