I’m convinced that Acts 15:11—a pivotal verse in the account of the Jerusalem Council—is frequently translated in a different sense than the Greek suggests, changing the meaning. The KJV reads, “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” Most versions have a similar translation, indicating a future salvation (e.g., LEB, HCSB, MEV, NASB, NKJV, NET, ESV).
However, the Greek is literally translated, “But through the grace of the Lord Jesus we believe to be saved, in the same manner as they” (my translation). The Greek sōthēnai (to be saved) is an aorist passive infinite that immediately follows pisteuomen, “we believe.” It is not a future passive indicative as most translations suggest.
The Wycliffe translation is the most accurate: “But by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we believe to be saved, as also they.” Three other translations read “believe to be saved” (DRA, GNV, YLT). The translation “we believe to be saved” strongly supports what Peter is describing: Cornelius and his household believing and being saved under his preaching, as recorded in Acts 10 (cf. Acts 11:14).
It might be translated “we believe that we are saved…” or even “we believe that we have been saved…” But the future translation is not suggested by the grammar or the context.
The translation “we believe thati…we shall be saved” changes the sense from “believing now to be saved now” to “believing now to be saved finally at the end of the age.”
The words “shall/will be saved (or “made well” in some translations in some places) occur twenty other times in the NT—always with the future tense and passive voice of sōzō in the indicative.ii All but four of the uses refer to something other than regeneration. Those sixteen uses include believers who will survive the Tribulation (Matt 10:22; 24:13; Mark 13:13; Acts 2:21; Rom 9:27; 10:9, 13; 11:26), church-age believers who will be delivered from God’s wrath in this life (Rom 5:9, 10), people who would be made well (Matt 9:21; Mark 5:28; Luke 8:50; John 11:12), a woman who will be spiritually fulfilled in childbearing/childrearing if her children persevere (1 Tim 2:15), and believers who will be spiritually healthy at the Bema even though some of their works are burned up (1 Cor 3:15).
Only four uses refer to a future salvation in the sense of regeneration, but none of them refer to something that occurs after this life is over. They refer to a salvation that occurs during this life. There isn’t a single future indicative passive use of sōzō that refers to believers who will experience some future salvation in the eschaton.
In a separate blog we will consider those four future uses of sōzō that refer to regeneration that will occur in the future, but during this life (i.e., Mark 16:16; John 10:9; Acts 11:14; 16:31.
In Acts 15:11, Peter was defending the idea that everlasting life is received by everyone—Jews and Gentiles alike—by faith in Christ, apart from works (cf. Acts 15:1). He was not talking about a future salvation that believers will receive after this life is over.
I hope you will meditate on Acts 15:11 and come to your own conclusion like the Bereans of Acts 17:11.
Keep grace in focus and you’ll not lose sight of the fact that everlasting life is a gift received the moment we believe in Christ, not after this life is over.
i There is no word for that in the verse.
ii This might suggest that “will be saved” is the wrong translation of Acts 15:11 since Peter did not use the future passive.
