Richard B. Gaffin

(T)he distinction between the application and the accomplishment of salvation may be expressed by distinguishing generically between ordo salutis(the order of salvation){“salvation applied} and historia salutis(the history of salvation){“salvation accomplished”}… as we raise the question of the ordo salutisin Paul, we need to keep in mind that his controlling focus is the historia salutis, not the ordo salutis.

Part of the recent consensus in Pauline scholarship that emerged over the course of the twentieth century, just noted, is that Paul’s eschatology has a dual or elliptical focus. For him, the concept of eschatology is to be defined not only in terms of Christ’s second coming, by what is still future at his return, but also by his first coming and what has already taken place in Christ, especially his death and resurrection. Paul teaches an eschatology that is, in part, already realized.

In my view, looking over the history of the interpretation of Paul as a whole, the relatively recent pervasive recognition of his realized eschatology represents the truly “new perspective” on Paul, one that is far more important, with wider-ranging implications, than the developments of the past several decades that have been given that designation. My perception is that a commensurate impact of this rediscovery is still to be had in the doctrine and life of the church, in its preaching and teaching.

(U)nion with Christ. This, as we will have occasion to see, is the central truth of salvation for Paul, the key soteriological reality comprising all others. While the phrase “union with Christ” does not occur in Paul (or elsewhere in the New Testament), the reality is described in various ways and is particularly prominent in his use of the prepositional phrase “in Christ/the Lord” with other slight variations, particularly involving the preposition “with.” Scholarly debate about the phrase’s meaning has often focused on the force of the preposition “in” (en) and views range from a purely instrumental understanding to a local or atmospheric sense and even the notion of an actual physical union between Christ and believers…

Faith unites to Christ, so that his death and resurrection are mine, in the sense of now being savingly effective in my life. Better, faith is the work of God by his Spirit, effective in “calling” sinners—otherwise “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1, 5) and thus utterly incapable of faith in and of themselves—“into the fellowship of his Son” (1 Cor. 1:9), into union with Christ, who is what he now is as crucified and resurrected. This union with the exalted Christ is such that his death and resurrection in their saving efficacy from sin and all its consequences—that is, basically, from its guilt and power—are mine. Or, put even more elementally and integrally, by union with the exalted Christ, all that he now is and has secured for believers by virtue of having been crucified and raised is mine, whether presently or in the Future.

2 Corinthians 4:16 reflects the basic “now and not yet” structure that qualifies our union with Christ and our sharing in its attendant benefits…This fundamental state of affairs is given some clarification in the immediately following section (5:1–10). There Paul addresses the believer’s hope of bodily resurrection, in other words, hope for the outer man. In this context, verse 7 affirms, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” This statement, proverbial in its ring, is an assertion like 4:16. It opens a fundamental perspective on the Christian life. Particularly instructive here is the way it serves to interpret 4:16 (as well as 4:7). “By faith” correlates with “the inner self ” (“this treasure”) and what is presently true for believers; “by sight” correlates with “the outer self ” (“clay jars”) and what is still future. For the present, until Jesus comes, our union with him and our sharing in the benefits of that union are “by faith,” but not (yet) “by sight.” We have our salvation for the present, all told, in the mode of believing, but as that believing falls short of seeing. Such “sight” participation in the benefits of union with Christ is reserved for what will be openly manifest in the resurrection of the body at his return (the predominating concern of the immediate context).

In that light, it seems fair to observe, given that for believers death is inalienably penal (“because of sin”), its removal—as the judicial consequence of the reversal of judgment already effected in justification—does not take place all at once, but unfolds in two steps, one already realized and one still future. Correlatively, the open or public declaration of that judicial reversal, that manifest declaration attendant on their bodily resurrection and the final judgment, is likewise still future. In that sense, believers are already justified—by faith. But they are yet to be justified—by sight.