God’s Past, Ongoing, and Future Work of Salvation

By Robb Brunansky

Published May 28, 2025

As we have seen for the past several posts, 1 Corinthians 1:18 lays the foundation for a biblical philosophy of ministry.

In this verse, Paul helps us understand how to do ministry so Christ, rather than man, is preeminent; that God’s Word, rather than the man’s wisdom, is proclaimed; that unity, rather than rivalry, is promoted; that humility, rather than pride, is pursued; and that faithfulness, rather than pragmatism, is prized.

To this end, Paul showed us the content of the preaching, which is the word of the cross – and all that flows from the gospel. Then, he explained the condition of the perishing, which was paramount in Paul’s ministry as he recognized he had no power to convert unbelievers or change their nature.

Finally, Paul reveals the confidence of the persevering. We are confident that, since God saved us when we were unconverted, God can save others who are still in that condition. That same gospel that seemed so irrelevant and foolish, suddenly became the most beautiful and significant message we ever heard.

When Paul describes believers in Christ, he uses an interesting phrase – those who are being saved, which is an extremely unusual description in the New Testament. We mostly find the New Testament references about salvation in the past, unlike Paul’s reference in the present as an ongoing process.

Why does Paul describe believers as being saved? To wrap our minds around this description and put it in its proper context, I want to look at three parts of God’s comprehensive work of salvation in Christians.

• The first phase is God’s completed work of Salvation.

We usually think about salvation in terms of God’s completed work of salvation in our lives. There are three aspects to understand when we consider this phase of salvation and how the Bible addresses it.

First, we should think of regeneration, which is used once in Scripture in the context of personal salvation in Titus 3:5. Paul talks about a particular aspect of salvation that is complete, namely the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit, which is the moment God gives us new life. In this context, the Spirit of God imparts new life to us in a once-for-all act when we were spiritually dead.

It’s important to note we are entirely passive in being born again. We do nothing to initiate or complete God’s work of regeneration in us.

Second is justification, which is often misunderstood. Justification includes two things: the forgiveness of our sins and the declaration that we are righteous. Roman Catholic theology, and some other aberrant views, consider justification as a process of being made righteous, but that’s not biblical. Justification is not a process, but a finished work. In Romans 5:1, Paul was clear that justification by faith is a past event and something that is divinely accomplished in our lives – not an ongoing process, but a declaration by God that has already been made.

Justification is different than regeneration. While we are passive in regeneration, we are active in justification by faith. We believe in Christ, and through faith we are justified. God’s work of regeneration enables us by His grace to believe the gospel, which ensures our faith so that we trust in Christ and are justified.

Third, God has completed the work of adoption. God made believers part of His family by adopting us. 1 John 3:1 tells us we are now children of God. We are not earning a place in the family, nor hoping God will make us His children if we perform well enough in our salvation. Rather, we who are in Christ Jesus are now His heirs. We can rest in the assurance of God’s Fatherly love because He has irrevocably adopted us as His children.

God’s completed work of salvation, then, involves regeneration, justification, and adoption.

• The second phase is God’s ongoing work of salvation.

As Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 1:18, we are being saved now. There are two, ongoing things that God is doing as part of His saving work in us.

The first is sanctification, which is the process of God’s ongoing work to make believers more like His Son until our deaths or Christ’s return, whichever comes first. In 2 Peter 3:18, Peter exhorts readers to grow in the grace in knowledge of Christ. We are to be constantly growing, never stagnant or declining. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:1 that sanctification is learning how to walk and please the Lord. All Christians have room to grow in every facet of our lives, even in areas where we are the most like Christ.

The second area of ongoing salvation is perseverance. The Bible never pictures perseverance in faith as an unnecessary aspect of salvation. In Colossians 1:22-23, Paul states that believers have been previously reconciled to God if we presently continue in the faith. We cannot be saved without perseverance. In Philippians 1:6, Paul also says God began and will finish His work. Christians don’t have to worry and wonder if we’ll continue to believe until the end. God’s ongoing work of sanctification and perseverance in our lives ensures that those who have truly trusted in Christ will be saved in the end.

• The final stage is God’s future work of salvation.

Salvation is not only in the past and present. There is a future work God does to bring our salvation to its consummation called glorification. In Romans 8:17-18, 23-25, Paul affirms that glorification is yet future, and we are waiting with certainty because we know God will bring it to pass.

There is an amazing parallel between regeneration and glorification. Just like we did nothing in regeneration, we will do nothing in glorification. Our bodies will be in the grave, or possibly alive if we live until Christ’s return. In a moment, all who are in Christ will be glorified by God’s immense, divine power transforming us from our lowly state to Christ’s glorious body.

Paul could have picked any one of these tenses in 1 Corinthians to describe believers who have confidence in the power of God’s Word. Why did the Spirit inspire Paul to write, “But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God”?

The answer is because God wants us to understand that the only ones who have been saved and who will besaved are those who are being saved now. The Corinthian church was battling so much sin that Paul wanted to remind them that past and future salvation cannot exist apart from present salvation.

There are entire movements and churches that believe people can have past and future salvation but not experience God’s ongoing work of salvation in the present. Millions of people believe they will be glorified because of something in the past although there is no evidence of present salvation in their lives. This is a gross miscalculation that will cost many people eternity. They will be shocked to learn Christ never knew them.

When we think about the question, “Will I be saved?” we need to recognize that the answer is not merely, “Have I been saved in the past?” but, “Am I being saved in the present?” We are not those who hadconfidence in the power of God’s Word, but who have confidence in the power of God’s Word because we see it alive in us in this moment. Only those who persevere in faith by God’s grace have assurance of God’s saving work in their lives.