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...We have here in the Greek what is called a ...

[Paul deliberately uses a periphrastic construction, lit. in English: you are

saved having been completely saved in the past with ongoing results in the

present. Paul uses an auxiliary verb = "este" = "you are saved, 2nd pers.,

plur., pres. active voice, indicative mood, (statement of fact) along with

"sesosmenoi" = saved, participle, perfect tense passive voice rather than the

normative inflected form of the verb to be saved in the past tense in order

to stress the point of permanency]

..This [periphrastic construction] is used when the writer cannot get all of

the details of action from one verbal form. So he uses two, a finite verb

("este" are saved) and a participle. The participle here is in the perfect

tense, which tense speaks of an action that took place in past time and was

completed in past time, having results existent in present time.

The translation reads [more accurately] 'By grace have you been completely

saved, with the present result that you are in a saved state of being'. The

perfect tense speaks of the existence of finished results in present time. But

Paul is not satisfied with showing the existence of finished results in

present time. He wants to show the persistence of results through present

time. So he uses the verb 'to be' in the present tense ["este"] which gives

durative force to the finished results. Thus, the full translation is, "By grace

you have been saved in past time completely, with the result that you are

in a state of salvation which persists through present time.' The unending

state of the believer in salvation could not have been put in stronger or

clearer language. The finished results of the past act of salvation are always

present with the reader. His present state of salvation is dependent upon

one thing and one thing only, his past appropriation of the Lord Jesus as

Saviour. His initial act of faith brought him salvation in its three aspects,

justification, the removal of the guilt and penalty of sin and the

impartation of a positive righteousness, Jesus Christ Himself, an act which

occurs at the moment of believing, and a position that remains static for

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time and eternity [cp. Ro 3:21-28]; sanctification, positional, the act of the

Holy Spirit taking the believing sinner out of the first Adam with his

(Adam's) sin and death, and placing him in the Last Adam (Jesus Christ)

with His righteousness and life, an act that occurs at the moment of

believing [cp. Ro 5:15-19]; [and sanctification] progressive, the process by

which the Holy Spirit eliminates sin from the experience of the believer

and produces His fruit, gradually conforming him into the image of the

Lord Jesus [cp. Ro 8:29], a process that goes on all through the life of a

Christian and continues all through eternity, and which never is

completed, for a finite creature can never equal an infinite one in any

quality; and glorification, the act of the Holy Spirit, transforming the

mortal bodies of believers into glorified, perfect bodies at the Rapture of

the Church [cp. 1 Thess 4:13-18; 1 Cor 15:52-53]. The believer has had his

justification, he is having his sanctification, and he is yet to have his

glorification. The earnest of the Spirit guarantees to him his glorification

[cp. Eph 1:13-14]."