To be a Christian, says Emil Brunner, is to share something which has happened, which is happening, and which will happen. Archibald Hunter, in his book The Gospel According to St. Paul, makes good use of this approach and it provides a helpful scheme for our study of Paul’s basic theology of salvation by grace. First is salvation as a past event, in which the accent falls on redemption as a once-for-all divine act which has already occurred. Second is salvation as a present experience, the response of faith to God’s saving grace and the experience of "being in Christ." Third is salvation as a future hope, Paul’s eschatological outlook.

To Paul salvation is a word with three tenses. "We were saved," he says in Romans 8:24. "We are being saved," he says in 1 Corinthians 15:2. "We shall be …