How Confidant Are You Being Saved?

[bdavidc]

do we have salvation here and now or only justification

is justification the same as salvation

thks

Yes, believers have salvation here and now, because Scripture says so plainly.

Jesus said, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” ~John 5:24.

That is present possession, not merely a future possibility. He “hath everlasting life.” He “is passed from death unto life.” Jesus did not say the believer might pass from death to life if he maintains enough obedience afterward.

Paul says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith” ~Ephesians 2:8. He does not say we are only partly saved, or only initially justified, while the rest depends on our works. Titus 3:5 says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.”

Justification is not the same word as salvation, but it is part of salvation. Salvation is the larger work of God. It includes justification, sanctification, and final glorification. Justification deals with our legal standing before God. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” ~Romans 5:1.

So yes, the justified man is saved. A man cannot be justified before God and still be under condemnation. Romans 8:30 says, “whom he justified, them he also glorified.” God does not justify a man, then leave his final salvation hanging on human performance.

There is also a future aspect of salvation, because believers still wait for the redemption of the body. Paul says, “now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” ~Romans 13:11. Peter says believers are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” ~1 Peter 1:5.

That does not mean we are unsaved now. It means the salvation we already possess in Christ will be brought to its final completion by God Himself. “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” ~Philippians 1:6.

So the answer is simple. We have salvation now in Christ, and we await its final completion in glory. Justification is not the whole of salvation, but no one is saved without being justified, and no one truly justified will fail to be saved. Christ does not lose those whom He saves.

“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” ~Hebrews 10:14.