Salvation Summaries

1 Corinthians addresses a “trinity” of information on salvation, including: how a person is saved, what happens when a person is saved, and whether salvation is a life-long process or one-time event.

How is a person saved?

1 Corinthians, like most New Testament books, contains several verses that relate to salvation, but does not necessarily provide a complete picture of how a person is saved.  As I’ve mentioned in prior blog posts, salvation is more than a simple belief in God and Jesus, or an affirmation that Jesus died and rose from the dead.  There are a number of aspects related to, or components of, salvation.

In this book, Paul addresses some of the main components of how a person is saved.  They include God (His “calling” of others to be saved), the gospel, Jesus, and faith.  Other components, such as grace, forgiveness of sins, repentance, denying self, losing one’s life, being born again, etc., are not mentioned, but are in other New Testament books (I addressed some of these in my post on Hebrews – Part 3 of 3).  After I review all New Testament books as part of my study of salvation-related verses, I plan to summarize what these verses say in order to provide a complete picture of salvation.  For now, here is what Paul says, in 1 Corinthians, about how a person is saved:

• First, you need to be “called” by God.  The Bible talks in a number of places about God “calling” others to be saved.  I must admit, I don’t fully understand how this works, but on the surface it shows that God has a “hand” in determining who will be saved.  This makes sense, at least to some extent, for if God is the One who ultimately saves someone (given that we can’t save ourselves), then it would be only reasonable to assume that He has a role in determining who will be saved.  1 Corinthians 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ– their Lord and ours… 1 Corinthians 1:9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.  1 Corinthians 1:26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

• Second, you need to hear, understand, and accept the gospel, or the good news, about Jesus.  One of my favorite verses in the Bible is 1 Corinthians 9:22, where the apostle Paul says “…I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”  Paul went from town to town with a goal of saving others (technically, he didn’t save anyone, but he was being used by God as an instrument to accomplish salvation for those whom God called. To use a Bible analogy from this book, Paul planted seeds and watered them, but God caused the growth.).  And how did Paul do this?  By preaching the gospel about Jesus Christ, who has the power to save others…just as he saved Paul.  1 Corinthians 15:1-2  Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 

• Third, upon accepting the gospel, you need to believe in and put your faith in Jesus. In the following verses, it is clear that the people Paul wrote to have faith.  Faith is a term that is often mentioned in salvation-related verses.  True faith though, is more than a general belief in God, for the Bible says that even demons believe in God,  and we all know that they are not saved.  If your understanding of faith is a little shaky, you may want to read one of my prior posts on faith, Hebrews – Part 2 of 3.   1 Corinthians 15:13-14 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  1 Corinthians 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

What happens when a person becomes saved (e.g., a Christian)?    

Becoming saved is not something you do on a whim, or in a casual way.  It is not something you do because of peer pressure.  In fact, it is not something you CAN do, for as I’ve mentioned before, God is the One who saves; you can’t save yourself.

Becoming saved is a BIG deal.  Why?  Two reasons.  Reason number one is who saves you.  It is none other than God, the maker and creator of the heavens and earth.  That alone is huge.  But reason number two is also amazing, and it is what He does to and in you. According to Paul, the following events take place in a person when that person becomes saved:

• You are washed from your sins and justified. 1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

• You receive the Holy Spirit.  1 Corinthians 2:12 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 1 Corinthians 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

• You are sanctified in, or set apart for, Christ Jesus.  1 Corinthians 1:2 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ– their Lord and ours…

• You are “in Christ;” you become united with Him. 1 Corinthians 1:4-7 4 I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way– in all your speaking and in all your knowledge– 6 because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.  1 Corinthians 1:30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God– that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

• You have fellowship with Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1:9 9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

• You receive spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 1:7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.

Now, some of you might be saying, “I think I am saved, but I have no idea whether all of these spiritual things…these spiritual changes… have taken place in me.  Is there another way I can tell whether I truly am saved?”

While I believe a saved person should be able to tell that they are saved based upon the spiritual changes God performs them, there is another way to determine if you are saved, and I’ll just briefly touch on it here.

When a person is saved, he or she receives the Holy Spirit (which is mentioned above).  If a person has received the Holy Spirit, that alone changes the person in ways that should show up in how they live.  Galatians 5 provides a list of what is called “the fruit of the Spirit” and it includes attributes like love, joy, peace, faithfulness, etc..  One or more of these attributes should be evident in the life of a Christian for the simple reason that they come from the Holy Spirit, and only believers have the Holy Spirit.

In addition, Christians are supposed to act and live differently than non-Christians.  This can be seen in the following two verses:

• 1 Peter 2:11-12 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
• Romans 12:2 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is– his good, pleasing and perfect will.

As a result, if you are living like the rest of the world, you need to examine yourself to determine if you are saved, for you may not be.  However, if you’re living like you are heavenward bound, and unlike others in this world, then take heart, for that would indicate that you have been saved.  There are other ways to determine whether you are saved and thus a Christian, but I’ll wait to discuss those in a future post.

Is salvation a life-long process or a one-time event?

1 Corinthians 1:18  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. 

Some people may use the above verse, and one in Philippians 2:12 about “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” to support the view that salvation is a life-long process rather than a one-time event.  However, I do not believe that the above verse means this. Here’s why.

I believe the best way to understand this verse is to look at the pairing of “being saved” and “are perishing,” for one is simply the opposite of the other. Further, if we understand the meaning of one phrase, that will help us understand the meaning of the other.

Let’s start with “are perishing.”  Does this mean that a person is slowly dying?  While it could mean that, I don’t believe it does. Why? Because everyone dies, but not everyone will perish (the saved won’t).  If it is not referring to physical death, then it must be referring to spiritual death, for there is no other death, and, we know that this is the fate of those who are not saved.  If it is referring to spiritual death, does it mean that these people are undergoing a life-long process of spiritual death; that they are slowly becoming more spiritually dead?  No.  I believe it simply means that these people are on their way toward spiritual death, or on the road to destruction.  It does not mean that they will change along this road, but rather, they won’t receive their final fate (perish) until later.

Assuming the above is true, “being saved” would mean that the other people are on their way to receiving their final reward (heaven, which is the reward for those who are saved).  It does not mean that they are undergoing a process of becoming more saved, for a person is either saved or not saved.  However, the Bible does speak about growing in one’s faith, and becoming more spiritually mature (moving from baby believers to believers).  The word that is often used to describe this process though, is sanctification, not salvation.

Also, there is one more reason to believe that “being saved” does not refer to a life-long process.  In the section above, we learned that several miracles take place when a person becomes saved. These miracles take place at one time, rather than over time.  For example, upon becoming saved, a person receives the Holy Spirit; a person does not slowly receive the Holy Spirit over time.

In summary, this verse does not mean that being saved is a life-long process.  Instead, salvation appears to be a one-time event, but a saved person does not experience ultimate salvation until they die and be with the Lord, or He returns to be with them before they die.  Sanctification, on the other hand, is a process that can last a lifetime, and it refers to the Lord working in a person’s life to make that person more spiritually mature.