(God and Man) Three Tenses of Salvation — Zac Poonen

Salvation from Sin Rather Than Hell

I want to turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8, that it's this well-known verse, Ephesians 2 and verse 8, that by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one should boast.

We want to talk about that word saved, because that's the word found in the first promise in the New Testament, that you call his name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. And generally speaking, most believers, when they ask somebody, are you saved?

They only mean, are you saved from hell? And it may interest you to know that in the whole Bible, there is not a single verse about being saved from hell. Not one verse. You look for it, you won't find it.

Because the Bible doesn't speak about being saved from hell. It speaks about being saved from sin. It speaks about being saved from the judgment of God. The concept of being saved from hell is a very selfish concept.

And if your salvation was in order to be saved from hell and go to heaven, then I'm not surprised that your spiritual life is so pathetically poor and shallow and empty. All people who want to be saved from hell and go to heaven, I don't believe they'll ever become spiritual in their whole life, because their seeking for salvation, the Bible doesn't speak about.

If you are interested in being saved from sin, boy, there is nothing that will stop you from growing spiritually. We can say that among Christians, there are people who want to be saved from hell and there are people who want to be saved from sin.

The people who want to be saved from hell are millions. Everybody in the world wants to be saved from hell. But the people who want to be saved from sin are very, very few. So this morning, I want to speak to those who want to be saved from sin.

I do not want to speak to those who want to be saved from hell. I really have no message for you, because the Bible has no message for you. It's quite likely that a number of people sitting here are only interested in being saved from hell.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have a message for you this morning. I want to speak to those who are serious about their Christian life. For many years, in the beginning when we started, I used to think, we've got to build a church where everybody is a disciple of Jesus Christ.

The Cost of Wholehearted Discipleship

That's the vision with which we started 28 years ago. Everybody is going to love Jesus supremely, more than father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children, job, their own life, more than money, property, everything.

And a church where every person is fervent in their devotion to Jesus, wholehearted in their desire to be free from every sin that pulls them down, eager with all their heart to be filled with the Holy Spirit and fire.

And people for whom leading others to Christ and building the church would be the most important thing of all. But over the years, as time has gone on, I have discovered that is impossible. So I've given up on it, I'll tell you that.

We start with great ideas. I mean, it's possible if you limit yourself to 12 people like Jesus did. If you go beyond that number, it's almost impossible. And I think that's why Jesus limited himself to 12 people.

In his entire life, he could gather only 11. And in his last prayer in John chapter 17, even though he spoke to thousands and many hundreds believed in him, ultimately in John 17, he says, I pray for these 11, that they might be one.

That's interesting because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, there were 500 believers who saw Jesus after his resurrection. And he never prayed for those 500. I wonder why. He never prayed for 500 people who believed in him.

He prayed for 11, that they may be kept from the world, that they may be one. Because he knew that these 500 had many other ambitions in life as well. In that 500, there is 11. And I believe it's like that in a church also.

You can have a church of 500 believers and in the midst of that, there'll be 11. If you get 11, you're as good as Jesus. But it'd be difficult to find 11 sometimes. But those are the ones through whom God accomplishes his purposes.

God does not accomplish his purposes with the 500. He accomplishes his purposes with 11. In the Old Testament, there was a tabernacle, which you read in Exodus, how God told Moses to build this tabernacle.

And the tabernacle had three parts. One was this huge compound called the outer court. And there were hundreds of people there. We got to see the whole tabernacle as a picture of the visible church. And in the visible church, there is an outer court where people are taken up with forgiveness of sins.

It's about all they want. They keep on sinning as believers. They don't take sin seriously. And they keep on offering sacrifices on the altar. They ask Jesus to forgive them. And if they are like that for 10, 20 years, they'll probably be like that for 100 years.

They never take sin seriously. They're always in the outer court. They're glad to come along to the meetings and praise the Lord and probably make more noise than everybody else in the meeting. But they're not serious about sin.

They're only interested in going to heaven when they die. And they keep on sinning and they keep on asking the Lord to forgive them. They're in the outer court. And then there's a smaller compartment there under the tent called the holy place.

