Being Saved - A Continous Process

Rom 1:6

6 And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

1. The privilege of Christians: They are beloved of God. They are members of that body which is beloved, which is God's Hephzibah, in which his delight is. We speak of God's love as measured by his blessings. He has a common love to all mankind and a peculiar love for true believers; and between these there is a love he has for all the body of visible Christians.

2. The duty of Christians; that is to be holy, called to be saints, called to salvation through sanctification. Saints, and only saints, are beloved of God with a special and peculiar love. Kletois hagiois - called saints, saints in profession; we should all strive to be saints in deed. Those that are called saints should labor to answer to the name; otherwise, though it is an honor and a privilege, yet it will be of little avail at the great day to have been called saints, if we really haven’t lived like saints.

Rom 1:7

To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace (charis) is here used in place of a common Greek expression, chairein, which means "greetings." Peace has a Hebrew and Aramaic parallel, shalom, which carries the complex idea of prosperity, good health, and success. But this Christian greeting stresses what God has done in the lives of believers.

Rom 1:8

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.

Paul is always starts out with thanksgiving and praise.  Thanksgiving to God for all that He has done and then praise for the good reports regarding the people he is writing to.  Even when he is preparing to bring a scathing rebuke, as in the case of other epistles, he always starts out by building up and encouraging.  This technique is now called sandwiching in leadership circles, but it was a tool that both Jesus and Paul used first. Paul also knew that it was important to spur on the church in Rome to faith and good works because Rome, being a city on a hill and the center of the known world, was being observed and everything that happened there had repercussions that were felt all over the empire.  It is doubly amazing because these Christians, who were known for their faith, lived in the midst of one of the most wicked and depraved cities of its time.  Then, as now, it was called enlightenment.  It is interesting that in the Greek the word “kattangello” could be interpreted as “singing the praises of” or “celebrating” their faith.  The amazing part of the church in Rome is that they are so celebrated, and yet no one seems to know who started it.  None of the Apostles seems to have started it, and this letter to the Romans is not addressed to any overseer in particular.

Rom 1:9-10

God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

Paul attests to how he intercedes for them even though he has not met them.  He is not some phony paying lip service.  He knows that when they read this letter, the Spirit himself will give witness to the fact of his concern for them and for his desire to come to them.  It is possible that the Roman Christians, having heard that Paul was considered the Apostle to the Gentiles has somehow forgotten about them or neglected them.

Rom 1:16

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

There is only one way to achieve salvation and that is through Jesus Christ.  Then as now it was believed that there were many roads to God and that it didn’t matter which road a person followed as long as they were sincere about it.  The Bible is very clear on this point; Jesus is the only way to the Father.

John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Acts 4:12

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Salvation is provided to us by God’s grace, His unmerited favor, which He freely gives us in Jesus.  As we continue reading Romans the Apostle Paul will introduce to how salvation is achieved.  He will introduce us to redemption, reconciliation, atonement, justification and propitiation.

Salvation – “Soteria” The Greek word means both “deliverance” and “bringing through safely”, “keeping from harm”.

We tend to think of salvation as an event.  We talk about when we were saved, we ask people if they are saved.  While there is a demarcation point when we are saved, it is an ongoing process. 

1 Cor 1:18-19

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Thus, being saved is a 3-stage process.

1.      The Past stage of salvation includes the personal experience by which we as believers receive forgiveness of sins as a free gift and pass from spiritual death into life, from the power of sin to the power of God, from Satan’s dominion into the kingdom of God. 

2.      The Present stage of salvation brings us through the tug of war for our souls and brings us into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

a.       We have the privilege of a personal relationship with God

b.      We submit ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word

c.       We can be continually filled with the Holy Spirit and enjoy power for victorious living

d.      We separate ourselves from lifestyles of sin and corruption and pursue holiness

e.       We commit ourselves to advance the kingdom of God

3.      The Future stage of salvation includes:

a.       Our deliverance from the coming wrath of God’s judgment

b.      Our sharing in Christ’s glory in a transformed body

c.       Receiving our rewards as faithful believers.