An Evangelical friend tells me me loves Orthodox worship and teaching, but has a problem with the fact that we don’t tell people to “get saved.”
“Orthodox folks say salvation is a process, but from what I know in the Bible, we are supposed to know that we have been saved.”
Here are some notes after I looked up what the Apostles and Evangelists have taught us about being saved.
What does the New Testament say about being saved?
The New Testament repeatedly uses the future passive of σώζω (“to save”), especially σωθήσεται: “he will be saved.”
- He that endureth to the end shall be saved (Matthew 10:22; 24:13; Mark 13:13).
- He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:16).
- I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved (John 10:9).
- Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13).
- [Peter] shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved (Acts 11:14).
- Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy household (Acts 16:31).
- Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him (Romans 5:9).
- Being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life (Romans 5:10).
- A remnant shall be saved (Romans 9:27).
- If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Romans 10:9).
- And so all Israel shall be saved (Romans 11:26).
- [When a person’s unprofitable works are burned up] he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire (1 Corinthians 3:15).
- [Discipline the unrepentant sinner] so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 5:5).
- [Women in labor] shall be saved in childbearing if she continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety (1 Timothy 2:15).
- [The prayer of priests] shall save the sick (James 5:15 ).
Scripture also speaks of being saved here and now.
- Acts 2:47 says the Lord added to the Church “those who were being saved.”
- 1 Corinthians 1:18 contrasts “us who are being saved” with those who now are perishing.
- 1 Corinthians 15:1–2 says of the Gospel, “By which also you are being saved, if you keep in memory what I preached to you.”
- 2 Corinthians 2:15 speaks of “them that are being saved.”
And several passages speak of salvation explicitly as something still future for the faithful.
- Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed (Romans 13:11).
- Put on the hope of salvation, for God appointed us to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:8–9).
- He shall appear the second time without sin for salvation to those who eagerly await him (Hebrews 9:28).
- Those born again to living hope through the resurrection… are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation which is ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3–5).
- Attaining the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:9).
Who are we saved by?
Christ’s work is utterly unique. Nobody else is capable of bursting death and hades open from the inside, uniting mankind to God in one eternal divine-human Person, and seating human nature on the throne of the Trinity. In that sense Christ is absolutely the only Savior.
But the writers of Scripture also tell us:
- Paul saves some (Romans 11:14; 1 Corinthians 9:22)
- Timothy can save those who hear him (1 Timothy 4:16)
- Spouses may save each other (1 Corinthians 7:16)
- Baptism saves us (1 Peter 3:21)
- The word, implanted in us, will save our souls (James 1:21)
- Prayers of priests save the sick (James 5:15)
- Jude commands us to save others (Jude 1:23)
- Those who turn sinners from error save them (James 5:20)
Salvation means wholeness, restoration, rescue, freedom, preservation.
Seven times in the gospels, Christ told someone “Your faith has made you whole” or “Your faith has saved you” but both sentences are identical in the Greek: ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέν σε. It’s only the translators that felt the need to render them differently.
The New Testament speaks of salvation in three tenses:
Past: “By grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:8).
Ongoing: “To us who are being saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
Future: “We shall be saved” (Romans 5:9–10).
Scripture does not speak of salvation as a condition or a thing that a person has or does not have. Wholeness and freedom from sin is a reality which has been accomplished in Christ, is now being accomplished in us, and will be experienced in full in the resurrection Kingdom of God.
