#saved?

1 Corinthians 15:1–2

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and “by which also you are being saved, if you continue to keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed without due and reasonable consideration.”

 Have you ever been troubled by the tenses used by authors in the New Testament when speaking of salvation and being saved? How can Paul, for instance, say in one verse that “you have been saved” and then as, in 1 Corinthians 15, say, “you are being saved?” So, which is it Paul? In the past completed or in the present progressive?

  Ephesians 2:5

… by grace you have been saved—

  Ephesians 2:8–9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

 Or?  

  I Corinthians 15:2

 “By which also you are being saved, if you continue to keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed without due and reasonable consideration.”

 A simplistic point of view would find this contradictory. Paul, are we being saved or have we been saved? If we understand the Greek verb for “saved” properly, we see that it has a root meaning to “rescue from danger and to restore to a former state of safety and wellbeing; i.e. ‘to deliver, to rescue, to make safe, deliverance.” And often in the New Testament, it is specifically used to mean “to cause someone to experience divine salvation.” So, Paul, are we being saved, or have we been saved?

 The only way to make any sense of this seeming contradiction is to consider how God saves and how we come to experience his divine salvation. By considering our makeup and the progress growth brings to our lives, helpful insight comes.

 First, we are made up of three parts. Our humanity has a spirit or God-conscious part; a soul or self-conscious part; and a body or physical awareness part; our material part. Salvation affects or will affect all three areas of our humanity: i.e. our spirit, our soul, and our body. To leave any part of our humanity still under any trace of the fall would be not a full salvation. Redemption will and must redeem us completely.  But the timing of that experiential salvation is different for each part.

 Our spirit is completely and perfectly saved at the moment we truly believe. Our Spirit is made perfect and joined to the Lord when we believe. We are made spiritually alive when we are born-again. In this area, we have been saved from spiritual death. For instance:  

  Hebrews 12:22–23

But you have come …. to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

  1 Corinthians 6:17

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

 Our souls and physical bodies do not fare as well. Our souls need to be saved from the forces that would be naturally working and controlling them. Only as we continue to keep the word of God active and alive in our memory will this happen. Should we neglect the word of God on a personal level, our souls will revert to their fallen lust patterns and the environment around them. While our spirits remain perfected in Christ, our souls can be stunted in their spiritual growth and exist without the experience of the fullness of God. We can be saved in our spirits but not converted in our souls nor fully persuaded to think with God: The Corinthians were in this condition:

  1 Corinthians 3:1–3

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, carnal, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

 These Corinthians were in Christ. They were saved from hell and the penalty of their sins. They were not under the wrath of God. Yet, they were not experiencing the life of God in their souls, they were saved by grace but living by relying on the flesh. Thus, they behaved in a merely human way. This was the condition of their souls at that time. There is so much that could be said about this aspect of our experience and our relationship with Christ. And there is a deep sense of sadness to Paul’s comments to the Corinthians. He wanted to have a mature ministry and an adult relationship with them. But they had no capacity for it. They were self-limited and immature believers. They were not available to God for further growth. They lived without a true reckoning upon what was important concerning their futures. And we can do the same thing if we are not discerning.

Which is to say: everything you love to do, you have to hate; & everything you hate to do, you now have to love. Are you ready for that?

Have you ever prayed for God to break you? A very powerful prayer, but the question is are you willing to be broken and change your ways. Only you can answer