Has, Is and Will

2 Corinthians 1:10 KJV

Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

Paul gives a threefold testimony of God's relationship with him in his life:

• He had delivered him
• He was delivering him and
• He would deliver him

Paul's years if ministry had not been easy.

• He testifies of beatings and robberies and shipwrecks
• He had experienced privations as hardships of every sort
• His experiences had led him to struggles with Jews, Gentiles and fellow Christians

But he is here able to say that

• God had brought him through all those struggles of the past
• He was bringing him through the very struggles Paul was in at the moment and
• He was confident God would bring him through whatever hardships he would face in the future

I see a further application in that the passage well describes the process of salvation from the greatest death, which is eternal separation from God in hell.

In our salvation experience:

• God has delivered our spirit from death, having quickened it at the moment of salvation
• God is presently delivering our soul from death by sanctifying it and conforming us to the image and likeness if Christ and
• God will finally deliver us from death in the resurrection when body soul and Spirit will be reunited to dwell immortally and incorruptibly with God