Am I Allowing the One Who Saved Me to Save Me?
Updated: Sep 4
Three Tenses. Three Dimensions. One Savior.
When Christians talk about salvation, we often speak as though salvation belongs to only one tense.
“I am saved.”
Or perhaps:
“I will be saved.”
But the Bible speaks about salvation in more than one way.
There is something God has already done.
There is something Christ is doing now.
And there is something Christ will complete in the future.
These are not three different salvations.
They are three dimensions of the one salvation accomplished in Christ.
And understanding them may change the way we understand the Gospel itself.
I AM SAVED
Saved From the Guilt and Punishment of Sin
What does it mean to say:
“I am saved”?
It begins with something that happened outside of us and before our personal response.
God acted.
Christ came.
He became one with humanity.
He entered our condition as the Second Adam.
He entered our death.
And He rose again as the Representative of a new humanity.
Paul puts the corporate dimension of Christ’s work in remarkably strong language:
“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”Romans 5:18
The Gospel begins with what God has done in Christ.
It does not begin with what we have done for God.
God acted first.
That is why the Gospel is good news.
Christ did not merely come to make salvation possible.
God acted in Christ to save humanity.
That is the objective reality of the Gospel. Scripture calls this Justification.
Christ’s obedience was humanity’s obedience in Him.
His death was humanity’s death in Him.
His resurrection became humanity’s representative resurrection.
His victory became the victory of the new humanity He represents.
Paul says it even more directly:
“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died.”2 Corinthians 5:14
The first dimension of salvation therefore deals with the guilt and punishment of sin.
The condemnation that rested upon humanity was met in Christ.
The death that sin brought upon humanity was entered by Christ.
The righteousness humanity could not produce was accomplished by Christ.
Christ accomplished what humanity could not accomplish.
So when we say:
“I AM SAVED,”
we are first talking about something Christ has done.
Not something we have done.
Not something our faith created.
Not something our performance earned.
Christ accomplished it.
And He accomplished for the whole world at the Cross.
But now we need to be very careful.
If Christ accomplished salvation for humanity, does that mean everyone will automatically be saved in the final sense?
No.
And this is where the second dimension becomes essential.
I AM BEING SAVED
Saved From the Power and Slavery of Sin
The Gospel is not only about what Christ has done.
It is also about what Christ is doing.
This is the subjective aspect of the Gospel.
“I am being saved.”
This is the present experience of salvation. Notice it is in the present continuous tense. It is ongoing.
It is the work of sanctification.
Because sin is more than guilt.
Sin is also a power.
It enslaves.
It controls.
It distorts.
It becomes something from which humanity needs to be delivered.
So the question is no longer simply:
“What has Christ done about my guilt?”
The question becomes:
“What is Christ doing about the power of sin in my life?”
This is where the Gospel becomes intensely personal.
The objective reality accomplished in Christ is now being experienced in the believer.
And God does not force Himself upon us.
He does not override our will.
He does not sanctify someone who continually refuses His transforming work.
This is where faith enters the picture.
Faith does not make Christ’s work true.
Faith receives what Christ has already accomplished.
The order matters:
God acted first.
Christ accomplished.
The Gospel announces.
Faith receives.
Sanctification is not learning how to make ourselves righteous. It is learning to deny self as the source of righteousness and to allow Christ live and work in us.
Paul expressed it beautifully:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”Galatians 2:20
Sanctification is therefore not simply trying harder to become a better person.
It is Christ working in the believer.
We respond.
We trust.
We surrender.
We cooperate rather than resist.
But Christ is the One doing the transforming work.
This is why salvation can be spoken of in the present tense.
I AM BEING SAVED.
Not because Christ’s work was incomplete at the Cross.
But because the salvation He accomplished is now being experienced in our lives.
He is saving us from the power and slavery of sin.
I WILL BE SAVED
Saved From the Nature and Presence of Sin
But even sanctification is not the end.
There is still something we are waiting for.
We are still living in a world where sin is present.
We still live in mortal bodies.
We still experience the effects of the Fall.
Sin is not yet gone.
And Scripture points toward the day when Christ returns and completes the work of restoration.
Paul writes:
“And not only they, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”Romans 8:23
There is something still future.
“I will be saved” points toward glorification.
It is salvation from the nature and presence of sin.
The salvation Christ accomplished has not yet reached its final visible completion.
Our bodies have not yet been glorified.
Death has not yet been destroyed.
Sin has not yet been eradicated from the universe.
The final restoration has not yet arrived.
But it will.
Christ will complete what He has begun.
THREE DIMENSIONS. ONE SALVATION.
Now the picture begins to come together.
Sin has a problem of:
GUILT AND PUNISHMENT.
Sin has a problem of:
POWER AND SLAVERY.
Sin has a problem of:
NATURE AND PRESENCE.
And the Gospel addresses all three.
I AM SAVED
From the guilt and punishment of sin.
Past/objective
Justification.
