Very well stated, Diane! Our Salvation Triad. There truly is salvation in none Other but it is much more grand than an "altar prayer." (I so appreciate Matt's attention to the penalty, power, and presence aspects, below.) have preached these three tenses of salvation for years and I appreciate the affirmation. It certainly does comprise a perfectly completed, yet continuing, and ultimate consummation, together of our great hope!
I feel like this is one more benefit to having come to faith as an adult. I've never taken the incredible gift of my salvation for granted, and I've understood the tri-tense nature of it from the very beginning.
Not that I don't have my own issues, lol. I tend to focus on the future part of salvation, which probably has something to do with my struggles to consciously accept that I can be forgiven for some of the things I've done in my life.
I know in my heart that I have been (and will continue to be) forgiven, but the conscious intellectual side of believing it is... challenging.
Yes, absolutely. The perfect tense of σεσωσμένοι in Ephesians 2:8 does emphasize a completed action with ongoing results, which is exactly why Paul can speak of believers as truly saved in a definitive sense.
My point wasn’t to deny that completed reality, but to highlight that Paul also comfortably speaks of salvation in present and future dimensions elsewhere. So rather than reducing salvation to only one tense, Paul seems to embrace all three of them together... a completed covenant reality, an ongoing work of transformation, and a future consummation still to come.
I understand, as a pastor, that the perfect tense (and particularly here, the periphrastic perfect) can be a difficult concept for church members, but it’s application is amazingly impactful on New Testament translation. I am very impressed with your blog; you are doing excellent work and your writing is clear and easily understood. Blessings!
What struck me most while reading this is that perhaps the modern church did not completely lose salvation…
it reduced it to a moment.
A prayer prayed.
A date remembered.
An altar call frozen in memory.
And slowly, something living became something archived.
Because the tragedy of modern faith may not be unbelief alone. It may be the attempt to compress an eternal covenant into a single past-tense event. As if the human soul could be fully transformed in one instant and never again need wilderness, wrestling, surrender, becoming.
But Scripture never speaks about salvation like a photograph.
It speaks about it like a journey.
And maybe this is why Paul refuses to stay inside one tense. Because the human being himself does not live inside one tense. We carry memory, transformation, and longing all at once. We are shaped by what has happened, undone by what is still happening, and pulled forward by what has not yet arrived.
A soul cannot be contained inside a timestamp.
Maybe that is why the Exodus story matters so deeply here. Israel was saved at the sea, yes. But they were also being transformed in the wilderness. And they were still moving toward a promised fullness they had not yet touched.
The crossing was real.
But the crossing was not the end.
And I think modern people deeply need this reminder. Because many are exhausted from trying to treat faith as a completed transaction rather than a living relationship. They know the language of “I was saved,” but have lost the language of “I am still being remade.”
That changes everything.
Because then failure is no longer proof that the story ended.
Struggle is no longer evidence that grace disappeared.
Waiting is no longer spiritual abandonment.
It becomes part of the journey itself.
And maybe the deepest spiritual mistake of our age is this:
We have become uncomfortable with unfinishedness.
We want instant arrival.
Instant certainty.
Instant holiness.
Instant resolution.
But God seems far more patient with human becoming than modern religious culture is.
Perhaps salvation was never meant to make us static.
Love this, thank you for sharing. There is so much more to salvation than we typically live in. I’ve heard it said this way:
We’ve been saved from the penalty of sin. (Past)
We’re being saved from the power of sin. (Present)
We will be saved from the presence of sin. (Future)
Yes!!! Love it!!
Very well stated, Diane! Our Salvation Triad. There truly is salvation in none Other but it is much more grand than an "altar prayer." (I so appreciate Matt's attention to the penalty, power, and presence aspects, below.) have preached these three tenses of salvation for years and I appreciate the affirmation. It certainly does comprise a perfectly completed, yet continuing, and ultimate consummation, together of our great hope!
Thank you, again!
Thank you so much Don!!
I just recently wrote a little poem about this exact thing! About how our salvation is both instantaneous and continuous.
Persisting Grace—
“Once saved, always saved,” they say,
But I need saving every day!
Christ died for me. He made a way.
I trusted Him, and now obey.
Secure in Him, He holds me fast;
This justification IS going to last.
But still, I sorrow, and still, I sin—
So my God saves me again and again.
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing that!
YES!
Yes to all of this!
I feel like this is one more benefit to having come to faith as an adult. I've never taken the incredible gift of my salvation for granted, and I've understood the tri-tense nature of it from the very beginning.
Not that I don't have my own issues, lol. I tend to focus on the future part of salvation, which probably has something to do with my struggles to consciously accept that I can be forgiven for some of the things I've done in my life.
I know in my heart that I have been (and will continue to be) forgiven, but the conscious intellectual side of believing it is... challenging.
Yes that could be a big part of it!!
I just posted my testimony on the 8th. You might find it interesting.
https://biblicalreality.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-salvation
What about the use of σεσωσμενοι in Ephesians 2:8? Isn’t the use of the perfect tense comprehensive and ultimately state of being?
Yes, absolutely. The perfect tense of σεσωσμένοι in Ephesians 2:8 does emphasize a completed action with ongoing results, which is exactly why Paul can speak of believers as truly saved in a definitive sense.
My point wasn’t to deny that completed reality, but to highlight that Paul also comfortably speaks of salvation in present and future dimensions elsewhere. So rather than reducing salvation to only one tense, Paul seems to embrace all three of them together... a completed covenant reality, an ongoing work of transformation, and a future consummation still to come.
I understand, as a pastor, that the perfect tense (and particularly here, the periphrastic perfect) can be a difficult concept for church members, but it’s application is amazingly impactful on New Testament translation. I am very impressed with your blog; you are doing excellent work and your writing is clear and easily understood. Blessings!
Thank you so so much!! I appreciate that!
What struck me most while reading this is that perhaps the modern church did not completely lose salvation…
it reduced it to a moment.
A prayer prayed.
A date remembered.
An altar call frozen in memory.
And slowly, something living became something archived.
Because the tragedy of modern faith may not be unbelief alone. It may be the attempt to compress an eternal covenant into a single past-tense event. As if the human soul could be fully transformed in one instant and never again need wilderness, wrestling, surrender, becoming.
But Scripture never speaks about salvation like a photograph.
It speaks about it like a journey.
And maybe this is why Paul refuses to stay inside one tense. Because the human being himself does not live inside one tense. We carry memory, transformation, and longing all at once. We are shaped by what has happened, undone by what is still happening, and pulled forward by what has not yet arrived.
A soul cannot be contained inside a timestamp.
Maybe that is why the Exodus story matters so deeply here. Israel was saved at the sea, yes. But they were also being transformed in the wilderness. And they were still moving toward a promised fullness they had not yet touched.
The crossing was real.
But the crossing was not the end.
And I think modern people deeply need this reminder. Because many are exhausted from trying to treat faith as a completed transaction rather than a living relationship. They know the language of “I was saved,” but have lost the language of “I am still being remade.”
That changes everything.
Because then failure is no longer proof that the story ended.
Struggle is no longer evidence that grace disappeared.
Waiting is no longer spiritual abandonment.
It becomes part of the journey itself.
And maybe the deepest spiritual mistake of our age is this:
We have become uncomfortable with unfinishedness.
We want instant arrival.
Instant certainty.
Instant holiness.
Instant resolution.
But God seems far more patient with human becoming than modern religious culture is.
Perhaps salvation was never meant to make us static.
Perhaps it was always meant to keep us walking.
At last someone said the quiet part out loud!!!! Thank you! Being saved is a lifetime commitment, not a wink and a prayer.