What is full salvation?

"Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come 'unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." We may observe here how vitally the perpetuity of our salvation is bound together with the perpetuity of His Priesthood. This is salvation in its fullest and all-inclusive character, not simply the initial salvation of the soul, nor present salvation from the evils and pitfalls that beset the Christian path; but both of these, beside future salvation out of this world and for eternal glory. Blessed fulness indeed, and dependent utterly upon Him who "ever liveth to make intercession." Does this mean eternally dependent? Indeed so: and we should not want it to be otherwise, for it is dependence upon One eternally dependable.

Many are the aspects of the salvation that God has given us, but here our salvation is presented as in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:10), a salvation that is linked with eternal glory. Paul had already said that God "hath saved us" (2 Tim. 1:9), for we do know salvation from the guilt of our sins, from the judgment of God, from the power of Satan, and from the fear of death as presently enjoyed. Again, we need salvation for every step of the journey home, and for this we have a risen, glorified Christ on the throne of God, a great High Priest, Who saves to the uttermost them that come to God by Him (Heb. 7:25). Then we look for salvation out of this world with all that is against us as God's saints, and this we shall have at the coming of the Lord to take us to Himself (Heb. 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5).

Observe then that the gospel is preached for salvation, not to improve man in the flesh but to save him; not to help the efforts of nature religiously, but to bring him to God; for the obedience of faith not of all nations, but among all nations; it is not therefore preached to better the world, nor to convert the world, but it is the power of God unto salvation to individuals, to everyone that believes. Now the power of God unto salvation is very specific in its meaning, a large expression; for while the freeness of the grace of God is shown in its blessing to every one that believes, fulness is set forth in not stopping short in its blessing of planting the saved one bodily in the presence of God in heavenly glory. We know that we are "called unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus," and that "he suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust that he might bring us to God." (1 Peter 5:10; 1 Peter 3:18.) Not but that it is quite correct now to speak of believers as "saved," for we have the salvation of our souls now by faith, as scripture says, "Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls." But we wait for salvation in its full sense, "The redemption of our body," "the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time," when in spiritual bodies, suited to heavenly and eternal glory, and conformed to the image of the Son, we shall be in full possession and enjoyment of this great salvation.

What a salvation is ours! “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25). The Lord has saved the believer from the penalty of sin by His all-sufficient, atoning death upon the cross, He saves or delivers His people through His priesthood and advocacy on high on His side, and in the power of life and of the Holy Spirit on our side, He will save our very bodies when He comes for His own at His second coming.

The present salvation, which we need and get as believers, is of course based upon the death of Christ, but it actually reaches us by His priestly activities on our behalf as He lives for us on high. We are being "saved by His life" (Rom. 5:10); and inasmuch as He ever lives we shall be saved to the uttermost. We shall be saved completely, to the extremest point of time; to the moment when the last foe has disappeared, and we are beyond the need of any further salvation forever.

In verses 9-11 we get not only salvation but also justification and reconciliation. These are words of greater definiteness and more limited meaning. There is no future aspect in connection with them. They are entirely present realities for the believer. "Now justified by His blood" (verse 9). "We have now received the reconciliation" (verse 11). We shall never be more justified than we are today. We shall never be more reconciled than we are today, though we shall presently have a keener enjoyment of the reconciliation which has been effected. But we shall be more fully saved than we are today, when in the age to come we are in glorified bodies like Christ.

T. Certainly it does. But this is not peculiar to salvation. Other blessings of the gospel are spoken of in the same way. John says that He who believes in the Son has life eternal, but Paul speaks as in the hope of it (Titus 1:2). The righteousness of God is upon the believer (Rom. 3:22), but in Philippians 3 he counts everything in which he could glory in the flesh as rubbish, that he might be found in Him, not having on his own righteousness, but the righteousness of God by faith. Every blessing of the gospel is ours now in the grace of God, and in the power of the Spirit, but for the completeness of all blessings we await the coming of Christ. It is so with salvation. In 2 Timothy 1 we read, “Who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling;” and in Titus 3, “According to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Present salvation is the deliverance of the soul from the judicial consequences of its sins, from the dominion of sin, from the fear of death, from the power of the devil, and being brought into right relations with God in Christ.

1889 288 Salvation is a great, comprehensive word. In one sense the Christian has now salvation — "receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls," 1 Peter 1:9) that is, from the divine judgment against sin, which corresponds to the passover in Egypt, and the deliverance at the Red Sea. In another sense it is still future, "ready to be revealed in the last time," though now "nearer than when we [first] believed." (1 Peter 1:5; Rom. 13:11.) In a third sense it is a daily experience (2 Cor. 1:6. Phil. 1:19.), "Work out your own salvation." The Red Sea marks an important stage. Israel had been sheltered from the Destroying Angel by taking refuge under the blood of the paschal lamb; but at Pi-hahiroth they seem to be in a more terrible position than ever, the mountains on each side, the sea in front, and a rapidly approaching army of overwhelming power behind. They cry out in a panic of fear, whilst their leader's stern and reticent face holds converse with the skies. Then he turns to them and says, "Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."

But this most marvellous and blessed truth is also one of great practical power. It is the true ground of peace. Our sins must be all forgiven before we can be thus one with Christ. All that belonged to the old man was judged on the cross, and put away for ever. Blessed be His name! And now we are brought into the presence of God without our sins, and in the condition of divine righteousness. Christ is thus our righteousness as well as our life. In a word, He is our full salvation. "By grace ye are saved." Salvation, according to this epistle, is a present reality. We are as really saved now as over we can be. "By grace ye are saved." Though salvation is spoken of in some of the other epistles as future, it is not less certain, but viewed as the end of our journey, when we shall stand before Christ in glory: when all the trials, difficulties, and dangers of the way shall be left behind.

Thus in Romans 5 salvation is very clearly referred to, and put in full contradistinction to what God has wrought for us by the blood of Christ. The apostle says, "God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us: much more then, being now justified by his blood" (it is evidently the same grand truth as the Passover), "we shall be saved from wrath through him." It is clear that salvation here is not simply that a person is purged from guilt, but the real application of Christ's work in all its fulness; only that we have it not yet for our bodies. "We shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (this was the beginning), "much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life." It is plain therefore, that salvation requires and involves not only the death but the life of Christ; that salvation supposes not merely guilt removed through His blood, but ourselves maintained, and to be brought through all difficulties, past, present, and future. Thus it is a complete deliverance from all that can be brought against us; not a going through the world with hope of protective mercy, which is the notion of man, but a complete victory over the foe present and future.