I AM BEING SAVED
From the power and slavery of sin.
Present/continuous/subjective
Sanctification.
I WILL BE SAVED
From the nature and presence of sin.
Future/subjective
Glorification.
And behind every one of them stands the same Person.
JESUS CHRIST.
He is not merely the One who started salvation.
He is not merely the One who will finish salvation.
He is the One who accomplishes it, the One who is working it out in us, and the One who will complete it.
THE OBJECTIVE AND THE SUBJECTIVE
This distinction is crucial.
The first dimension is objective.
Christ acted.
Christ entered humanity.
Christ died.
Christ rose.
Christ accomplished salvation.
Those things happened whether or not we understood them.
Whether or not we believed them.
Whether or not we had even been born.
The Gospel does not begin with our response.
It begins with God’s action.
But the second and third dimensions involve our personal participation in what God has accomplished.
That is subjective.
Christ must be received.
His transforming work must be allowed.
His righteousness must become the foundation of our lives.
And His work must ultimately be completed in glorification.
This is why we must never confuse objective salvation with automatic final salvation.
To say that Christ accomplished salvation for humanity is not to say that everyone will ultimately choose Christ.
God does not force Himself upon anyone.
Love does not operate by coercion.
FAITH DOES NOT CREATE THE GOSPEL
This is one of the most important distinctions in the entire Gospel.
Faith is not the Savior.
Faith did not cause Christ to come.
Faith did not cause Christ to become human.
Faith did not cause Christ to die.
Faith did not raise Christ from the dead.
Faith does not make the Gospel true.
Faith receives what God has already done.
That is why the order matters:
GOD ACTED FIRST.
CHRIST ACCOMPLISHED.
THE GOSPEL ANNOUNCES.
FAITH RECEIVES.
Our response is real.
Our response matters.
But our response does not become the foundation of salvation.
Christ is the foundation.
THE DANGER OF CONFUSING THE TENSES
When these three dimensions are separated, the Gospel becomes distorted.
If we ignore the objective accomplishment, Christianity becomes a religion of human performance.
We spend our lives asking:
“Have I done enough?”
If we ignore the present work of sanctification, Christianity can become cheap assurance.
“Christ did everything, so how I live doesn’t matter.”
And if we ignore the future completion, we can forget that salvation is moving toward a real destination—the restoration of humanity and the final destruction of sin.
The Gospel gives us all three.
Christ has accomplished salvation.
Christ is working in His people.
Christ will complete His work.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I RESIST?
This is where the freedom of the human response becomes important.
God has acted.
Christ has accomplished.
But God does not force Himself upon us.
A person can resist the work of Christ.
A person can reject His grace.
A person can refuse His sanctifying work.
And if Christ is continually rejected, there is no basis for expecting the final glorification of Christ’s work in that person.
The future is connected to the present.
The One who will glorify us is the One who is sanctifying us now.
That is why the question is not merely:
“Has Christ saved me?”
There is another question.
“AM I ALLOWING THE ONE WHO SAVED ME TO SAVE ME?”
SALVATION IS MORE THAN A MOMENT
Perhaps this is why the biblical picture of salvation is so much richer than a single moment in time.
Salvation is a story.
Humanity fell in Adam.
God acted.
Christ entered humanity.
Christ accomplished what humanity could not accomplish.
Christ entered death.
Christ rose.
Christ now lives.
Christ works in His people.
Christ will return.
Christ will glorify His people.
And ultimately, sin and death will be gone.
There is a past.
There is a present.
There is a future.
But there is only one Savior throughout the entire story.
Jesus Christ.
SO WHAT DOES “I AM SAVED” REALLY MEAN?
It does not mean:
“I have nothing more to experience.”
It does not mean:
“I no longer need Christ.”
And it certainly does not mean:
“Everyone will automatically be saved regardless of their response.”
It means something far more beautiful.
God has already acted in Christ.
The foundation has been laid.
The representative work has been accomplished.
Humanity’s salvation has been accomplished in the Second Adam.
And now Christ invites us to participate personally in what He has already done.
I am saved.
Christ has acted.
I am being saved.
Christ is working.
I will be saved.
Christ will complete.
SO, AM I ALLOWING HIM?
Now the question becomes personal.
Not:
“Am I good enough?”
Not:
“Have I performed enough?”
Not:
“Have I conquered sin by my own strength?”
But:
“AM I ALLOWING THE ONE WHO SAVED ME TO SAVE ME?”
The One who saved me from the guilt and punishment of sin...
is the One who is saving me from the power and slavery of sin...
and is the One who will save me from the nature and presence of sin.
Am I trusting Him?
Am I allowing Him to transform me?
Am I resting in His righteousness rather than trying to establish my own?
Am I allowing Christ to be Christ in me?
Because the Gospel does not end with something Christ did for me.
It continues with what Christ is doing in me.
And it points forward to what Christ will ultimately complete when He returns.
Comments