Alistair Begg, Jeff Vanderstelt, and Milton Vincent are popular preachers and authors. They all speak about the three tenses of salvation.
In a message titled, “Spiritual Warfare—Part 2,” Alistair Begg said,
I have been saved from sin’s penalty; that is justification. I am being saved from sin’s power; that is sanctification. I will be saved from sin’s presence; that is glorification (see here).
I heard that saying many times during my four years on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. I heard it again during my seven years at Dallas Theological Seminary. I’ve heard it many times since then. While this is a widely held view, I’ve never read or heard any attempt to prove it, either from the verb save or from the NT concept of salvation.
If you study the NT uses of the Greek verb to save, sōzein, you will find that the above statement is not accurate. Present tense uses of that verb do not refer to deliverance from sin’s power. Past tense uses do not concern deliverance from sin’s penalty. The future tense does not discuss deliverance from sin’s presence.
What is the penalty of sin? Aren’t the wages of sin physical death? Believers haven’t yet been saved from that penalty. Believers do die.
Will we be saved from sin’s presence when we experience glorification, as Begg says above? We will be glorified before the Millennium. Although we will no longer sin because we will be glorified, many people will be in natural bodies during the Millennium. There will be sin then. We will be around sin during the Millennium. Not until the New Earth will we be free from the presence of sin.
Are we being saved from sin’s power? No. We have already been saved from sin’s power! When we believe in Jesus, we are set free from sin’s bondage in our position (John 8:24; Rom 6:17-18). However, to experience that freedom from sin’s bondage, we must reckon ourselves dead to sin and yield our members to God (Rom 6:16, 19). Deliverance from sin’s power is neither automatic nor guaranteed for the believer.
While the saying about the three tenses of salvation might sound accurate, it is misleading. It is better to say that context determines what type of salvation is meant, not the verb tense.
Keep grace in focus, and you will remain spiritually healthy.
