Present-day evangelicals and, in my experience, Southern Baptists in particular, seem to be focused very much on their personal pasts. When someone asks about your testimony what they really want to know is about the time you got saved. It’s all about when you got saved.
To be honest with you I am not sure when I “got saved,” but I’m sure it was on or before August 11, 1983, when I first publicly professed faith in Jesus Christ. One week later I was baptized in the old Hickory Grove Baptist Church chapel. But I don’t remember there ever being a time when I didn’t believe in Jesus, so it very well could have been before this that I “got saved.”
The writers of the New Testament, and in my mind right now in particular is the apostle Paul, doesn’t seem to care. The thrust of the New Testament, and I would argue the Bible as a complete unit, is about a present salvation that looks forward to a future hope.
Consider 1 Corinthians 15:1-2, in which Paul begins what amounts to a summary of the gospel that goes through verse 8. For the sake of brevity I will focus on the first two verses only. Here is my translation from the original Greek:
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I myself proclaimed to you, which also you received, in which also you have stood, through which also you are being saved, if you are holding fast to the word which I myself proclaimed to you, unless you believed in vain.
Most of our English translations leave out some important nuances from the original language that I hope I have brought out in my translation. The apostle Paul deliberately changes the tenses of his verbs in four relative clauses to make an important theological point… a point which can and should inform your relationship with God, if you have one. Allow me a moment to look at each relative clause.
“which I myself proclaimed to you” – The subject of this clause is, of course, the gospel. Paul uses the Greek simple aorist tense here, which denotes a past action. Paul had been in Corinth previously, for around eighteen months, probably before any of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke ,and John) were written, communicating orally stories about Jesus and sound doctrine.
“which also you received” – Again, Paul uses the simple aorist tense to show that, also in the past, the church at Corinth had heard and received his gospel message (what he would call in 1 Corinthians 1:18 “the word of the cross.” They heard it, they knew it, and many of them accepted it and believe in the Lord Jesus.
“in which you also have stood” – Most of the prominent English translations make this seem as if it is a present tense verb (i.e., in which you stand). The New International Version (NIV) comes a little closer to the mark with “on which you have taken your stand.” Paul used the perfect tense here, showing a past action that has continuing results. The Corinthian believers had taken their stand in the past, at a point in time (i.e., they got saved at some point in the past), and now they continued to stand on the gospel. The thrust of this verb is that the same gospel that they believed in when they were saved at first is the gospel by which they continue to stand.
“through which also you are being saved” – This is the gold mine, the climax of this thought. Paul uses a present tense passive verb here, of which the ESV and NET translations most accurate communicate the meaning. For me to tell you that I am being saved carries with it a different emphasis than for me to tell you I “got saved.” Both are equally true, but Paul’s language here communicates the former, and thus a present tense emphasis in salvation.
We are not wrong as Christians to say that salvation occurs at a point in time. Justification, the act of being declared righteous by God, on the basis on faith, is a punctilliar (point in time) event. If you know the exact year, month, day, hour, minute, and second you were made alive by God, it’s not wrong to talk about when you got saved. Just know that the New Testament doesn’t focus so much on when you got saved as much as it does the gracious act of God in salvation itself and its present implications. The whole book of 1 Corinthians is written to a church that had lost its way, in more ways than one, forgetting as it were that being saved.
That’s where the end of verse two comes into play. Paul makes it clear that those who are being saved, presently saved from the power of sin through the sanctifying, gracious work of Christ, are those who are holding fast to the word which he proclaimed to them. In other words, the gospel isn’t just for the day you said, “I believe.” The gospel is for right now.
All too often Christians are tempted to view the actual gospel as Faith 101, the beginner course in Christianity, with better and deeper things to come. To steal a line from Paul, may it never be! Read the rest of 1 Corinthians 15 and see that the resurrection hope of all believers in grounded in the gospel message, which Paul expands on in verses 3-8:
For I delivered to you most important what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He has been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at one time, of whom many remain until now, but some fell asleep. Then He was seen by James, then by all the apostles, and last of all, as though one untimely born, He was seen by me.
For what it’s worth, Paul deliberately changes tenses here, too. He died. He was buried. But He has been raised, a past action with continuing implications. Those who are in Christ believe in Jesus, a living Savior, One who appeared – alive! – to many after they had seen Him killed on a cross. Therein lies the future hope. The gospel is for now. If you are in Christ you were saved, but you are being saved even now, and a future resurrection certainty awaits.
So the next time you are tempted to refer to the gospel as something that helped you in the past, know instead that it is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).
HT: Dr. Denny Burk