“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain” (First Corinthians 15.1, 2).
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain” (First Corinthians 15.1, 2).
Now, the “believed in vain” part is pretty clearly a reference to the argument concerning the resurrection in vv. 3 – 19: “Unless Jesus has been raised” (and perhaps, “and unless that is the content of your faith”), then your faith is worthless…
But what about the conditional “if you hold fast to the word I preached to you”? Is it a causative conditional (holding fast causes being saved)? Is it an evidentiary conditional (holding fast demonstrates that you are being saved)? Is it something else? And how do we know which way to read it?
There is a whole set of these sprinkled throughout the NT; some are notable because of odd grammar:
“But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel…” — Col. 1.22-23.
The commentators I’ve read (Bruce, O’Brien, Tyndale series) generally affirm that there is “no room for doubt” left in the conditional; that is, that “if” should be read as “since.”
(my attention is drawn to the aorist — “he has (past) reconciled you if (present progressive) you are continuing…”)
So how do you read the conditional, and on what grounds?
Jeff Cagle
Ah. The title is simply asking about “being saved”, the present participle?
Jeff, those are all good questions related to what is in the text and what is going on. However, I was really only thinking about the phrase “being saved.” I wasn’t really wanting to make any kind of argument about the conditional phrase. In fact, I didn’t mean to rais the issue at all. The text raises more issues than I was thinking about when I read it.
In general, I think Hodge is a good guide to the questions you ask.
Right Jeff, I only wanted one worm. Didn’t realize what else would escape from the can.
🙂