Salvation is a work in progress. Our salvation will be completed at the Second Coming when Christ raises and transfigures the entire creation (including all mankind). Let us consider myself as an example:
Revelation 13:8 states that the Lamb was slain “slain from the foundation of the world”. Before Satan ever sinned, the Lamb was slain. Before the Holy Trinity created, the Lamb was slain. Our salvation began even before creation!
Christ became incarnate over 2,000 years ago, and shortly thereafter He died on the cross, rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father. Our salvation was still going strong millennia before you or I were even born!
As I struggle to live the life of the Church, I notice some small spiritual improvements here and there. My salvation continues even as we speak!
When I die, I will be thoroughly purified by the immediate presence of the enthroned Christ. My salvation will take a big leap forward then!
When Christ returns in His glorious Second Coming, He will raise and transfigure all creation. Salvation will then be completed!
In other words, salvation is the grand work of the Holy Trinity, a process that has taken at least billions of years thus far (and perhaps will take billions of years more before it is completed).
The rather silly question, “Are you saved?” is unanswerable with a single word. One would have to say something like, “Christ saved me from before the foundation of the world. He saved me in His Incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement. He saves me today from my sins insofar as I leave my sins. He will save me from all my sins when I get to Heaven. He will save me from the final enemy–death itself–at His glorious Second Coming.”
To which you’ll get the response: “Huh?”
That’s where I was. My bad.
we find ourselves in.
