Salvation: Past, Present, Future

Scripture – Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Devotion

I’ll confess something unusual about me: I find grammar fascinating. I actually like it. Now, when I was a child, I did not enjoy learning the rules of grammar, filling out endless grammar worksheets, drilling in class, and so forth. For me, fascination with grammar came later in life, especially as I began studying New Testament Greek and realizing how much grammar can actually help us understand what God is saying to us in Scripture.

Take Ephesians 2:8, for example. You may have noticed that the English translation of this verse uses the present perfect tense of the verb “to be saved”: “For it is by grace you have been saved.” Not “are saved” or “will be saved” or “were saved” but “have been saved.” This English translation accurately renders the Greek original, which is also in the present perfect tense. What is the sense of the present perfect here? In Greek, this tense indicates that something happened in the past, but with continuing results or implications. “I am saved” states a present condition. “I was saved” specifies that this happened in the past. “I have been saved” means that my salvation began in the past and continues into the present.

In his letters, the Apostle Paul uses various tenses when he speaks of our salvation. Most often, he uses the verb “to save” in the future tense, in reference to the ultimate salvation that we will experience in God’s future (for example, Romans 5:9-10; 10:9). Yet, Paul can also speak of salvation as a present experience (1 Corinthians 1:8; 15:2), or even as something that happened in the past, though with an eye to the future (Romans 8:24). By using the present perfect tense in Ephesians, Paul underscores the fact that our salvation is grounded on something that happened in the past, namely, the sacrificial death of Christ. In this sense, we were saved (past tense). Yet, our salvation continues to unfold in our life as we experience more and more of what we have in Christ.

Let me illustrate this by pointing to my own life experience. My salvation was earned in the past when Christ died for me on the cross. I received this salvation by faith when I went forward at a Billy Graham crusade in 1963. That also happened in the past. At that time, as a six-year-old boy, I had assurance that I would be saved in the future. But that is not the whole story. For the past fifty-seven years God has been graciously allowing me to experience more of his salvation as he has been bringing me into greater wholeness. Thus, I am able to say with gratitude that I was saved. I will be saved. I am saved. And I have been saved. You can say the same things about yourself if you have received God’s grace through Christ. Hallelujah!

Reflect

In what ways have you been experiencing God’s salvation in your life?

In what ways do you sense that you still need to experience more of his salvation?

Act

If you keep a journal, write down some of the specific ways you have experienced God’s salvation. If you don’t journal, or even if you do, share with a friend how God has saved you and listen to your friend’s experience of salvation.

Pray

Gracious God, I thank you that you saved me through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. I thank you that you saved me when I received the gift of salvation by putting my faith in you. I thank you for the assurance that you will save me when, in the future, I stand before your throne of judgment. I thank you because I have been saved because of what you have done in the past, and because I continue to experience your salvation in new ways in my daily life.

All praise and glory be to you, O God, my Savior! Amen.

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Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the High Calling Archive, hosted by the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: A Light to the Gentiles