Are we saved, or being saved?

[RamiC]

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18

Any comments on this one? It was the lesson in my local church today. I never thought of it quite like this before. I am not saved yet, but I believe and confess, so I am in the process of being saved. I am intrigued...

 

[HTacianas]

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:17-19

Any comments on this one? It was the lesson in my local church today. I never thought of it quite like this before. I am not saved yet, but I believe and confess, so I am in the process of being saved. I am intrigued...

That is a typical Orthodox response to "are you saved". We are being saved. We enter into salvation in this life by grace through faith, but salvation is only attained on the day of judgement when we will be judged based on our works. That is abundantly clear in Matthew 25:31-46.

 

[Ivan Hlavanda]

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:17-19

Any comments on this one? It was the lesson in my local church today. I never thought of it quite like this before. I am not saved yet, but I believe and confess, so I am in the process of being saved. I am intrigued...

In order to answer your question, we must look at what happened at the cross.

*Christ was a perfect sacrifice
*Christ has satisfied God's wrath for all the OT and NT believers
*Christ said it is finish, not is being finished. The Greek word for 'it is finished' is Tetelestai...meaning it is paid for. Tetelestai was a stamp 2000 years ago you would stamped on an invoice when a debt was paid in full. Every one of us is a sinner and therefore in debt to God. Christ has paid this debt in full for all OT and NT believers.
*Christ has reconciled every believer to God
*Christ is victorious and the powers of death, satan and sin have been broken

The moment Christ proclaims a sinner forgiven, He is saved, and he/she becomes a child of God and a Christian

Regards to 1 Cor 1 18, looking at the Greek text better tranalation would be 'unto us which are saved'.

It definetely does not mean that once we accept Christ we have to work on our salvation. That would be no different to any false religions.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:17-19

Any comments on this one? It was the lesson in my local church today. I never thought of it quite like this before. I am not saved yet, but I believe and confess, so I am in the process of being saved. I am intrigued...

" Being saved" is salvation from the second death.
It is the finished work of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We receive His Holy Spirt upon conversion, He makes His Home in us. That being said, we stay on course, not to be swayed here and there from doctrines of men. A " process" driven salvation is one such doctrine.
Blessings

 

[RamiC]

In order to answer your question, we must look at what happened at the cross.

*Christ was a perfect sacrifice
*Christ has satisfied God's wrath for all the OT and NT believers
*Christ said it is finish, not is being finished. The Greek word for 'it is finished' is Tetelestai...meaning it is paid for. Tetelestai was a stamp 2000 years ago you would stamped on an invoice when a debt was paid in full. Every one of us is a sinner and therefore in debt to God. Christ has paid this debt in full for all OT and NT believers.
*Christ has reconciled every believer to God
*Christ is victorious and the powers of death, satan and sin have been broken

The moment Christ proclaims a sinner forgiven, He is saved, and he/she becomes a child of God and a Christian

Regards to 1 Cor 1 18, looking at the Greek text better tranalation would be 'unto us which are saved'.

It definetely does not mean that once we accept Christ we have to work on our salvation. That would be no different to any false religions.

Thank you. I do not think I was meant to believe I do not count as a Christian. I will go through multiple English translations tomorrow, to see if I can make more sense of what I heard. Do not blame the preacher, it was probably me not understanding him right.

It is very interesting to see the Greek literally.

 

[d taylor]

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:17-19

Any comments on this one? It was the lesson in my local church today. I never thought of it quite like this before. I am not saved yet, but I believe and confess, so I am in the process of being saved. I am intrigued...

-
​

If you have believed in Jesus for God's free gift of Eternal Life the very moment you believed in Jesus you became a permanent born again child of God. So at that very moment of belief in Jesus you were saved spiritually.

What does John 5:24 say has passed from death to life. The verse does not say will eventually will eventually pass from death to life.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Now as you live your life you may be saved, many times from some type of percussion of harm thoses who oppose God (people and spiritual powers)

 

[tonychanyt]

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:17-19

Any comments on this one? It was the lesson in my local church today. I never thought of it quite like this before. I am not saved yet, but I believe and confess, so I am in the process of being saved. I am intrigued...

