We have lived in the past, are living now, and will continue to live in the future. We will exist in three different time tenses. In the same way salvation has taken care of the past, our guilt, protects us in the present, and guarantees our future. The New Testament uses the word salvation to refer to the past, present, and the future. Salvation in the New Testament is referred to as something done in the past on the cross; something being done in the present delivering us from the power of sin, and something done in the future where we are taken out of any presence of sin.
So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. (Heb 9:28)
Saved from our past sins, delivered from the present power of sin, rescued in the future from the presence of sin that is our destiny. Verse 28 shows two tenses to sin. Christ died for sins in the past and we were saved from our sins. But salvation is not complete yet. He will appear in the future to those who belong to him and are eager to see him. That time it will be without reference to sin. Instead it will be the rapture and the resurrection that ushers believers into the presence of their Father through the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever the time is, we are safe with Jesus.