That was a small place, about 15 feet by 45 feet, 15 by 30. And there you have fewer people. Not so many like in the outer court. These are people who are baptized in the Holy Spirit and who are eager to serve the Lord.

Now a lot of people think baptism in the Holy Spirit is the ultimate in the Christian experience. It isn't. It's the beginning. They're eager to serve the Lord. There are priests over there doing various things.

And that's another group of Christians who are very eager to serve and do something. And they find their satisfaction in more than escaping hell, but doing some service for the church. They are very eager to help at conference times or any type of practical work.

They're always there. Good. But there's another much smaller part of that tavern called the most holy place where people are not taken up with forgiveness of sins or going to hell or even serving him.

In that most holy place dwells God himself. And in the Old Testament, nobody could go into this most holy place because there was a thick curtain called the veil. When Jesus died, that veil was rent, teaching that we could go into this most holy place and live there always.

The thing which everybody in the Old Testament longed for but could not achieve. Jesus told his disciples, many prophets and holy men longed to experience what you can experience now, but they couldn't.

And here in the most holy place, there's no activity. Some Christians would be absolutely bored if there's no activity. That's why they never get into the most holy place. And some Christians would be absolutely bored if they don't have other Christians around them.

There are no other people there. It's only God. This is the fullness of salvation. Those who have gone through the veil and found their all in Jesus Christ. Now I realize that in every church there will only be a few.

I want to say to those who are serious here about their Christianity, long to be among that few. That's been my own longing for more than 40 years and I'd say I'm not disappointed today. Salvation from hell has never interested me in all my life.

I never gave my life to Jesus to be saved from hell. I gave my life to Jesus because he gave his life for me. Not because I wanted to escape hell. In fact, I told the Lord, Lord, if you're in hell, I'd be happy to be in hell also.

I want to be where you are. I don't care whether it's heaven or hell. I want to be where you are. Heaven doesn't interest me. Jesus interests me. And even on earth, the many blessings we get from the gospel don't interest me.

Jesus interests me. And if you're like that, I believe you can get the maximum benefit out of your one earthly life. And I long that in our church here there will be raised up a few. I don't ever expect it will be more than 10%.

10 itself will be a large number. I don't expect it will be more than 10%, but I pray that there will be a 10 in our midst who are fervently devoted to Jesus Christ, for whom Jesus is the only passion in life.

And I want to speak to such people. You know, we think that worship is what we do here on Sunday morning. It's not. What we do here on Sunday morning is thanksgiving and praise. Worship is altogether different.

We are thanking God. We are praising him. Worship, the highest form of worship is total silence, where a man is taken up with God. Like it says in the Bible, the Lord is in his holy temple, let all flesh keep silent before him.

Many Christians just don't know this, because they are not interested in worship. They are only interested in noise. It's good. I believe in making noise. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Clap your hands.

Holy people, lift up your hands. And I would certainly be as loud as anybody else in praising God and thanking him. But I want to say that there is something more than that, and that is worship. People in the outer court can be thankful.

You know, God healed me. God gave me a job. God gave me a house. God blessed me. God blessed my children. This is thanksgiving. People move into the holy place and they praise. You move into the most holy place, you worship, because there is only God there.

You are taken up with Jesus himself. This is the fullness of salvation. So when it says, by grace are you saved through faith, it's not just talking about being saved from hell. Salvation has got three tenses, past, present and future.

Salvation in the Past: Deliverance from God's Wrath

I just want to show you these verses in Romans, which speaks about all three tenses of salvation. First of all, in Romans, in chapter 5, verse 9. Here it speaks about being saved from the wrath of God through Christ.

When we are justified by the blood of Christ, we are saved from the wrath of God through him. When the blood of Christ has not only cleansed me, but like it says here, declared me righteous. To be justified means to be declared righteous.

There is no defect in me. I am righteous. The blood of Jesus has not only cleansed me, but declared me righteous in God's eyes. Then I am saved from the wrath of God, from God's severe penalty and punishment on sin.

One of the things that we learn on Calvary's cross is that God cannot tolerate sin, even if it is found on somebody he loves very much. Now a lot of us have probably believed the devil's lie, that if you are a child of God, God will overlook sin in your life because you are his child.

