Free Grace Women

Introduction:

Over the summer, Free Grace Women invited our community to participate in a collective project aimed at working through key passages and questions that often come up in discussions about Free Grace theology. So far, we’ve explored whether Free Grace theology promotes sin, and then we walked through the topic of eternal rewards. Today, we turn to a question that sits at the center of many theological debates.

Prompt Three:

How does the Bible use the words salvation, save, and saved?

Your responses this round revealed something crucial: Scripture does not use these terms in only one way. The context determines the meaning, and our community highlighted several of those distinct uses.

1. Salvation Isn’t One-Dimensional (ML)

One reminder that our contributor ML offered is that salvation must be understood contextually. Before asking how someone is saved, or when, we should ask:

Saved from what?

ML pointed out the helpful framework of Scripture’s recognition that human beings are complex—spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess 5:23). While this isn’t a rigid system, it gives us a way to notice how the Bible speaks of different kinds of salvation:

a. Salvation of the Spirit – Eternal Life

This is the salvation most people imagine first.
• John 3:16–17 – salvation connected with receiving eternal life.
• Ephesians 2:8–9 – salvation by grace through faith, applied to those dead in sin (v. 1).
This is once-for-all, irreversible, and received by faith alone in Christ alone.

b. Salvation of the Soul – Discipleship & Reward

Jesus uses “save” in a very different sense in passages like Matthew 16:24–26 and Luke 9:24–25.
Here, “saving your life/soul” is about losing or gaining reward in the age to come.
Living for self now costs a believer reward later; losing your life for Christ’s sake leads to honor in His Kingdom.
A different salvation.
A different context.
A different result.

c. Salvation of the Body – Physical Deliverance or Future Glorification

Scripture often speaks of being “saved” from danger or distress (Psalm 34:6–7; Psalm 18:3; Psalm 3:7).
That’s still salvation—just not the eternal kind.

2. Past, Present, and Future (KA)

Another helpful set of responses emphasized the simple time distinctions. KA commented that there are three ways to look at salvation.

I WAS saved – meaning I received eternal life by faith in the past (John 5:24, Eph. 2:8–9; Titus 3:5)

I AM BEING saved – from sin’s power (Phil. 2:12)

This is sanctification—not the securing of eternal life, but the ongoing growth and obedience of a believer.

I WILL BE saved – from sin’s presence (Rom. 5:10)

This is glorification—the final rescue when we are with the Lord and sin is forever absent.

The Takeaway

If we read every instance of “save” as “receive eternal life,” we will misinterpret both Scripture and the Christian life. The Bible uses the same word to describe:

• eternal salvation
• physical rescue
• discipleship-based reward
• spiritual growth
• future glorification

Context is everything.

Our hope is that these collected reflections help Free Grace women, and anyone who desires to handle Scripture accurately, approach the text with clarity, confidence, and freedom.

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References and Responses: Part 1: License to Sin?

References and Responses: Part 2: What Does the Bible Teach About Rewards?