The author of the Letter to the Hebrews distinguishes two stages in the work of Jesus the High Priest: He took away our sins in His sacrifice on the cross and He will come again to bring salvation. We would instinctively feel that taking away our sins brought us salvation. What, then, is this further salvation which Jesus will bring us in His second coming? New Testament writers faced this question in different ways. In his First Letter, St. John tells us that we are already the children of God but it does not yet appear what we shall be.

Our reality can be summed up in the tension between "already" and "not yet". It comes down to the fact that we are already saved by Jesus and yet we still have to continue our journey through life, a journey in which we may again fall away from God even if only in minor ways. On this journey, we continually need salvation, of Jesus' saving grace. All salvation and justification comes to us through Christ, but St. Paul calls upon us (Phil 2:12) to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Hebrews more positively encourages us to be among "those who eagerly await" Jesus in His second coming as He brings salvation.