The apostle Paul gloried in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and was not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes.

Observe then that the gospel is preached for salvation, not to improve man in the flesh, but to save him; not to help the efforts of nature religiously, but to bring him to God; for the obedience of faith, not of all nations, but among all nations (Rom. 1:5). It is not therefore preached to better the world, nor to convert the world, but it is the power of God to salvation for individuals, “for everyone who believes.”

Now the power of God to salvation is very specific in its meaning, a large expression; for while the freeness of the grace of God is shown in its blessing to everyone that believes, fullness is set forth in not stopping short, in its blessing, of planting the saved one bodily in the presence of God in heavenly glory. We know that we are called “to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus,” and that He “suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 5:10; 3:18). It is quite correct now to speak of believers as “saved,” for we have the salvation of our souls now by faith, as Scripture says: “Receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.” But we wait for salvation in its full sense: “the redemption of our body,” the “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” when, in spiritual bodies, suited to heavenly and eternal glory, and conformed to the image of the Son, we shall be in full possession and enjoyment of this great salvation (Rom. 8:23; 1 Pet. 1:5, 9).