Let St. Paul Help Us Make a Start: How Are We "Being Saved”?

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are being saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. — 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

Faith in Christ is not vain and purposeless, after all. Like many of you, I know I did not believe in vain; I could feel as much, deep down, regardless of some of the hard questions I do not have good answers to.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. — Romans 5:9

We shall be saved. That one is accomplished in the future. And if the word “wrath” at the end of that verse distracts you from the main point, like it does me, then move on to the next one to help understand it.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. — 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10

And this is more to the point: we—he could be speaking of Christians here, but it sure seems it is more like he is saying "all mankind has been created to live with God—are appointed to obtain salvation, on an ongoing basis, through Christ, by living in him. “Live together with him.” The way of salvation is living together with Christ: union, one-ness. Few of us would even blink at the idea of pursuing one-ness or union with Christ; it is all over the New Testament. There is nothing controversial about that. But where that doubtful look would begin to form on our faces is with the assertion that this one reality is the whole of the Christian life: one in Christ, living in Christ, dwelling in him, him glorified in us.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. — 1 Corinthians 1:18

Some in this world are actively living out death (“those who are in the process of perishing”), but the ones who are in the process of being saved, the word of the cross is the power of God. And what is the word of the cross for us, to what “word” is St. Paul referring which is the power of God for our salvation, if not humility—we could also say the word of the cross is sacrifice or struggle, but those are arguably contained within humility, anyway, or maybe, they are paths to humility.

Though I began sharing these verses with the intention of revealing how the Scriptures speak of salvation as being an ongoing process for “we who are being saved”, I have incidentally exposed one of the most important distinctives and emphases of Orthodox spirituality: humility. To paint a clearer picture of Orthodox spirituality, we will need to delve deeper into the topic of humility, but before we can do that, we must speak more specifically of what this ongoing salvation is.

That is what is coming up in the next post.

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