21-Chapter 4. The Present, Personal Salvation

Chapter 4. The Present, Personal Salvation He who denies certainty of salvation rejects faith.—Luther. Not that I have already laid hold.—Paul.

Redemption in Christ is at once being and coming to be. The individual has through faith a full, free, present salvation, which, nevertheless, he at the same time experiences only in most effective, combined counter-workings.

[1] A Full, Free, Present Salvation.

Paul especially pictures his Christian experience in ever new colours. In harmony with his preference for juridical thought he describes it in five chief sets of pictures all taken from the realm of law. For him it is justification, redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation, and adoption as a son. To the apostle his experience of salvation is as a clear shining sun, with its full brightness—Christ—in itself, but with five chief rays which go out from it in all directions, unlimited, immeasurable. With Paul all the five chief pictures are no mere theological conceptions, but first and foremost are purely everyday expressions of Roman-Greek legal life, especially: dikaiosis, acquittal—justification; apolytrosis, buying out—redemption; aphesis, remission of debt—forgiveness; huiothesia, adoption, acceptance as son—sonship.

All theoretical “dogmatic” lies far from Paul. “He is far more a man of prayer and witness, a confessor and prophet, than a learned exegete or philosophical theologian.”

1. In justification the sinner stands before God as the accused and is declared free (Romans 8:33);

2. In redemption he stands before God as the slave and receives freedom by ransom (Romans 6:18-22).

3. In forgiveness he stands before God as a debtor and receives his discharge (Ephesians 1:7; Ephesians 4:32; comp. Matthew 18:21-35).

4. In reconciliation he stands before God as an enemy and is led to peace (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).

5. In adoption he stands before God as a stranger (or slave) and receives adoption, sonship (Ephesians 1:5). But each of these five chief pictures displays another side of the same experience of salvation.

1. Forgiveness refers to the fruit, the individual deeds of our life, the sins (Ephesians 1:7; comp. Romans 3:1-31; Romans 4:1-25).

2. Redemption refers to the root, our whole condition of life, that is, slavery under sin (Romans 6:18-22; ch.. 5 to 8).

3. Justification is the sum of forgiveness and redemption. In the first place, that is, in the narrower fundamental sense, it is acquittal from the guilt of sins (Romans 3:23-24), and this is equivalent to forgiveness; but then it is also the declaration of freedom from the power of sin (Romans 6:7; Romans 6:10), that is, emancipation.

4. Reconciliation is the concluding of peace, the removal of the enmity; it is connected with the will and the renewal of the mind (Romans 5:10); and 5. Sonship is finally the greatest of all; it is associated with our standing and gives heavenly dignity (Romans 8:17).

Thus is everything accomplished! Sin and sins, root and tree, sin’s power and sin’s guilt, heart condition and heart position—all this Christ has brought under His cross: “No one is holier than a sinner who has received grace” (Zinzendorf). And yet! though everything has come to pass, everything—except justification—is coming to be. Until the return of Christ the believer—viewed in himself—experiences certain most effective, powerful, combined.

[2] Counter Working

Future and present, position and condition, God’s work and our work, heaven and earth, eternity and time, spirit and body—these all continue in him in a living, vital, unresolved conflict.

1. Future and Present. We have redemption (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14) and we await redemption (Romans 8:23). Therefore is the “day of redemption” still future (Ephesians 4:30).

We have eternal life (John 3:36) and we lay hold of eternal life (1 Timothy 6:12).

We are sons of God (Romans 8:14) and we await sonship (Romans 8:23).

We are already in the kingdom (Colossians 1:13; Hebrews 12:22) and we enter hereafter into the kingdom (Acts 14:22), we inherit the kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Ephesians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:12).

God has glorified us (Romans 8:30) and He will glorify us (Romans 8:17). This is the contrast between present and future, being and coming to be, not having and yet having. “Faith brings the fulness of the future into the poverty of the present.” Christ the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20) gives to His own even now the gift of firstfruits (Romans 8:23).

We enjoy the present, and at the same time it is not yet the fulfilment. In Christ the new age is livingly present and yet the old is not yet gone. Salvation is at once present and future, for it is eternal.

