Three Tenses of Salvation

RichWh1 said:

C. 1. Scofield, in his comment on Rom. 1:16, says very aptly:
"The Hebrew and Greek words for salvation imply the ideas of deliverance,
safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Salvation is the great
inclusive word of the Gospel, gathering into itself all the redemptive acts and
processes: as justification, redemption, grace, propitiation, imputation,
forgiveness, sanctification, and glorification."

Salvation, therefore, in its broad sense,
has to do with both the soul and the body, with the present life as well as with
future life. It has reference, not only to the remission of sin’s penalty an d
the removal of its guilt, but also to the conquering of the power of sin and to
the final removal of the presence of sin from the body. It is only by
recognizing this that one can grasp the full sweep of the Bible doctrine of
salvation. And it is only by being able to classify each passage dealing with
salvation on the basis of the foregoing facts that one can avoid the confusion
that exists in the mind of the average believer. We can best accomplish this end
by noting that salvation is spoken of in three tenses, and in carefully
considering each tense. All three tenses are roughly summed up in 2 Cor. 1:10: "Who
delivered us (past tense) from so great a death, and doth deliver (present
tense): in whom we trust that he will (future tense) yet deliver
us."
I. THE PAST TENSE OF SALVATION
We have been saved from the PENALTY of sin.
Note the following passages:
*** "Thy faith hath saved thee" (Luke 7:50). "By grace have ye been saved through faith" (Eph. 2:8)...who saved us and called us with a holy calling" (2 Tim. 1:9). "...according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5).
All of these passages, and many more like them, speak of salvation as a work finished in the past. This tense of salvation is coincident with the believer’s past sanctification, as considered in the former chapter. It has to do (1) with the soul; (2) with the remission of sin’s penalty, the removal of guilt, and even the removal of sin’s presence from the soul.
*** In this sense the salvation of the believer is complete. As we have said of justification, so we may say of this tense of salvation: it is an act, and not a process. It occurs and is complete the moment the individual believes. It admits of no degrees nor stages.
*** It is under this tense of salvation that we are to classify the passages that speak of the believer as possessing eternal life now. See John 5:24; John 6:47; 17:2, 3; 1 John 3:13; 5:11, 13. This means simply, as expressed in John 5:24, that the believer has passed from under all danger of condemnation and the power of the second death.
II. THE PRESENT TENSE OF SALVATION
We are being saved from the POWER of sin.
"The word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved (marg., are being saved) it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18).
The Greek participle in the above passage is in the present tense, and denotes "those being saved, the act...being in progress, not completed" (E. P. Gould).
It is with reference to the present tense of salvation that Phil. 2:12 speaks when it says: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." The meaning of this passage is that the Philippian believers were to make effective in their lives the new life that God had implanted in their hearts.
There are other passages in which salvation is not mentioned, which, nevertheless, refer to the present process of salvation; such as Rom. 6:14; Gal. 2:19,20; 2 Cor. 3:18.
In the present tense of salvation believers are being saved through the work of the indwelling Spirit from the power of sin to hinder the new life. It is thus equivalent to progressive sanctification. It has to do not with the soul, nor with the body, but with the life.
III. THE FUTURE TENSE OF SALVATION
We shall be saved from the PRESENCE of sin.
In the following passages salvation is spoken of as something yet future. Rom. 5:9, 10; 8:24; 13:11; 1 Cor. 5:5; Eph. 1:13, 14; 1 Thess. 5:8; Heb. 10:36; 1 Pet. 1.5; 1 John 3:2, 3.
Paul tells us in Rom. 8:23 what this future salvation is in the main. It is "the redemption of our body," by which he means the application of redemption to the believer’s body. This will take place in the resurrection of those who sleep in Christ (1 Cor. 15:52-56; 1 Thess. 4.16) and in the rapture of those who are alive at Christ’s coming in the air (1 Thess. 4:17). It is only then that the regenerated spirit will enter into the full fruition of salvation. Thus we read that the spirit is to be saved "in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1 Cor. 5:5). This tense of salvation has to do mainly with the body and the presence of sin in the body.
*** It is under this head that we are to classify all the passages that speak of eternal life as something the believer will receive in the future. See Matt. 25:46; Mark 10:30; Titus 1:2; 3:
*** Thus we have the beautiful harmony that exists between all the passages that touch on the subject of salvation. There is no conflict between these passages, because they refer to different phases of salvation. It is absurd and heretical for any man to take one set out of the three, no matter which set he takes, and seek to deny or nullify one or the other or both of the two remaining sets. The way of truth is to take all of them rightly divided.
*** Let it be remarked in closing that salvation in all its tenses and phases is of the Lord. Paul gives us God’s method of work in salvation from beginning to end in Phil 1:6 and 2:13. He begins the work of salvation and He carries it on to its consummation. All along the line He works in us "both to will and to do His good pleasure." Moreover it is all of grace through faith. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:17).
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Josiah said:

Because the word "salvation" is not always used in the same sense. Not in Scripture, not in theology.

In the Justification thread, it is absolutely essential to note in what sense the term is meant. It is ROUGHLY similar to "salvation" in that we speak of it as narrow (referring to the COMING of grace, life, faith, Holy Spirit) or as broad (which includes everything invovled in what God desires and calls us to do and can have a future tense sense to it). This is why Luther (and the Lutheran fathers) went to such HUGE, CONSTANT lengths to make it UNMISTAKABLE and IMPOSSIBLE to misunderstood what they meant (See post 213 in that thread). And why the RCC went to such HUGE lengths to stress they were condemning it IN THAT SENSE. The RCC made it clear they AGREED with Lutherans on what follows narrow Justification (justification in that initial sense) so it's just a diversion when some TRY to stress the CHRISTIAN life as debatable when it NEVER has been, as all "sides" have stressed.

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Josiah said:

Not what I meant. But okay.

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