by Father Anthony Cornett
Many sincere believers today are asked – or ask themselves – “Are you saved?” In the Protestant world, this question is frequently phrased in terms of one’s eternal destiny: “Do you know where you will go when you die?” with a strong emphasis on the “blessed assurance” of having already been saved through a decisive past act of faith, implying that salvation is essentially a settled matter guaranteeing heaven. While this reflects a genuine longing for confidence in God’s promises, the Holy Scriptures, when read carefully in the original Greek, paint a far richer and more dynamic picture. Salvation (Greek sōtēria) is not a static badge pinned on at conversion or a one-time legal transaction; it is a living, ongoing reality empowered by God’s grace and embraced through daily cross-bearing and abiding in Christ. The Apostle Paul, at the end of his own earthly race, could look back and say with confidence:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8, KJV)
This is no casual testimony of a one-time event. Paul speaks of a lifelong struggle, a race that must be finished, a faith that must be kept until the very end. In his letter to the Philippians, the same Apostle underscores this ongoing reality with striking clarity:
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13, KJV)
This passage reveals the beautiful synergy of salvation: we are called to actively “work out” what God is working “in” us. The same apostolic voice that wrote these words also gave us three key verses that, in the Greek, explode the myth of “once saved, always saved” as a completed transaction. When we compare the King James Version (KJV) and English Standard Version (ESV) to the original text, the difference in tense is striking – and theologically decisive.
The Greek Present Tense: “Those Who Are Being Saved”
All three of the following verses use the present passive participle of σῴζω (sōzō, “to save”). This grammatical form does not describe a finished state (perfect tense) or a future hope alone (future tense), but an ongoing, continuous process happening right now.
Acts 2:47
- KJV: “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
- ESV: “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
- NKJV: “… And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
Greek: … προσετίθει … τοὺς σῳζομένους (tous sōzomenous) – present passive participle, accusative plural, with the imperfect main verb προσετίθει (“was adding”). The participle describes the people being added as those in the process of being saved, day by day.
1 Corinthians 1:18
- KJV: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
- ESV: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
- NKJV: “… but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Greek: … τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις … τοῖς σῳζομένοις (tois sōzomenois) – both are present passive participles (dative plural). Parallel construction: those in the process of perishing vs. those in the process of being saved. The participle is “timeless” in a general sense but clearly progressive/continuous in aspect.
2 Corinthians 2:15
- KJV: “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish.”
- ESV: “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
- NKJV: “… among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
Greek: … ἐν τοῖς σῳζομένοις … καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις – again, present passive participles.
The ESV and NKJV preserve the Greek tense with luminous clarity. The KJV’s renderings shift the sense toward a completed or purely future state that the original text simply does not support. This is not a trivial translation preference; it shapes how we understand the very nature of the Christian life.
The Orthodox Vision: Salvation as Theosis – Purification, Illumination, Deification
Central to this understanding is the recognition that while the one-time sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is the foundation and turning point of our redemption – the moment where sin and death were decisively defeated – it is not the entirety of what salvation encompasses or promises. In the Orthodox understanding of the singular Divine Economy (oikonomia), God’s unified plan of salvation is far more than the Cross alone; it is the whole mystery of the God-man Jesus Christ: the Incarnation by which God became man, His sinless life, the saving Passion, the victorious Resurrection, and supremely the Ascension. Forty days after rising from the dead, the risen Lord ascends bodily to the Father, carrying our human nature – now deified and glorified – to the very Throne of God. We are not saved merely from damnation or impending eternal death; we are saved for and to the heights of heaven itself, exalted with Christ, seated with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). Salvation is nothing less than humanity’s restoration to communion with the Trinity.
The Eastern Orthodox Church has always read these verses in the light of the apostolic and patristic consensus: salvation is theosis – participation in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). It unfolds in three interwoven stages, all pure gift of God’s uncreated grace, yet all requiring our free, daily cooperation:
- Purification (katharsis) – the lifelong putting to death of sin and the passions (“I die daily,”
1 Corinthians 15:31). - Illumination (theoria) – beholding the uncreated Light of Christ with the purified heart.
- Deification (theosis) – becoming by grace what God is by nature.
We are called to be sons of adoption (Romans 8:15) and grafted into the True Vine, Christ Himself (John 15:1-6; Romans 11:17-24). Grafting is not a legal transaction performed once; it is an organic, living union. The branch must remain in the Vine, drawing its very life-sap – the Holy Spirit – or it withers and is cut off (John 15:6). Our Lord is explicit: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). This command is fulfilled supremely in the Holy Eucharist, the medicine of immortality.
Every day we hear the same call: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). This is not optional super-spirituality; it is the only path to life. We cannot claim to be children of Abraham, or sons of God, if we do not continue grafted into the Giver of Life (Romans 11:20-22). The present-tense participles in the verses above shout this truth: the saved are precisely those who are being saved – those who abide, who persevere, who daily die and rise with Christ.
The glory of God is man fully alive – and that life is nothing less than the ongoing, grace-filled, cross-shaped participation in the very life of the Holy Trinity. May the translations that let this biblical and patristic truth shine clearly – especially the ESV and NKJV – help us all to answer the question “Are you saved?” not with a past-tense claim, but with a present-tense, lifelong “Yes, by the grace of God, I am being saved – and by His mercy I will finish the race.”
Fight the good fight. Finish the course. Keep the faith.
The crown is for those who endure to the end.
