Paul's View of Justification and Salvation: One-Shot Deal or Life-Long Process?

[RedFan]

Are you saved, or is it too soon to so declare? Paul's writings can support either view -- either salvation by present justification, or salvation by future events or states post-justification. I doubt I can improve on David Nienhuis' summary in “Reading James, Rereading Paul,” in The Early Reception of Paul the Second Temple Jew (2019):

"On further exploration one discovers that Paul does not typically assert that faith by itself “saves.” Faith is described as the power that justifies the believer to enable a present, empowering relationship with God through the Spirit, but salvation is reserved as a future tense reality; it is depicted as the telos of justification, but justification and salvation are not understood to be the same thing. One is justified, but one is being saved (see, e.g., Rom. 10:9-13; 11:26; 1 Cor. 1:18; 5:5; 7:16; 15:2; 2 Cor. 2:15; Phil. 2:12-13). A passage from Paul’s initial overview of justification in Romans (5:1-11) may be taken as paradigmatic: “Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life” (5:9-10).

"By contrast, discussions of justification—and with it, the notion of salvation as an unfolding process —occasionally disappear when one turns to other Pauline letters.
Eph. 2:5, 8—. . . by grace you have been saved through faith . . .
2 Tim. 1:8-9—. . . relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling . . .
Tit. 3:4-5—. . . when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us . . .

"Indeed, it seems that some letters replace the language of justification with the language of salvation realized in toto—and with it, the understanding of salvation as a process of redemption orchestrated by God, a process which calls for active participation on behalf of the believer."

Where do you come down on Paul's theology here? Are you saved, or are you being saved?

 

[Randy Kluth]

Are you saved, or is it too soon to so declare? Paul's writings can support either view -- either salvation by present justification, or salvation by future events or states post-justification. I doubt I can improve on David Nienhuis' summary in “Reading James, Rereading Paul,” in The Early Reception of Paul the Second Temple Jew (2019):

"On further exploration one discovers that Paul does not typically assert that faith by itself “saves.” Faith is described as the power that justifies the believer to enable a present, empowering relationship with God through the Spirit, but salvation is reserved as a future tense reality; it is depicted as the telos of justification, but justification and salvation are not understood to be the same thing. One is justified, but one is being saved (see, e.g., Rom. 10:9-13; 11:26; 1 Cor. 1:18; 5:5; 7:16; 15:2; 2 Cor. 2:15; Phil. 2:12-13). A passage from Paul’s initial overview of justification in Romans (5:1-11) may be taken as paradigmatic: “Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life” (5:9-10).

"By contrast, discussions of justification—and with it, the notion of salvation as an unfolding process —occasionally disappear when one turns to other Pauline letters.
Eph. 2:5, 8—. . . by grace you have been saved through faith . . .
2 Tim. 1:8-9—. . . relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling . . .
Tit. 3:4-5—. . . when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us . . .

"Indeed, it seems that some letters replace the language of justification with the language of salvation realized in toto—and with it, the understanding of salvation as a process of redemption orchestrated by God, a process which calls for active participation on behalf of the believer."

Where do you come down on Paul's theology here? Are you saved, or are you being saved?

Great question! I can't be certain, but of course I've developed thoughts and opinions over many years--not necessarily the result of biblical study, but at least partly so. Much of my *certainty* over biblical truth comes from my own experience, which in philosophy is critical. Without actual experience what do you really have?

Anyway, I think Justification has more to do with what Christ alone was able to do as a Divine man and as a perfect, sinless man. As children of failed Adam we have been infected with a flawed spiritual nature, and we therefore become guilty of Sin, in a sense, from the moment of conception. It is not so much that a fetus sins, but that the person producing the fetus cannot produce anything perfect, including children. We are all destined to be infected with a Sin Nature.

And so, the Justification comes from God producing a man not so infected with this Sin Nature. He is able to carry out what God had wanted from Man without failure. This "justifies* God's original plan.

What makes it particularly beneficial to all of mankind and to God's plan to multiply Man into many is the fact Christ's Justification can apply to all who embrace Christ himself. In embracing his life and Spirit we are all able to transmit the righteousness that Christ was able to produce in his own life as a Justification before God. In participating in him we also participate in what Justified God.

Growth in Sanctification is a different subject, and has to do with justifying God's transmission of Christ's life to our own life. To justify God in this way we simply have to emit the life of Christ in our own life in a way in which it effectively nullifies any decision to rebel against God.

This successful transplant from Christ's life to our own life is called Regeneration, or being "Born Again." It means that we don't just choose to emit Christ's life occasionally, but rather, as a choice to place faith over carnality, Christ's life over our own own life. We certainly don't always successfully do this as regenerated creatures. But what is critical is the *choice,* authentically, to do this.