Ep 2:

8 For by grace you have been saved [perfect participle] through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

By grace, I have been saved already.

But then, the same Paul wrote in 1C 1:

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved [present participle] it is the power of God.

Furthermore, Ro 5:

9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved [future indicative] by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The word saved is polysemantic.

Perfect tense or past tense: We have been saved (justification) from the penalty of sin.
Present tense: We are being saved (sanctification) from the power of sin.
Future tense: We will be saved (glorification) from the presence of sin.

We have been saved in a positional sense; we are being saved in a progressive sense; we will be saved in a final sense. Salvation is a past reality, a present process, and a future hope.

 

[Ivan Hlavanda]

Thank you. I do not think I was meant to believe I do not count as a Christian. I will go through multiple English translations tomorrow, to see if I can make more sense of what I heard. Do not blame the preacher, it was probably me not understanding him right.

It is very interesting to see the Greek literally.

It's tragic when Christians claim salvation can be lost. It's one of the worst things man can say, if not the worst.

When it comes to Greek and Hebrew, I don't speak them, I rely on Strong's lexicon often, so take it with a pinch of salt.

 

[Mercy Shown]

We are saved if we are in Christ. Otherwise, we are not yet saved.

Salvation isn’t something you achieve on your own. If you could save yourself, then you wouldn’t actually be lost. "It is God who works." (Ephesians 2:13) Your part is simply to receive Him by faith.

You might say, "But I don’t feel saved. I don’t feel the way I think I should." But how would you know what being saved is supposed to feel like if you've never experienced it? If you rely on feelings, you'll never be certain of your salvation because emotions are always changing.

How can you feel something you haven’t actually taken hold of? Feelings come after an experience. If you want to feel saved, the most logical thing to do is to accept salvation—and that happens through faith. "Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of eternal life." (1 Timothy 6:12)

"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of God." (Romans 10:17) The Word of God brings life to those who are spiritually dead, and that life is salvation. But a dead person doesn’t feel anything. God’s Word awakens us, but even after we are spiritually alive, our emotions will still fluctuate. So rather than trusting your feelings, trust what God has promised. When you receive His Word, you receive life—and that life is what saves you.

Jesus saves—that’s the meaning of His name! "I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me, there is no Savior." (Isaiah 43:11) "Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other." (Isaiah 45:22)

Thank God that salvation doesn’t depend on our ever-changing emotions, but on His unchanging, almighty power! "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)

So do it—trust in Him today!

 

[tonychanyt]

It's tragic when Christians claim salvation can be lost.

See Can we lose our salvation? and follow up there

 

[Ivan Hlavanda]

See Can we lose our salvation? and follow up there

I only need to look at the cross and see what Christ has done there for me.

 

[tonychanyt]

I only need to look at the cross and see what Christ has done there for me.

See Was Demas truly born again? and follow up there

 

[RamiC]

Well here is the selection of English translations of 1 Corinthians 1-18 from Bible Gateway, four of which are below:

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. NRSV(A).

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. NIV

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. KJV

For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God. AMP

Now our preacher on Sunday was talking about why we go to church, after we have believed and been baptised, and he said it is not supposed to be just to see our friends, get a free cup of coffee, because we have always gone or our parents told us to go. It is to build our relationship with Jesus and to learn the Bible, constantly. We hear a Psalm, a short piece of the Old Testament, and a short piece of the New Testament every week. We also hear a lesson about the New Testament verses which we heard, and there is a Eucharist. We make a joint admission of our sins, and pray together.

Now that I am simply managing to look at the entire verse it seems to make sense to me, everything we do in church is about the message of the Cross having the power of God, and that is why we go. To those who reject and do not accept the power of God in the message of the Cross, we are just a bunch of fools who are wasting our time. The preacher was saying also to tell people who do think we are fools who waste our Sunday mornings, that if they accept being saved, they can come and witness the power of God for themselves. He is trying to get more people to come to church, it is part of his job description.

btw I put the text in purple for the versions of the Bible he was allowed to be teaching from, and now, despite the fact I have ceased to be puzzled, (just by reading the whole verse - at myself), I am interested in why the oldest translation that he could have used says "saved" and all the more modern translation have "being saved".

