Salvation has 3 tenses

“Salvation”

The term salvation is misleading because it’s meaning is so vague. We can be “saved” from a burning building or even bad company…

Salvation has 3 tenses

1.   I am saved

2.   I am being saved

3.   And I will be saved

What does that mean?

1. I am saved – refers to Justification

2. I am being saved - refers to Sanctification

3. And I will be saved - refers to Glorification

1.   Justification is Past tense is the separation from the Penalty of sin.

2.   Sanctification is Present tense is the separation from the Power of sin

3.   Glorification is Future tense is the separation from the Presence of sin.

1. Justification

Justification is past tense and it is a gift in Christ alone and by Grace alone. Justification means that I have been saved from penalty of death, as can be seen in Ephesians 2. You can’t loose your justification through sins you commit because you didn’t earn righteousness (right-standing with God) it in the first place. Everlasting life is a free gift and is not conditional to our behavior; it is only conditional to our faith in the fact that Jesus is our Savoir.

• Justification was done for us by Jesus

• Justification declares us righteous

• Justification removes the penalty of sin

Ephesians 2:8 (AMP)

8 For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God;

2. Sanctification

Sanctification is the present tense of salvation. Sanctification means behavior counts - Sin need not rain in your life anymore. You have the power to overcome it through the Holy Spirit. (Book of Romans deals with this topic)

Sanctification is progressive; it is a work in progress that involves the faith and works of the believer. Your sanctification will be manifest by your behavior. Behavior matters! Behavior is not important for justification but once you have been justified, behavior counts! Sanctification leads to glorification, which is yet in the future. Know that some believers will have more glory than others – (book of Hebrews deals with this topic.)

• Sanctification happens inside of us

• Sanctification makes us to be as righteous as we have been declaired

• Sanctification removes the growth and power of sin

2 Timothy 2:21-26 (NKJV)

21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. 22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. 24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

3. Glorification

The dictionary says: Glorification is to be lifted into the glory of God’s presence. Moses on the mountain, Jesus at His transfiguration on the mount (and countless others who are not recorded in the Bible) have literally shone white light (called the shakinah glory) from their skin, as they have come into the presence of the Almighty God.

• Glorification is of God

• Glorification makes us perfect

• Glorification takes place in the absence of sin altogether

1 Corinthians 2:7 (AMP)

But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden [from the human understanding] and now revealed to us by God—[that wisdom] which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification [to lift us into the glory of His presence].

- Based on the teachings of Dr. Chuck Missler