This was actually a paper I wrote while in Seminary. The questions asked in it aren’t from other people, but my own, which I asked in order to answer them for this paper.
I believe that they are all three: past, present, and future, combined in sequence. But in order to back up my claim, I’ll first explain the three separately, and then explain what it all means.
Past Tense of Salvation: Atonement
When sin entered the picture, it separated creation from God. Since the Law claimed death as the punishment for sin, there needed to be a way to reconcile creation with God. But since we, as sinful creatures, can’t work our way out of sin ourselves, a specific type of creature, unblemished in every way, needed to be killed, thus taking the place of sinners.
A Perfect Sacrifice
Jesus was this perfect, and final unblemished creature sacrificed for the sake of humankind. Only Christ could free creation from sin’s grasp once and for all, for he had no sin, but instead, became sin in order that we may be freed. 1 Christ’s death on the cross is what was needed in order to reconcile creation with God. But then does this mean that all of creation is saved from sin? Not at all, for the present tense must occur next.
Present Tense of Salvation: Repentance and Obedience
All throughout history, God has sent prophets to call His people back to Him by commanding them to renounce their sins and turn to Him. If they obeyed, then the Lord would be their God, and they would be His people. So those who repented were reconciled with the Lord, but the many who disobeyed and refused to repent were cut off from the nation or killed.
God Calling His People Out of Sin
Christ’s death on the cross was God’s way of calling His people out of sin, and into Him. But once in Christ, there is an issue of obedience and renewal that has to take place, for one cannot be in Christ if they do not also obey His commands. So if we are in Christ, then a new creation takes place within us, replacing our old selves with new selves. 2 “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” 3
Future Tense of Salvation: Resurrection of the Body
If the atonement happened when Christ died on the cross, then what is the significance (in terms of salvation) of God raising Christ from the dead? One word: Eschatology.
Unfamiliarity with Resurrection
According to old Jewish customs, Christ’s death was needed to cleanse creation from sins. But the Jews were not familiar with a resurrection. In fact, there are only two places in the Hebrew scriptures that even mention anything close to such; one is not accepted by the Jews as prophetic, 4 and the other is more of a word of encouragement from God to His people. 5 So resurrection is not a Jewish thing, but an Eschatological mention of what God’s people can look forward to.
The Unexpected Resurrection
Just like the rest of us, Christ was born from the womb of a woman, lived as a human, was baptized, tempted, and died. But the resurrection was unexpected, for it pointed towards the unknown end days when God will raise those who belong to Christ, just as He did for Christ. God was showing us that the end is not death, but life, the final step in salvation.
The Tenses of Salvation In sequence:
There must be an association between the three tenses of salvation. But most of all, since one cannot attain salvation alone, we need the association with God. For, in the:
- Past, only Christ could reconcile creation to God
- Present, humankind must take hold of reconciliation by believing in and accepting the atonement through repentance and obedience to Christ
- Future, it will be God who resurrects our bodies.
So these three tenses in salvation are actually steps. Christ’s atonement on the cross was the first, for it was not only when salvation was offered, but the starting point of salvation from God.
Choosing Christ
Those who choose Christ will obey His ordinances and commandments. By doing so, they become God’s people, taking on His character, through the means of the Holy Spirit, as a child takes on the character of his or her father or mother. If they remain with the Lord, working in His name in cooperation with the Triune God, then He will one day bring them fully to Him (Resurrection), just as He did with Jesus.
3 Steps
Grace is the source of “At-one-ment”, which is the reason for repentance, and resurrection is their future result. But without the past and present, there is no salvation in the future. That’s because salvation is not a particular tense, but a sequence of steps. God fulfilled the first step. If we grasp onto the second step, then God will grant for us the third step.
“And he also said, ‘It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give the springs of the water of life without charge! All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.’” 6
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