 

[RamiC]

Present tense: We are being saved (sanctification) from the power of sin.

We have been saved in a positional sense; we are being saved in a progressive sense; we will be saved in a final sense. Salvation is a past reality, a present process, and a future hope.

I followed your link, you say this about the word salvation

4 - It could describe a believer who has been born again but remains infantile and refuses to grow in the Spirit.

Do you believe that we gather regularly as Christians, that is, go to church, and study the Bible in order to avoid remaining infantile and to ensure we grow in the Spirit?

 

[tonychanyt]

Do you believe that we gather regularly as Christians, that is, go to church, and study the Bible in order to avoid remaining infantile and to ensure we grow in the Spirit?

That's part of it. See My kind of home church

 

[tonychanyt]

I am interested in why the oldest translation that he could have used says "saved" and all the more modern translation have "being saved".

King James Bible:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

In English, there is the present continuous tense, but not in Greek. The Greek present tense was sometimes translated into continuous action.



New King James Version:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

On Biblehub, 28 versions used "being"; 9 used the simple present tense.

 

[Richard T]

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:17-19

Any comments on this one? It was the lesson in my local church today. I never thought of it quite like this before. I am not saved yet, but I believe and confess, so I am in the process of being saved. I am intrigued...

Our born again spirit is sealed at the time we have faith in Jesus to be our savior and Lord. So our spirit is saved past tense. Our mind is to be renewed by the word of God. Thus, our mind that is "being saved" present tense. Lastly, we will get our body saved when we are glorified. (future tense). So in part we are already saved, but in part we are being saved and at some point we will have spirit, mind and body complete in Christ. The good news is that if we can get our mind in agreement with our spirit, then we can walk as God intended, the flesh will not produce the sin as we are walking in agreement with the spirit. If our mind agree with the flesh, we are in trouble. That is why many preachers teach on the battleground of the mind.

 

[Rose_bud]

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:17-19

Any comments on this one? It was the lesson in my local church today. I never thought of it quite like this before. I am not saved yet, but I believe and confess, so I am in the process of being saved. I am intrigued...

Although in other passages Paul highlights the immediate and complete work of salvation. I understand, that in this particular passage, he is referring to the ongoing work of salvation. In the sense that the cross is a one-time event that becomes a reality for those called and who accept it, yet, as we yield and understand the message and Person of Christ, the fullness of what was accomplished on our behalf becomes a lived reality.

Those who are weak and foolish by human standards are the ones being saved, as they can acknowledge that there was nothing they could do to attain this salvation. In contrast, the foolish who are perishing in their folly believe that worldly wisdom can attain the gift of God. This is a contrast between the wisdom of the world and that of God, resulting in those who perish and those who are being saved.

In essence, Paul is saying that the more we acknowledge our weakness and need for God, the more His life in us becomes our salvation and lived reality.

 

[BelieveItOarKnot]

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:17-19

Any comments on this one? It was the lesson in my local church today. I never thought of it quite like this before. I am not saved yet, but I believe and confess, so I am in the process of being saved. I am intrigued...

We basically have a token, a seed, an inside look. Fullness is a later event

We wait to put on the righteousness of Christ. It's part of the Christian hope.

Galatians 5:5
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

 

[RamiC]

The Authorized Version or King James Bible (AV ) unto us which are saved
Revised Standard Version (RSV) us who are being saved it
The New International Version (NIV) to us who are being saved
The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) are on the road to salvation
The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV )to us who are being saved
The English Standard Version (ESV) us who are being saved

This is every version I could find that we learn from in church (at home almost any Bible is okay, but we do not use anything from paraphrased Bibles, or other versions to over rule the above list). It does appear that there is a journey or progressive process in most of the translations. That is a clear majority just like tonychanyt found on Biblehub.

Rose_bud you sound like the priest we had on Sunday saying this, "In essence, Paul is saying that the more we acknowledge our weakness and need for God, the more His life in us becomes our salvation and lived reality." He is always saying that he needs God, we must recognise our need to rely on God, and go to church to get some more.

Thank you all for contributing, I think it is two important subjects. Please be sure you are saved, and confident of it, plus how come we need to go to church regularly?