When Are We Saved?
QUESTION
Hey Brother! Fellow PB here and new to the PB’s. Have a question. I thought that we were already saved when Jesus died on the cross, and that the act of regeneration was simply God quickening is to Obedience to himself not the actual application of salvation. Can you help me with my confusion? Scriptural support would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Brother
RESPONSE
This question requires precision in how we define terms like “salvation” to avoid careless equivocation. There are many facets or aspects of salvation including election, redemption, regeneration, final glorification, etc. Consider the following assertions…
ELECTION is COVENANTAL SALVATION (Ephesians 1:4-6) – it is salvation in the mind and purpose of God. It is certain that when God chose a people to save, he was revealing the fact of their eternal salvation in advance of all of the temporal events involved in bringing it to fruition. Before God’s elect were even born they could be said to be eternally saved in covenant, because God had already purposed and promised their salvation beforehand.
REDEMPTION is TRANSACTIONAL SALVATION (Colossians 1:20, Hebrews 10:11,14) – it is salvation described in the terminology of a commercial transaction (payment, atonement, redemption) where payment for the sin debt was made in full. It is certain that all of God’s elect for whom Christ died had their debt paid at Calvary, long before many of them ever even existed, or before they ever had any spiritual inclination or sensibility. In that sense we can say that they were all atoned for at Calvary and that is where their salvation was purchased.
REGENERATION is VITAL SALVATION (Titus 3:5) – it is the point in time when salvation is imparted to one of God’s elect in the form of God’s spirit taking residence in one of his sheep. This is the moment in time when someone’s spiritual experience begins which may be manifest in thoughts of one’s guilt in the commission of sin, the reality that God is holy and real, and the dreadful thought of those two when considered together.
So with proper qualification all of the following statements are true…
“God’s people are saved in eternity past.”
“God’s people are saved at Calvary.”
“God’s people are saved at regeneration.”
We run into trouble when we unnecessarily shoehorn all aspects of eternal salvation into only one facet. This raises debates among Christians who will get fighting mad saying “We were saved at Calvary!” and “No! We were saved before the foundation of the world!” while still others scream, “Wrong! We are not saved until we have the faith to believe!” I am reminded of the proverb of the blind men and the elephant. When properly considered, they are all right, but they are describing different aspects of salvation. We only rightly divide the topic of salvation when we consider its different facets and speak about those facets in a way that is logically consistent with the bible’s testimony. Recognizing the covenantal, transactional, and vital dimensions is helpful in this regard. It accommodates all the biblical data without creating untenable contradictions or stirring up vain, short-sighted contention among the brethren.
Good question.
- Elder Daniel Samons
POST SCRIPT
There are many other aspects of salvation not mentioned in this short answer. For example:
BELIEF is EXPERIMENTAL SALVATION
CONVERSION is FUNCTIONAL SALVATION
OBEDIENCE is PRACTICAL SALVATION
We might quibble over the proper language to describe additional aspects of our salvation or over the number of aspects described in the bible, nevertheless recognizing the existence of these dimensions and the unique functions they perform in the life of a child of God helps us make sense of the broad subject of salvation in a way that does not cause logical contradictions.