Salvation is Past, Present, and Future

My Old Testament professor said something profound that I still remember two and half years later.

He said that we were saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. Theses three stages of salvation are past, present, and future.

A person who has received saving faith is one who:

• Has trusted in Jesus death on the cross and resurrection as the means of our eternal salvation (justification)
• Is trusting in Jesus to save us from the bondages of sin that we still find ourselves in right now (sanctification)
• And continues to trust that Jesus will come back someday to fully save us from our decaying bodies and broken world by restoring and renewing everything (glorification)
  

Why is this important?

Many Christians are trusting in the past and future saving acts but not the present one. That is why you will find many Christians still addicted to pornography, stuck in broken marriages, or living anxiously from day to day.

They go in and out of church every Sunday, thinking about how their neighbors need to be saved (justified) and that their world needs to be saved (glorified), without taking a second to think about the ways in which Jesus wants to save (sanctify) them of the broken areas of their lives right now.

I am guilty myself of thinking a lot about how God wants to change other people and change the world without giving much thought to how God wants to change my life.

Justification is the starting line, not the finish line, for sanctification.