Most children feel a natural sense of security when their father is around. They feel safe from whatever threats and dangers might come their way. There is something about masculinity that communicates strength, and children pick up on that and take comfort in it.
Dad’s strength can also give a child a certain measure of boldness and confidence in what their Father can do. You’ll probably never hear two children fight about whether “my mom can beat up your mom,” but you just might overhear them fighting about who’s dad is the strongest.
Now, in the same way that we look to our earthly fathers for a sense of security, we can also look to our heavenly Father for a sense of security in our salvation. We’ve learned over the last few weeks that salvation is a gift from God—He has done the work to provide it, and He gives it to us as a gift when we repent of our sins and accept Jesus as our Savior by faith. And since salvation is a work of God, He also does the work to keep our salvation secure.
Over the next two weeks, we’re going to look at each person of the Trinity and focus on that person’s work to secure our salvation. This morning we will consider the work of God the Father, and we’ll answer the question:
How does God the Father secure our salvation?
I. He has chosen us and given us a certain destiny
This point refers to a doctrine known as the doctrine of election, which attempts to explain verses which state that God has chosen believers to be His own people and has marked out a clear destiny for them. This doctrine has been fiercely debated among Christians over the years, but its important to realize that no one really disputes the fact that God has chosen believers—they disagree over how God made His choice. Did He look down through the corridors of time and choose those whom He knew would choose Him, or did He make the choice of His own will and then lead those chosen people to faith?
The question of how God made the choice is open to debate, but we should recognize that the Bible plainly tells us that believers have been chosen by God. Take a look at just a few of the verses that state this doctrine:
• Eph. 1:3-4—“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…”
• 1 Thess. 1:4-5—“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction.
• 2 Thess. 2:13—“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.”
• 1 Peter 1:1-2—“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappodocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…”
These are just a few of the verses that mention this doctrine of election, and I mention this doctrine today because of the implications of it that are stated in Romans 8:28-30. Turn there with me if you would and let’s look at these verses [READ Rom. 8:28-30].
This is an incredible set of verses that gives us a summary of a plan that stretches from eternity past to eternity future. So when God chose believers, He chose us with a definite plan and destiny in mind for them. Notice two things about these verses that apply to all that we’ve been discussing about eternal security. First, in each stage of salvation that is mentioned in vv. 29-30, the same group of people are mentioned as going through each stage [READ vv. 29-30]. Many people have called these verses “the golden chain of salvation,” because all of these stages are linked together in God’s plan. Thus, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you have been chosen by God, and if you have been chosen then your destiny with respect to heaven and hell has been settled! If you are on this “golden chain of salvation,” you will be on it all the way through to the end.
Second, notice that each stage of salvation mentioned here is mentioned in the past tense—even our eventual glorification, which hasn’t happened yet on the timeline of history. Nevertheless, even that future event is mentioned here in the past tense, which would suggest that our glorification—our entrance into heaven—is a settled fact, even though it hasn’t happened yet.
So God is working out a plan that will see our salvation through from beginning to end. This plan involves our justification, which is the second work of God for us to consider today.
II. He has declared that His legal case against us is closed
This is the meaning of the fancy-sounding theological term “justification.” It means that God—as our Judge—declares that all of His demands against our sin have been met. Sometimes in our world, when a person finishes a prison sentence or pays a fine, we say that their debt to society has been paid. What we mean is that in the eyes of the justice system, that person has no more legal requirements against them. Their completed punishment or payment has satisfied the law of the land, and that case is closed.
That’s exactly what God declares when He declares that we are justified! Everything that His law requires as a penalty against our sins has been met—not by us, but by Jesus through His sacrificial death on the cross. We receive the benefit of His sacrificial death when we accept Him as our Savior, and when we do, God renders the verdict that we are justified because all of His demands have been met!
I believe we can rest assured that God will never reverse this verdict that He makes when we are saved, and I think Romans 8:33 communicates this. Paul puts our minds into a courtroom setting here and he writes [READ Rom. 8:33]. In this courtroom setting, Paul is asking who could possibly serve as a prosecutor against us. Who could step into God’s courtroom and press charges against us and win the case if God is the judge and He has already said we’re justified? Such a prosecutor would have to prove to God that He had been wrong in His original verdict, and I think we can safely say that is impossible.
III. He has willed to keep us secure through His sovereign will and power
In the Gospel of John, we find some amazing statements about God’s sovereign will in salvation and what He intended to accomplish by sending Jesus Christ into the world. One statement that is particularly relevant for the discussion of eternal security is John 6:38-40 [READ John 6:38-40].
In v. 39, the picture is that God the Father has taken believers and given them to Jesus for safe-keeping. This same picture is mentioned in John 10:27-29 [READ John 10:27-29].
In my opinion, these verses are a strong affirmation that we will never lose our salvation, but I should mention some of my Christian brothers and sisters who do believe that we can lose our salvation have said that these verses only tell us that no one else can rob us of our salvation, but the possibility still exists that we could reject our salvation and thus lose it. I cannot agree with that conclusion for two reasons: first, Jesus makes a strong statement in v. 28 when He says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.” In the Greek text that lies behind our English Bibles, Jesus uses of the strongest possible ways of saying “no” to something. The Christian Standard Bible puts it this way: “I give them eternal life—and they will never perish, ever!” Now I think we can all agree that Jesus can speak only the truth; however, if someone eternally perished after receiving eternal life from Jesus, this statement could not be true. But I think we have to conclude that it is true because it was spoken by Jesus.
Second, I cannot agree with the conclusion that we can lose our salvation because we have to remember the limitations of our own will. We cannot always undo the effects of our previous choices simply by choosing to do so. Sometimes our choices set a course of events in motion that we cannot undo simply through our own will. Missed opportunities are a perfect example of this. Think of a high school student who is offered a scholarship by a college, but for some reason, the student chooses not to accept the scholarship. Most colleges then move on and offer the scholarship to someone else, so if the student later changes his or her mind, that opportunity may be gone. The effects of the original choice remain even though the student now desires something different.
Now, you may be thinking, “Okay, I get that example—but salvation is a gift, right? Can’t I reject a gift?” Well, on the human level, we can. If you give me a gift, I can later choose to give it back to you or just get rid of it altogether. But when we consider our salvation, we have to remember one of the lessons we learned last week—God’s gift of salvation involves promises on His part. These are promises that He intends to keep regardless of our faithfulness to Him. As 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”
Ultimately, I think we must simply take Jesus at His Word—all who receive eternal life from Him will never perish. That is also because of the final work of God the Father that we need to look at this morning.
IV. He has poured out His enduring love upon us
I take the wording for this point from Romans 5:5, which says that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Paul then goes on in that chapter to describe the depths of God’s love for us. Why don’t you turn with me to Romans 5? [READ vv. 6-10]
These verses highlight the change that has taken place in our relationship with God, and they use an argument from the lesser to the greater to point out how confident that we can be that we will be saved from God’s wrath. As these verses state, we used to be God’s enemies, and even in that condition He loved us enough to die for us. But now, we are no longer His enemies—we are reconciled to Him, which means that we’re back on friendly terms. So if He loved us enough to die for us while we were His enemies, how much more can we count on Him to save us from His wrath now that we are His friends? If that’s what God’s love compels Him to do for His enemies, then surely His friends are in a much better position to always be safe from His wrath.
But is there anything that can separate us from the love of God? Paul answers this question just a few chapters over in Romans 8:35-39 [READ Rom. 8:35-39].
What can I add to that but to say, “Praise God for His amazing love!”
No comments:
Post a Comment