All that we have we await, all that we await we already have. We are “saved in hope” (Romans 8:24). The centre of gravity lies in the past—at Golgotha; the zenith lies in the future—the appearing of glory. But it is the future that is the background of all New Testament ideas. The gaze toward the goal is the pulse-beat of all sanctification and salvation. For Christ is at once the embodiment of both promise and fulfilment. From this arises the New Testament conception of all things becoming manifest (Colossians 3:4; Romans 8:19; 1 John 3:2), for only things already existing can become manifest (uncovered). The faithful and super-temporal God vouches to us the future as already present, yes, as having already taken place in the past. “He has glorified us” (Romans 8:30).

Thus we already have everything, but our enjoyment is as yet only partial. Until the redemption of the body, our coming of age (Romans 8:23), our invested capital is reserved in heaven (1 Peter 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:12; Colossians 1:5). And that which we already have is a proof that the capital sum is ours, and thus our present possession is a guarantee of the future, a firstfruits of the full harvest (Romans 8:23), an earnest, a pledge of the coming sum total (Ephesians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5). But it is precisely the certainty of the “now” which establishes the high contrast of the “not yet.” The very greatness of our today causes us to look longingly for the still greater tomorrow. Our very longing is a blessed enjoyment and by being satisfied our hunger grows (Php 3:12; Matthew 5:6).

2. Position and Condition.

We are dead (Colossians 3:3; Galatians 2:19-20; Galatians 5:24; Romans 6:6) and we put to death our members (Colossians 3:5).

We are new men (Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24; 2 Corinthians 5:17) and we become renewed (Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:23).

We are light (1 Thessalonians 5:5) and ought to shine as the light (Ephesians 5:9; Matthew 5:16).

We are saints of God (Colossians 3:12; Ephesians 1:1) and we become sanctified (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 12:14; 2 Corinthians 7:1).

We are perfect (Colossians 2:10) and we pursueafter perfection (Php 3:12).

Christ dwells in us (Colossians 1:27) and He should dwell in us (Ephesians 3:17). This is the contrast between position and condition, dignity and duty, reality and realization, standing in grace and character. The poverty-stricken beggar is taken from his miserable hut and set among princes, but then he is exhorted to behave as a prince (Ephesians 4:1). The nobleman must be noble. Position imposes duty. Here enters the strife between flesh and spirit (Galatians 5:17), between the old man and the new man (Romans 6:6; Romans 6:11), and the constant work of faith, which is sanctification. But just here we continue to experience the contrast which follows next and which is related to strength.

3. God’s Work and Our Work. It is God who works all things, yet we also are the workers. It is all a gift, yet everything must be acquired by effort (2 Peter 1:3; Colossians 4:12). Holiness is wholly His work (1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 Corinthians 6:11), and also wholly my work (Hebrews 12:14; 1 John 3:3), wholly a present and wholly a command, wholly gift and wholly task. As to the choice of the called, it was before all ages (Ephesians 1:4-5; 2 Peter 2:10); as to the sanctifying of the chosen, it is in the course of the ages (John 17:17; 2 Corinthians 7:1); as to the glorifying of the sanctified, it will be at the end of the ages (John 17:24; 2 Timothy 2:5). This harmonious contrast is valid, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for (!) it is God who works in you both to will and also to perform, according to His own good pleasure” (Php 2:12-13).

All human attempts at explanation are here inadequate. They only show, especially if pushed to the extreme, that the kernel of the question remains unexplained. Even in Romans 8:29 and 1 Peter 1:1-2 the question is not finally answered. The freedom of the human will (Matthew 23:37; Revelation 22:17) and its lack of freedom (Romans 9:11; Romans 9:15-16; Romans 9:18; Romans 11:5; Romans 11:7; Acts 13:48) is a mystery of the kingdom of God. They are two parallel lines which meet first in infinity. Faith accepts this contrast without being able to explain it. That it exists is enough. It is the contrast between God’s choice of grace and man’s responsibility, between the lack of freedom and the freedom of the will of the creature, between grace and reward (Romans 4:2-6; 1 Corinthians 3:14; 1 Corinthians 4:5; Colossians 3:24; 2 Corinthians 5:10). The next contrast is that between:

4. Heaven and Earth. Christ is the One exalted in heaven (Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 4:10; Hebrews 7:26; Hebrews 8:1) and who at the same time dwells in us on earth (Ephesians 3:17; Galatians 2:20). 30

