“You are Saved!” The Past, Present and Future Realities of Salvation

First of all, I would like to state up front a theological important reality, which is often overlooked: Salvation has a past, present and future aspect. Therefore, one could rightfully say, “I have been, I am being, and I will be saved.” However, the point that I wish to make is that while salvation is not solely a past reality, it is in fact its past aspect that actualizes its present and future reality.

For biblical support let’s go to Ephesians 2:1-10, which is one of the most loved and useful texts in Scripture regarding salvation. You are perhaps already extremely familiar with the passage as a whole, and in order to shorten this post I will only focus a very small potion of it. In fact, the focus will be on the meaning of the perfect periphrastic participle construction in Eph. 2:5b and 8a: ejste sesw÷mevnoi.

First, a brief note concerning Greek participles: The Greek verb sw÷zw can mean I save, deliver, or rescue and the important distinction between the indicative mood (which means to the reality of the action of the verb is real or actual) and the participles is that the former conveys absolute time and the later relative time. Moreover, the participle’s time is relevant to the absolute time of the main verb (ejste), which is present active (meaning that the subject is actually doing the action) indicative (again meaning that the action of the verb is real).

The next order of business is to provide a short discussion pertaining to the meaning of Greek aspect (or what type of action is being described) and its relationship to the time when the action occurred (commonly combined with aspect to refer to the tense of a verb). With indicative verbs, tense is a combination of aspect and time, but with participles, tense is a combination of aspect and relative time.

Next, it is important to describe the meaning of the relative time being conveyed in this perfect participle construction. The perfect aspect combines the emphasis of a past occurrence (time) with an ongoing or continuing effect (aspect). Therefore, the time and aspect of the perfect passive (passive meaning that the subject is being acted upon) participle sesw÷mevnoi is past time occurrence with an ongoing or continuing effect (or aspect). Also, the participle expresses a relative time that is prior to/contemporaneous (or for the latter at the same time) in relationship to the action of the main verb (ejste), which is present time with continuous aspect.

The last thing that must be dealt with is the grammatical function of periphrastic participles. Periphrastic participles are used to emphasize the continuous force of the participle’s relative time, and it’s often the context in which the periphrastic participle is used, which conveys the emphasis on the continuous idea. However, the difficulty when determining the meaning of a perfect periphrastic participle is that one must place equal emphasis on both the perfect completed past action and the continuous or on going idea.

This brings us to the point where we can determine the meaning and best translation for the perfect periphrastic participles in Eph. 2:5b and 8a: ejste sesw÷mevnoi. You would parse the main verb ejste - present active indicative 2^nd person plural and literally translate it as “you are.” Next, you would parse the participle sesw÷mevnoi - perfect passive participle masculine plural nominative (as it in a way functions as a predicate nominative). This is where our translation becomes difficult. It’s correct to say that this phrase is constructed with the intention of placing special emphasis on the continuing results of the verb; again however, the use of the perfect participle implies a completed past action along with its continuing results into the present.

In light of these comments, it has been translated as, “you are being saved.” This translation seems to place more emphasis on the present realities of the particle, but fails to take into consideration the grammatical emphasis being placed on the past action. Therefore, the translation offered above would work best if the participle was also in the present along with the main verb, and as I’ve pointed out the participle is in the perfect tense not the present. Another way it has been translated is, “you have been saved.” However, this places more emphasis on the completed action than on the continuing effect and thus misses the grammatical significance of the prefect participle.             

Therefore, there seems to be a better way to carefully and clearly express the intended emphasis concerning a perfect participle and a present main verb. Since an etymological breakdown of the word periphrastic conveys the meaning of speaking or phrasing something in a wordy way, then I would like to offer a very wordy translation: “You have been and continue to be saved,” or simply “you are saved.” (See the NET Bible as they have chosen to translate it this way.) Notice how the latter, more-simplest translation, retains the present time of the main verb (“you are”) and also how the past time of the perfect participle is expressed (“saved”). Moreover, this communicates the idea that “you are in a continuing state of having already been saved.”

The theological importance, take away or big idea here is that Paul is telling the Christians at Ephesus that they are in a present condition of already having been saved. Therefore, God’s past action of saving you has a real result and impact on your present condition. And lastly, just as there is a present on going impact, there will be a future impact or reality that will also be enjoyed.