An old story is told about Brooke Foss Westcott, the last bishop of Durham in the nineteenth century. One of his clerical friends was traveling on a train and was asked by a Salvation Army officer, “Are you saved?” Curious to know how Bishop Westcott would have responded, the friend relayed the question. The bishop paused, smiled, and essentially answered, “Do you mean have I been saved, am I being saved, or will I be saved?”1
Bishop Westcott’s statement teaches what we know to be true from the Bible: Salvation has different tenses. In Christ, we have been saved from sin’s penalty, we are being saved from sin’s power, and we will be saved one day from sin’s presence.
The work of God in saving sinners is far more dynamic than many of us realize. Put simply, it deals with past, present, and future events. Salvation in Christ involves an eternal purpose, an ongoing process, and a future promise. The New Testament attests to each of these three dimensions.
Salvation’s Eternal Purpose
The apostle Paul summed up salvation’s purpose well in his letter to the Romans, in which he wrote,
We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Rom. 8:28–29, emphasis added)
We are saved, in other words, to be made like Jesus. To “conform” is to shape or to mold something into a recognizable form. Christians, then, are those who, by God’s power, are being shaped to reflect the distinct, recognizable character of Christ.
We know from experience that we become like the company we keep. Spouses often come to share the same mannerisms. Friends typically share similar values and passions. And so God’s children, nurtured by His Word and sanctifying work, become like He who is “the firstborn among many brothers.”
Christians have been saved from sin’s penalty, are being saved from sin’s power, and will be saved one day from sin’s presence.
(The purpose in verse 29, incidentally, provides the context for the promise in verse 28. When we read that “for those who love God all things work together for good,” we need to understand it in light of how God defines our ultimate “good”: conformity to Christ. Too often, our own personal definitions of “good” are far more worldly—and less glorious!—than what God has planned for us.)
This purpose is rich with implications for us. Because God is always working to make us like Jesus, wherever we find ourselves, we’re able to say, “In the panorama of God’s redemptive purposes, God is using my circumstances to form Christlike qualities in me.” For this reason James writes, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (1:2–4).
We realize that in God’s plan, there are purposes He accomplishes in suffering that aren’t accomplished any other way. If we want to be like Jesus, it follows that we will suffer with Him (Rom. 8:17). But whether in trials or triumphs, we can be certain that God is conforming us into the image of His Son.
In God’s plan, there are purposes He accomplishes in suffering that aren’t accomplished any other way.
God’s purpose in the lives of His people leads us to say with the hymn writer,
The work which His goodness began
The arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen
And never was forfeited yet.2
Salvation’s Ongoing Process
If salvation’s purpose is conformity to Christ, then how does God actually bring that purpose about? Paul gives us an indication elsewhere in his letters:
The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17–18, emphasis added)
If God’s ultimate purpose for us is to make us like Jesus, then His purpose today is to continue the process—for it is a process. Paul clearly asserts that reality when he writes in verse 17 that we “are being transformed”—a present continuous verb—“into the same image” of Christ.
The work of God’s Sprit is to turn our gaze toward Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). And as we look at Christ, we begin to look like Him. By gazing at Jesus, we are further transformed by the glory revealed in the Gospel itself: that He died in our place, freeing us not only from sin’s penalty but also from its dominion.
The ongoing process of salvation involves both an active and a passive dimension. Our part is to behold the glory of the Lord; God’s part is to transform us into the image of Christ. In short, it’s by the Gospel that we make progress. By seeing the glorious life Jesus lived (and lives!), we increasingly behave how Jesus did and grow in our zeal for the Lord’s glory.
As we look at Christ, we begin to look like Him.
In the Gospel, we remember that God makes us right with Him not on account of something done by us but on account of something done for us. We don’t look within to be made like Christ; we look outside of ourselves and to Christ. Paul summarizes the active and passive dimensions of this transformation best in his letter to the Philippians: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (2:12–13).
Salvation’s Future Promise of Salvation
Finally, another apostle, John, helps us understand better how the salvation that God purposes and accomplishes carries with it a future promise:
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
John’s words describe for us an immense comfort: Despite all our stumbling and failings this side of eternity, we have the promise of salvation—that when Christ appears, we will be like Him.
When we read John’s promise together with Paul, we know that our future salvation involves not only being like Christ but also being with Him in eternity (Phil. 3:21). Paul anticipates us being like Jesus; John looks forward to us being with Jesus. Both realities are true for the Christian.
When we consider salvation in its three dimensions—past, present, and future—we recognize that the call of Christianity is to become what we already are in Christ. Mere ethics is an invitation to become what we are not. Salvation causes us to become what we are by virtue of our union with the crucified and resurrected Jesus.
As we wait for the promise of our future salvation, we would do well to make the lyrics of this Anglican hymn our prayer:
I wish to be like Jesus,
So humble and so kind.
His words were always tender,
His voice always divine.
But no, I’m not like Jesus,
As anyone can see.
O Savior, come and help me,
And make me just like Thee.
This article was adapted from the sermon “Be Like Christ” by Alistair Begg.
Joseph Clayton, Bishop Westcott (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., 1906), 110–111. ↩︎
Augustus Montague Toplady, “A Debtor to Mercy Alone” (1771). ↩︎
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