I want to say to you, that's a lie of the devil. Jesus was the son of God, much better than you and me. And yet, when sin was found upon Jesus on the cross, not his own sin, our sin, but it was sin. Sin was found on Jesus on the cross.

God the Father turned his face away from him and forsook him. Do you think it is going to be any different with us? Not at all. If sin is found in me, I am not better than Jesus. I believe God will forsake me.

You may not believe that and perhaps that's why you take sin so lightly. I don't take sin lightly because I have seen the seriousness of sin on Calvary's cross. Many of us haven't and that's why we live in the outer court forever and ever and ever and ever.

Never progress even after many years. One of the first things you need to pray is, Lord help me to see how serious sin is. We rejoice in so many other blessings. There are many other blessings that come as a by-product of being saved from sin.

Prosperity Is Not the Measure of God's Blessing

Material blessings. We say that we don't believe the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel that is being preached by many people. I don't believe it because I don't believe that prosperity is the mark of God's blessing.

Yet I know there are people sitting in this church who believe that their prosperity proves that God has blessed them. That's a devil's lie. If prosperity is the mark of God's blessing, the businessmen in India are the people whom God has blessed the most and the film stars, not you.

You don't even have one percent of their wealth. Prosperity is not the mark of God's blessing. The richest people in the world are not believers. They are godless unbelievers. It is also not the mark of God's blessing, though some people think it is.

The healthiest people in the world are not believers. The longest living people in the world are not believers. You look in the Guinness Book of Records, they are not believers who are longest, oldest man and oldest woman.

They are heathen. And how is it that we can imagine that prosperity is the mark of God's blessing? There are people who have come into our church and have been blessed, become prosperous and fallen away and have left the church.

They would never have left the church if they had been poor. Forget those who have left. Let's think of those who are still here. Maybe God has blessed you and prospered you in your life and you think that is God's blessing.

Consider, what has it done to your children? It has brought television, your wealth. You could not afford these things when you were poor. Now that you are rich, you can have television, VCRs, you can go to the video shops, you have got plenty of money to hire videotapes.

Has it made your children more spiritual? Has it made them love Jesus more? No. They are watching movies today. What has your prosperity brought to you? A distance from God. Your family has gone further away from God because of your prosperity.

Is that a blessing? Far from it. It is a curse. Recognize it. Because you say, God has blessed me. You have been deceived. He has not blessed you. If your children became more Christ-like, that would have been a blessing.

Not if they become rich. You know that prayer in Proverbs 30? This was not written by Solomon. It was written by a man called Agur. Verse 1. One of the things he prayed was, in the Old Testament, this is the only thing you could pray.

Middle of verse 8. Lord, don't give me poverty and don't give me riches. Just give me what is enough for me. Just enough to satisfy my needs. Because if I grow rich, I will become content without God.

If I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name. In the Old Testament, they did not have the power of the Holy Spirit. They did not have Christ dwelling within. Jesus Christ never needed to pray a prayer like this.

Jesus Christ never needed to pray, Father, don't make me too rich because then I may forget you. Or don't make me too poor because I may steal. I can't imagine Jesus stealing when he is poor or forgetting the Father when he is rich.

No. That is an old covenant prayer. A new covenant, Paul says in Philippians 4. Philippians 4, he says, verse 12. I know how to get along in poverty. I also know how to live in prosperity. He says, it makes no difference to me whether I am poor or rich.

They are unimportant. His spirituality, Paul's spirituality did not depend on whether he is poor or rich. It is like whether he wore a white shirt or a blue shirt. You know that whether you wear a white shirt or a blue shirt does not make a difference to your spirituality.

Exactly like that. Poverty and riches did not make any difference to Paul because it did not matter whether it was a white shirt or a blue shirt. Because he says, in every circumstance I have learnt how to be filled, how to go hungry, to have an abundance and suffer need.

But before you jump into that verse, let me tell you this. I think more than 95 of Christians in the world live in the old covenant. So you better go back to Proverbs chapter 30. Don't jump to this prayer.

95 of Christians live in the old covenant proved by the fact that they are defeated by sin. When you are defeated by sin, that is the clearest proof you are under the old covenant, you are under law.

