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  • From: George Blaisdell <maqhth AT hotmail.com>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Matter for Concern: Salvation/Justification
  • Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 09:57:44 PDT





From: Don Garlington

Dear Mr. Blaisdell,

Thank you for your call for a discussion of justification/salvation,
etc. The whole matter, of course, is exceedingly complex;

Don ~ I was contacted on this very issue off list, suggesting that I had painted the question so broadly that it is not really answerable, and that perhaps I should 'do my homework' to narrow it down a bit more specifically so that list-members CAN respond!! And that is fair enough! [Even though enjoying the fruits of others' homework is one of the wonderful benefits of this list.]


I have come to the conclusion that “salvation” and “justification” are virtually coextensive.

So is one the means to the other, as they walk hand in hand?

I recall B. F. Westcott’s famous answer to the
question, “Are you saved?” He replied (in Greek): “I have been saved, I
am being saved, and I shall be saved.”

A remarkable response! I had not heard it ~ Thank-you...

In other words, salvation
transpires in three tenses. A good definition of “salvation,” I think
can be found in Cranfield’s Romans, 1.89:

"The gospel is God’s effective power active in the world of men to bring
about deliverance from His wrath in the final judgment and reinstatement
in that glory of God which was lost through sin - that is, an eschatological salvation which reflects its splendour back into the
present of those who are to share in it."

Romans 1:16-17ff seems on this track:

For I am not shamed by this evangel,
For it is God's power into salvation
To everyone who [is] believing:
To Jew first, then to Greek.
For God's righteousness in it is unveiled
Out of faith, into faith, just as has been written:
"The righteous out of faith shall be living."
[my translation]

And the ongoing tense usages of 'believing' [present] and 'living' [future] seem central to salvation through God's power and to His righteousness 'out of and into' faith.

It seems that we are 'righteoused' by god out of what faith we have into the faithfulness that we do not yet have, through the ongoingness of believing and of living 'out of faith'. The point being that this seems PROGRESSIVE here, by way of EK PISTEWS EIS PISTIN.

And from the first sentence, this progression seems to lead into salvation [EIS SWTHRIAN]. So I guess the question I then have is "When?"

And if I understand your response, your answer is "Constantly!"

Which both answers and begs the question!! [Nice work!] :-)

...at various points along the way believers are confronted with
temptations to apostasy, and when they resist, they are vindicated as
God’s faithful ones, as Abraham and finally as Jesus himself.

And if they do not resist...? Loss of salvation? Loss of Righteousness? Or the suffrance of God's wrath, but the loss of neither?

I don’t know if this is the kind of thing you were looking for, but I
thought I would respond to your plea and at least give it a shot.

Thank-you Don ~

Yes, it is a start.

I am wanting to understand righteousness as an acquisition from God by us that progressively accrues across a lifetime through our exercise of faithfulness in a constant and ongoing manner.

I am not understanding its relationship to salvation, although this Romans passage seems to indicate that righteousness is a pre-requisite to [leads into] salvation.

And I really don't know how to understand Paul here...


George Blaisdell
Roslyn, WA


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