If I were to leave you to keep an eye on my office, and just before walking out the door, I pointed to the back and said, “Shut the door;” what would I expect? Namely that you would shut the door. That’s it.
But if I were to turn around and say, “And answer the phone;” what does that imply? It implies that if the phone rings, answer it, and if it rings again, answer it, and if it keeps ringing, keep answering it. It’s what is called a continuous imperative.
Today we’re back with a visit to the blog Brothers of the Book, written by Bill Hood. While the column is directed at men, there is application here for everyone. (Also, with so many printed devotional resources directed toward women, here is a site you can recommend to a male friend or relative.) As always, click the header below and read this there instead of here.
You Are Being Saved
1 Corinthians 15:1–11
God’s work of salvation pre-dates your existence, is on-going in your life, and will be witnessed again in eternity. You are saved; you are being saved; you will be saved.
Today’s reading is a re-presentment of the Gospel. Paul shares the facts of salvation with the Corinthians. It is important for us to remember what we believe. It is so easy to be led astray. A little twisting of the truth produces a lie – not an alternate truth.
Changing subjects, I found the comparison of various translations of the following verse to be rather interesting.
1 Corinthians 15:2
ESV
“and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”NIV
“By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”KJ
“By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”
Most translations refer to the Gospel as something by which they “were saved” while the English Standard Version (ESV) refers to the Gospel as something by which they were “being saved”. Did the ESV get this wrong? I don’t think so. I went back and did a word study in the original Greek, and the word translated “you are being saved” by the ESV does give a sense of something that is on-going; at least it gave me that sense. My pastor, several times, has said from the pulpit “you are saved, you are being saved, you will be saved”.
This sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it? Try this on for size. God chose to save you before He even created the World. Moving forward in time, if you are a Christian, there was a moment in your past when you submitted your life to Christ, and at that moment you were saved as God had already determined you would. Can you lose your salvation? Christ says He will lose no one whom God places in His hand. Did the Son of God get this wrong? Can He lose you due to your own choices? No brothers, it is His grace and presence in your life that keeps saving you every moment of every day. God doesn’t save you and walk away hoping you’ll make the right choices so you can keep what He gave you. Your salvation is a complete work of grace on the part of God Himself. You had nothing to do with it. God saved you and He is saving you.
One day, you will stand before the righteousness of God. Jesus will step forward and say “Abba, he is with me. I paid for his sin.” You will be allowed to pass in to eternal fellowship with God. At that moment, you are saved anew. You will be saved.
Salvation is an amazing thing. It is beyond miraculous. It is beyond comprehension. Brothers, you are not alone in your wanderings in this desert called life. If you truly submitted your life to Christ, Jesus goes with you in the form of His Holy Spirit. He lifts you up. He carries you through. In the Good News of Jesus Christ, you are being saved!
Vivere Victorem! (Live Victorious!)
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Christianity 201 
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