Salvation
Salvation Explained
Paul’s Explanation From the Book of Romans
Once Saved, Always Saved?
Romans 5:1 (KJV) tells us, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” If you look closely at the Greek tenses of the verbs used in the verse, we can start to understand the answer to the question, “When you are saved, are you always saved?” The Greek tense of “being justified” is a “aorist”, which means it is done or completed. It is a one-time act to be justified by faith. Then if you look at the next verb, it is “have peace”. The Greek tense of this is present perfect tense, which means it is continuing and ongoing. Faith provides our “justification” once and for all.
That is great, but “salvation” is a bit more complicated than that. The term “salvation” has three tenses, past, present and future. To be more accurate, “salvation” means:
- Justification – Past
- Sanctification – Present
- Glorification – Future
Paul explains in Romans chapters 4 and 5 that we are justified by faith. That is one and done. To drive this home, we can look at Jesus’s explanation that He lost none of those whom He had been given. This is shown in John 6:39-40 (KJV), “39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” The term “seeth” in the original Greek means to discern or to mentally consider. The tense of both “seeth” and “believeth” are both the aorist past tense in the Greek, meaning they are a one time event in the past. Once a person believes in Jesus, we will never be “lost” from the sense of being justified. We will be in Heaven with Jesus. That is because justification is not something we do; it is what Jesus does on our behalf. Our works do not get us saved and they cannot cause us to lose our justification. That does not give us the liberty to do as we wish and sin all we want because Jesus will forgive us. That moves us into the second phase of salvation, which is “sanctification.”.