Footnote 30: This is the mystic-transcendental polarity between the transcendence and immanence of Christ. Hence the 164 times when Paul used “in Christ,” as also the 19 times “in the Sprit,” and the Pauline genetivus mysticus, as e.g. peace of Christ (Colossians 3:15), blessing of Christ (Romans 15:29), faith of Christ (Romans 3:22), love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14), obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5), circumcision of Christ (Colossians 2:11); etc. The Christian lives here below on earth (John 17:11; John 17:15; Php 2:15) and yet at the same time he sits together in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6; Ephesians 1:3; Hebrews 12:22; Php 3:20) 31

Footnote 31: The expression “in the heavenly places” (en tois epouraniois) is found in Ephesians only (five times), and is always to be understood locally, as is proved especially by Ephesians 1:20 (comp. 2:6); also 3:10 and 6:12. The Christian has experienced with Christ not only crucifixion (Galatians 2:19)and resurrection (Colossians 3:1), but also through the Spirit His ascension to heaven (Ephesians 2:6). Therefore is Ephesians 1:3 to be translated “heavenly places,” not “heavenly possessions.” The connexion of the two is the Spirit. The Spirit came down from above, from “Christ above us,” from heaven to earth (Acts 2:33); and the Spirit as “Christ in us” leads from below upwards, from earth to heaven (Colossians 1:27; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18). But the basis of all is the contrast between

5. Eternity and Time. Eternity is more than merely unending time. Not only as to continuance but also as to content it is different in essence from everything temporal. It is something other, something higher, therefore not only a “before” and an “after.” Eternal is no bare notion of quantity, but above all of quality. One must guard against introducing the idea of time into that of eternity. “We do not arrive at the idea of eternity by any sort of adding together of time.” Therefore “eternal life” is indeed endless life (comp. Matthew 25:46), but at the same time more than deathlessness. It is divine life.

Yet faith even now experiences the eternal God always within the limits of time. For faith this both elevates and humbles at the same time. All fellowship with God, especially by prayer, is a partaking of the life of God. By it man, in the midst of time, stands in the timeless. In the midst of movement and change the stable and abiding break through. The super-historical is experienced in the historical. This is what Holy Scripture means when it teaches that the believer already “has” the eternal life. It does not begin after death but already today, on earth, in this life. “He who believes on the Son, he has the eternal life” (John 3:36, comp. 17:3; 1 John 3:14; 1 John 5:12).

6. Spirit and Body. Nevertheless all this comes to pass within the limits of time. We are “in Christ” and yet still “in the world” (John 17:11); we are “in the Spirit” (Romans 8:9) and yet still “in the body” (2 Corinthians 5:6); we are at once superior to death yet liable to die (2 Corinthians 4:11; 2 Corinthians 4:16). What a weak organ is our soul! What a fragile “tent” is our body! (2 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:4). Indeed, what a contrast between God’s Spirit and man, between strength and weakness, between contents and vessel! We have out treasure “in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

So, therefore, at the same time we are both “ready and waiting, resting and hastening (Hebrews 4:3; Hebrews 4:10; Php 3:12), released yet constrained, signing of victory yet groaning “ (Romans 8:31-39 :2 Corinthians 5:4; Romans 8:23). We are “dying, and behold we live;” we are “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;” we are “poor, yet making many rich;” we “have nothing, yet possess all things” (2 Corinthians 6:9-10). Our gaze is a looking above, on the eternal as the super-historical, as it is a looking forwards, to the eternal as the end of history; it is a “now” and “soon,” a having and a waiting, a today and a tomorrow, a faith and a hope, a double experience at the one time (1 Peter 1:21), but both born from the eternal love. But finally the day will come when all this tension will be relaxed. The return of Christ is the release of all constraints. The basic contrast and strain of the present age is that between the manifestation of the kingdom of Satan and the concealment of the kingdom of God, in spite of the victory of Golgotha. But at the appearing of Christ all this will be resolved. His revelation then will be 1. The revelation of the spiritual body, and 2. The passage of the church from time into eternity.

3. Then the present will be transfigured in the future;

4. Our condition will correspond perfectly to our position;

5. His divine work will perfect our human work in Himself; and 6. We shall be rapt above, away from the earth into the heavenly world.

Section III—The Hope of the Church