When we authentically choose Christ, as a matter of priority, over our own ways, we are regenerated. We are not just *borrowing* virtue from Christ, but we are sacrificing our own ways in the future for Christ. We are admitting that anything we do apart from Christ's virtue can be burned.

Growth in this New Life in Christ is simply a matter of maturing. We do not become perfect as long as we live in these sin-contaminated bodies, as long as our spirits remain compromised with the Sin Nature. If we are truly regenerated, our obedience to what we have committed to will enable us to grow and to mature. We will become more Christ-like.

If we have been truly regenerated, it may or may not become obvious to others. We have to be careful in how we judge--if it is by appearances alone we can be deceived. But if we've been truly Born Again, we *are* Saved. We do not have to get Saved again. We just have to learn obedience in our Salvation, and grow in righteousness. We cannot improve on the Justification that Christ has already earned for us on our behalf. Our choice for his Salvation enables us to benefit from his Justification.

 

[Soyeong]

Are you saved, or is it too soon to so declare? Paul's writings can support either view -- either salvation by present justification, or salvation by future events or states post-justification. I doubt I can improve on David Nienhuis' summary in “Reading James, Rereading Paul,” in The Early Reception of Paul the Second Temple Jew (2019):

"On further exploration one discovers that Paul does not typically assert that faith by itself “saves.” Faith is described as the power that justifies the believer to enable a present, empowering relationship with God through the Spirit, but salvation is reserved as a future tense reality; it is depicted as the telos of justification, but justification and salvation are not understood to be the same thing. One is justified, but one is being saved (see, e.g., Rom. 10:9-13; 11:26; 1 Cor. 1:18; 5:5; 7:16; 15:2; 2 Cor. 2:15; Phil. 2:12-13). A passage from Paul’s initial overview of justification in Romans (5:1-11) may be taken as paradigmatic: “Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life” (5:9-10).

"By contrast, discussions of justification—and with it, the notion of salvation as an unfolding process —occasionally disappear when one turns to other Pauline letters.
Eph. 2:5, 8—. . . by grace you have been saved through faith . . .
2 Tim. 1:8-9—. . . relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling . . .
Tit. 3:4-5—. . . when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us . . .

"Indeed, it seems that some letters replace the language of justification with the language of salvation realized in toto—and with it, the understanding of salvation as a process of redemption orchestrated by God, a process which calls for active participation on behalf of the believer."

Where do you come down on Paul's theology here? Are you saved, or are you being saved?

Our salvation, justification, and sanctification all have past, present, and future aspects, so we have been saved from the penalty of our sins (Ephesians 2:5) we are being saved from continuing to live in sin (Philippians 2:12), and we will be saved from God's wrath on the day of the Lord (Romans 5:9-10). Our salvation from sin would be incomplete if we were only saved from the penalty of our sin while we continued to be doers of sin, so there must also be an aspect of the gift our salvation that we are experiencing in the present that requires our participation.

In Titus 2:11-13, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, so it is not the case that we are required to have first done those works in order to earn our salvation as the result and it is not the case that we are required to do those works as the result of having first been saved, but rather God graciously teaching us to be doers of those works is itself the content of His gift of saving us from not being doers of those works. Furthermore, in Titus 2:14, Jesus did not just give himself to redeem us from all lawlessness but also to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so it is describing both past and present aspects of our salvation and becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to God's law is the way to believe in what Jesus accomplished through the cross (Acts 21:20).

The content of a gift can itself be the experience of doing something, such as giving someone the opportunity to experience driving a Ferrari for an hour, where the gift requires them to do the work of driving it in order to have that experience, but where doing that work has nothing to do with trying to earn the gift as the result. In a similar manner, the content of God's gift of eternal life is the experience of knowing God and Jesus (John 17:3) and the gift of God's law is His instructions for how to have that experience (Exodus 33:13, Matthew 7:23).

 

[JBO]

Justification is a one time and done act of God. It is a state of being for the baptized believer. Sanctification is a life long process. It becomes completed for the baptized believer only at the end of his physical life and he is placed into the presence of Jesus. Salvation is, since it involves justification, regeneration and sanctification has a specific origin in time and proceeds throughout the physical life here on Earth and is consummated at the return of Jesus at the end of time.

 

[marks]

If you figure you are earning your salvation through obedience and good works and "continuing to believe" then you are "being saved", in the sense in which you are asking.

If you figure that your salvation is a gift from God, accomplished by what Jesus did, they you have "been saved", again, just speaking in the way you are asking.

Much love!

 

[GRACE ambassador]

op: Salvation - one shot deal or life long to be saved in future?
Explained here:

The THREE Tenses Of God's ETERNAL Salvation

Amen.