Because Romans 6 .14 says, sin shall not rule over you when you are under grace. When you are freed from law and come under grace, sin will not rule over you. Sin rules over you because you are under the old covenant.

And when you are in the old covenant, that means sin is ruling your life, you must pray the prayer of Proverbs 30, Lord don't make me too rich and don't make me too poor. Just give me enough for my needs.

Otherwise, I and my children will forget all about you. We won't have time to read the Bible, we'll be watching television. And we won't think about serving you, we'll be thinking of making more money.

Then you must pray, Lord make me poor. It's easier to be closer to the Lord when you are poor than when you are rich. There are very very few people like the Apostle Paul that I have met in my life who know how to handle riches.

Some people don't get corrupt by riches, they become proud. Riches have the tendency to make people very independent. They don't need others. It's very difficult to fellowship with such people. I found that, even believers.

Because they are so independent, because they got so much money, they don't need anybody. They don't need anybody's help, they earn so much. They can live without you. And the Bible says, even the head, 1 Corinthians 12, Jesus does not say to the feet, I don't need you.

But many rich believers act as though they don't need anybody. I'm okay, I'm independent. I'm not financially dependent on anyone. I feel sorry for such people, they got a cancer. And what to do? You don't get angry with people who got cancer, you feel sorry for them.

So I only feel sorry for such people. And it's very difficult to fellowship with such people. They must pray, Lord make me poor. Because I've drifted, my riches have made me drift away from you. How many rich people are there, who drifted away from God because of their riches?

Whose children have drifted away from God because of their riches? Who will have the boldness to pray, Lord make us poor once again. Because I remember Lord, how it was in our home, in those days when we were poor, and we loved you.

And we had more time for you. We talked about you because we didn't have videotapes to watch. Your word was more important those days. But those days are gone Lord, make us poor once again. I want to tell you, don't let the devil deceive you.

Standing as Light in a World Under Satan's Influence

This whole world is under the control of one person, Satan. The entire entertainment world is governed by Satan. The music world is governed by Satan. The medical world is governed by Satan. Everything, the educational system is governed by Satan.

And we live in this world because Jesus prayed that we should not be taken out of this world. In this world we are to stand as a light. But if the light becomes darkness, like the world around it, then what use is that claiming to be a light?

And that's why we need to be saved, not only from the wrath of God, like we read in Romans 5. Let's turn back there. Romans chapter 5, it says, we are saved first of all, this is past tense, from the wrath of God, verse 9, through Christ.

I'm not saved from hell. I'm saved from the judgment that should have come upon me because of my sins. Because of the millions of sins I did in my life, for which God has to punish me by forsaking me for all eternity.

He has saved me from that. Not by any works that I did. I could never do any works to earn that salvation. That's why once in John chapter 6, when the people asked Jesus, what shall we do that we might do the works of God?

Jesus said, this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. Do you know, how many of you know this, that the greatest work you can ever do for God is to believe in Jesus Christ? That humbles all the proud people.

Proud people like to do so many things for God. But Jesus said, the greatest work you can do for God is to believe in Jesus Christ. Believe in Him. That equalizes us. Now I want to say to you, begin there.

Begin by saying, the greatest work I can ever do is to believe in Jesus Christ. That will humble us. And then we read about salvation in the present tense. This is salvation in the past, verse 9. Verse 10, again we find the word saved.

But this time the word saved is not referring to our past life. It's talking about our present life. If while we were enemies, that is past, we were reconciled to God through the death of His son, now much more, much more than that salvation from wrath, having been reconciled, that means now we are children of God, we shall be saved, not by His death, but by His life.

We were saved by His death when He died on the cross. That is from the wrath of God, from the punishment of sin. Now we are to be saved from the power of sin. Past tense salvation is from the punishment for sin.

We are saved by His death. Present tense salvation is from the power of sin. How shall we be saved? Very important verse. We are not saved by obeying His commandments. We are not saved by trying to keep the exhortations in the church.

Last Sunday we spoke about being merciful and long-suffering to others. Are you going to be saved by being long-suffering to others? No. It says here we will be saved by His life. There is only one way to be saved permanently, and that is when the life of Jesus comes within me through the Holy Spirit, lifting me up and freeing me from the law of sin that keeps on pulling me down.

