Many people – perhaps most people – are looking for salvation. One of the truly horrifying effects of the Fall is that unregenerate men and women both long for God and hate Him. It might be more accurate to say we long for God, but only want Him on our own terms. As long as we – and not God – get to be God.
It was a life-changing moment for me when I realized that Paul was looking for salvation too. I was reading something by Watchman Nee, and he mentioned Romans 13:11, "for now [is] our salvation nearer than when we believed." And when I dug into it further, I realized that Romans always presents salvation as something we're waiting for. Romans 8:23–25 makes it explicit: we're "saved in hope." We're waiting for the redemption of the body. And isn't this exactly what Philippians 3:20–21 says? We're waiting for the Son of God to come from heaven and change our bodies. So Romans puts salvation in the future, without exception that I can find.
Ephesians, though, refers to salvation as done and complete. We have been saved in Ephesians 2:8–9. Ephesians is a book of God's accomplished work. So we're risen with Christ, and seated with Him in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:4–6). It wouldn't make a lot of sense to tell us we're already seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, and then turn around and tell us we're still waiting for something.
Without splitting too many hairs, it's probably more accurate to say Paul was waiting for salvation. "Looking for" might imply he didn't know where it was, but Paul's hope was specific: the Son of God is coming from heaven to change our bodies to be like His (Philippians 3:20–21). We might think about 2 Timothy 1:12 here. We're not searching for salvation, but we're waiting with the expectation that His coming will complete what He has already begun.
The first mention I can find of salvation in scripture is Genesis 49:18, " I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah." That might be worth time spent in meditation.
These days I'm hanging around with a lot of Christians who hold a post-millennial view. That is, they expect the Son of God will come after the millennial kingdom is established on earth. I don't agree with them: I believe the Son of God will come to establish the kingdom, and it won't exist until He has come. But we are united in the belief that the Son of God will come bodily, in a physical event. We are united in the hope of a resurrection of our physical bodies in the real world. Salvation isn't something that will be for some vaguely spiritual realm, our hope is for a physical event in this tangible world. Yes, there are spiritual and non-physical implications, but we're waiting for a physical event.
I set out to write about people looking for salvation, but I ended up writing about something a little different. We have been called to wait for salvation. We have been called to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead (1 Thessalonians 1:9–10). That's enough to meditate on for now.
