While, thank God, we are saved from the moment when we believe the Gospel and turn to Christ; and while in another sense, we are being saved all the way, even to the uttermost of our need, and the uttermost of life's little span; yet, it is equally true that, in still another aspect, salvation lies in the future. It has not come yet, but it is " nearer than when we believed " (Rom. 13:1111And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11)). This will take place when the Savior comes. We shall be saved from all possibility of ever sinning again; from every trace of the first Adam's likeness; from all liability to disease, decay and death; and out of this world altogether. It is to this, no doubt, that Jude refers when he speaks of " looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life " (verse 21). He will extricate us from this world, where death reigns, and will translate us to the fair world above of endless life and glory. It is His mercy that will do it.
And so the apostle reminds us that we " look for the Savior "; that is, for Christ in His character of Savior (Phil. 3:2020For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (Philippians 3:20)). He will come as Savior, and will bring salvation that will mean the change of these bodies of ours into the fashion of His own body of glory. This will be the final chapter in the story of God's great salvation.
Now, salvation from first to last is all of grace. When first, as wretched sinners, we came to the Savior, we were not saved partly by grace and partly by works. Our own merits (for we had none), had nothing to do with it. We were saved by grace, and grace alone. And it was the atoning sacrifice of Calvary that earned for God the entitlement to show grace to sinners such as we are.
But the last chapter in the story of salvation is to be written by the pen of unmerited grace, as truly as the first. When Jesus comes to save us out of this world, and to redeem our bodies from their present condition, it will not be because of His grace and our merit; nor, the grace of God and our faithfulness; nor the grace of God and our watchfulness. It is pure, unmixed grace that brought salvation in the past (Titus 2:1111For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (Titus 2:11)), and it is the same unmixed, unmerited grace that will bring salvation in the future (1 Peter 1: 5 and 13). It is for divine, sovereign mercy that we look (Jude 2121Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Jude 21)).
This surely disposes of the question as to whether or not any quality of our own has part in fitting us for the Rapture. For He, Who is our Deliverer from the wrath to come, will complete His deliverance by His own grace and power; and in that work of deliverance human merit, works of righteousness, zeal, fidelity, and watchfulness on our part have no place whatever. Salvation is wholly of the Lord, both in the past and in the future.