You can grit your teeth and say, I will never look at pornography again. I will never lust after a woman again. I am never going to run after money again. It will last only a few days. Many of you who don't have any fellowship with other believers in CFC, you can grit your teeth and say, from now on I am going to have fellowship.

It won't work. In a hundred years it won't work. It is by His life. Salvation from the power of sin by His life. That is what He communicates to me. When the Bible says in the New Covenant, I will put my law in your mind and write them in your heart, what He means is, in simple words, that He will give me the life of Jesus.

I am not supposed to live by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but by the tree of life. The tree of knowledge of good and evil will always bring death. And very often we can sit in a Sunday morning meeting and what we hear, we can hear it as a knowledge of good and evil.

Let's take last Sunday for example. What did you hear last Sunday? If you remember, God is very long-suffering with us. So we must be long-suffering with other people. You got a law, right? Knowledge of good.

What is the knowledge of good you got last Sunday? Since God is long-suffering with us, we must be long-suffering with other people. Go ahead, try it. I can tell you now itself, guaranteed failure. You can listen to God's word and receive it as a law, as a knowledge of good and evil.

This is bad, this is good. Okay, maybe you heard something this morning. Knowledge of evil. Watching all these filthy movies is evil. You got another law. You stop doing it. Are you going to be spiritual?

No. I know unconverted people who have thrown the television out of their homes who are not spiritual. No, we are not saved by any law. We are not saved by avoiding evil and doing good. It will just make you a religious Pharisee.

And such so-called good people, let me give you my testimony, such good people in CFC are the most difficult people I have found to fellowship with in all these 28 years. They are arrogant Pharisees and they don't even know it.

But it's been very easy to fellowship with those who have taken up with the life of Jesus. Romans 8 .2 says, the law of the spirit. There was a law of Moses in the Old Testament, which is the law of commandments.

Thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt, thou shalt not. Jesus replaced all of that with what is called in Romans 8 .2, the law of the heart. The law of the Holy Spirit. Do you know what the law of the Holy Spirit is?

It says in the same verse, Romans 8 .2, the law of the spirit, which is life in Christ Jesus. It's a life, not a law. Like I've used the illustration before, you can train a pig to be clean with laws, with whips and chains, but you don't have to train a cat to be clean because it's got a life, which loves cleanliness.

You see the difference between training a pig and holding it back with chains and whips, keeping it clean and a cat, which has got a life. A lot of Christian, a lot of the holiness that many Christians have is like the training of a dog.

You know, you get a new pup, it messes up your house, does all types of stupid things, climbs on your sofa. But you watch that pup after five years of a good training. It is such an obedient dog. It never messes up the room inside.

It will not eat what it's told not to eat and eat what it's told to eat. You think its life has changed? No. It's been trained. It's been trained by being given bones and meat when it obeys, by being given a whack when it disobeys.

And it's trained and it knows if I disobey, I'll get something which will pain me. If I obey, I'll get something which I like. And that is so drilled into its system. If I obey, I'll get something good.

If I disobey, I'll get a whack. So I better obey. Do you know that 90 of Christians, their holiness is based on that. It's the training of a dog. It's not the life of Jesus. It's not like the cat, which is pure and clean, because it's life.

It's got nothing to do with getting rewards or any such thing. Now I want to ask you, my brothers and sisters, you feel that you're better than Christians and other groups because of certain good things in your life.

You ask yourself, is it like the training of the dog? And to me the test is this. How passionate is your devotion to Jesus Christ, to the person of Jesus Christ? Very important question. Second question, how interested are you in the testimony of other believers in CFC?

The more interested you are in the testimony of other believers in CFC, the more you will live under the old covenant. Definite. We have to be free from men. We love one another, we care for one another, but we don't live before man's face.

All those who live seeking the approval of men are doomed to live all their life under the old covenant. Jesus' life, we are saved by his life and this is a free gift. We are saved by faith. Lord, I want your life within me.

I don't want to just keep laws and be trained like a dog that I never do anything wrong and I get a good testimony as a dog who is now obedient and you can get a good testimony in the church as a believer who is very obedient and all that.

Saying the right things, doing the right things, what does it matter? If one day when Jesus comes, you discover that you never got anything of his life, but you just did all the right things and got a good testimony in the church, you will be terribly disappointed.

You will be terribly disappointed. So I want to encourage you to seek for the life of Jesus, to be conformed to his likeness more and more. And that is why through the years I have said, there is only one mark of God's blessing and that is that he gives you light on yourself where you are unlike Christ day by day and where you repent and where the Holy Spirit is able to make you more Christ-like in your life.

That is what I have found through the years and so my life has been one of repentance almost every day of my life. But I find something un-Christ-like. I am not worried about good and evil and what is right and what is wrong.

I am thinking of the life of Jesus. That is the only thing we must be taken up with, the life of Jesus. That life was the light of all men. The Bible says that in John 1 .4, in him was life and that life was the light of men.

And when I am taken up with that life, I get light on myself where I am unlike him. I see the things in my life that he would never do. I see the words that he would never say. I see the attitudes that he would never have.

And I repent in dust and ashes and ask the Holy Spirit to make me like him because I cannot make myself like him. I can make a good imitation of him. But how many of you are so foolish to think that you can manufacture the life of Jesus Christ.

You think you can do that? I mean you can manufacture a good life. Can you manufacture the life of Jesus Christ? Impossible. Even Mary did not do that. The angel said the Holy Spirit will come upon you and produce that in you.

That is what the angel has to say to us also. The Holy Spirit has to come upon us and produce in us the life of Jesus. That is how we are saved from the power of sin. Notice what it says. We are saved from the power of sin by his life.

Sin at Its Root: Selfishness and Self-Centeredness

In the past we were saved from wrath. Now we are saved by his life. And what are we saved from? Let us get an understanding of sin. I am not talking about being saved from the things listed in the Ten Commandments.

You do not need the life of Jesus to be saved from those things. There are many upright people in the world who are not Christians who keep most of the Ten Commandments, at least nine of them. They do not commit adultery.

They do not kill. They do not steal. They do not do things which are listed. They do not worship idols. I am not talking about those things. I am talking about being saved from sin at its root. Jesus came to save us from sin.

When it says we are saved by his life, I am not saved from adultery by the life of Jesus. I am saved from adultery by the law. The law of Moses was good enough for that. But Jesus' life saves me from a whole lot of things the law could not save me from.

If your life is keeping the Ten Commandments, you are still an old covenant Christian. Because a lot of people in the Old Testament kept those Ten Commandments. But the life of Jesus saves me from the root of sin which is selfishness.

You know what the root of sin is? Selfishness. Where you think of yourself and that is what determines your decisions. A man whose decisions are determined by self is a selfish man. He may call himself a Christian.

He may call himself a speaker in tongues or whatever he likes. But he is a selfish person. He has not been saved by the life of Jesus. When you look at the life of Jesus, there was no selfishness in him at all.

He was never thinking of himself. He was always thinking of his father. How will this affect my father? How will this affect my father's glory? As the father told me to do it. He would never do anything till the father told him to do it.

He was so totally free from this self-centered selfish life. That is the life of Jesus. Jesus came to save us from this Adamic selfishness and self-centeredness. So if you evaluate your life by things like, how nice do I feel on Sunday morning when I praise the Lord and worship the Lord along with all the others.

I tick mark. I feel very fine. Have I stopped seeing filthy movies? Yes, ticked. Have I stopped losing my temper at home? Yes, ticked. That's okay. And number of things like this we can say, well I am upright in my work.

I don't cheat anybody. I am free from debt. I have returned everything I have wrongfully taken. I have apologized to those whom I have hurt. You can do all these things and yet be the most selfish person sitting here.

But the root is still there. You have chopped off these little fruits so you have got a good testimony before people that you are a godly person. You are just deceiving people because deep down selfishness motivates your life.

Your decisions are based not on the glory of God but your own selfish desires. And you can fool everybody sitting in the church meeting that you are a very holy person. You are not. That's why Jesus said, if you want to be my disciple, first of all cut off this human attachment you have towards your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters.

And through 28 years I have discovered that we always got to come back to that first commandment. That's why we spoke about it in the conference also recently, to that first condition of discipleship.