In the world of engineering, there is a practice known as “redundancy” that is used to keep machines running and buildings standing. Engineers sometimes choose to duplicate certain parts of a system in order to keep the whole system running even if one of the duplicated parts fails.
You actually use redundancy all the time if you back-up the files on your computer. All of the work we do on our computers is normally saved on the hard drive, but just in case the hard drive crashes, we also save the files on a CD or a jump drive or with some kind of online service so that we have multiple copies of our files. I often e-mail things to myself so that I have a copy in my e-mail account as well. That’s the idea of redundancy at work!
Now, I mean no disrespect or irreverence by what I’m about to say, but from a certain perspective, it seems like God has built some redundancy into His work to secure our salvation. Last week, we looked at what God the Father does to secure our salvation, and we learned some impressive things. I think the Father’s work alone is enough to let us conclude that our salvation is secure, but as if that wasn’t enough, the Bible tells us that God the Son and God the Spirit also work to keep our salvation secure. Today we’ll look at these two persons of the Trinity to see how they work to secure our salvation.
1. How does God the Son secure our salvation?
A. He has promised eternal life to all who believe in Him
By His own words, Jesus has staked His reputation on whether or not believers will ultimately arrive in heaven. On numerous occasions in the Gospel of John, Jesus stated that those who believe in Him have escaped from judgment, will never perish, and will never be cast out. Let’s look at some of His promises:
• John 5:24—“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” Notice that the words “has passed” are in the past tense; Jesus is saying that this action has already happened. The verb tense that is used in Greek describes action that has been completed yet which has ongoing results. The believer has passed from death to life, and is still in the realm of eternal life.
• John 6:37-40—“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” In the Greek text, Jesus uses one of the strongest possible ways of saying no to something when He says, “I will never cast out.” Now to v. 38—“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
• John 10:27-29—“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
• John 11:25-26—“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believe in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
So with these statements—and even a few others—Jesus has confidently proclaimed that whoever believes in Him will not perish, will not be lost, and will not be cast out. Now some of my brothers and sisters in the Lord who do believe that you can lose your salvation have said that these promises have an unspoken condition attached to them. In other words, these statements tell us that Jesus will never cast us out as long as we are faithful to Him.
But the problem that I have with unspoken conditions is that they are just that—unspoken. They are not found in these verses. Now I know my brothers and sisters are attempting to interpret these verses in light of other statements that Jesus made, and that is good. We ALL have to reckon with some other statement that Jesus made if we’re going to be true to the Bible, but I don’t believe that adding an unspoken condition to these promises is the proper approach. Because of the strength of the wording in these statements, I think we should take them as promises from Jesus that He will not fail to carry out.
B. He is serving as a priest and an advocate for us in heaven
Have you ever wondered what Jesus is up to these days? He returned to heaven 40 days after He rose from the dead, and He left with the promise that He will return someday. But what is doing in heaven right now? Well, the Bible says that He is serving as a priest for us. A priest is simply someone who represents other people before God, and according to the book of Hebrews in particular, Jesus is representing us in the presence of God today.
There is a significant statement in Hebrews about Jesus’ priestly activity that is relevant for our discussion of eternal security. Why don’t you turn with me to Heb. 7:23-25? Here the author is contrasting Jesus with the priests of the Old Testament, and he writes [READ vv. 23-25]. There is an interesting word picture with this adjective “to the uttermost” (or your translation may say “forever” or “completely”). This same Greek word was used in Luke 13 to describe a woman who couldn’t stand up straight because she was possessed by a demon. The text says that she couldn’t stand up completely; she was always hunched over. Well, that poor lady couldn’t stand up completely, but Jesus is able to save us completely—not just part of the way or even most of the way, but completely.
The Bible also says that Jesus is in heaven acting as an advocate or a defense attorney for us. 1 John 2:1 states, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” The apostle Paul pictures Jesus in the courtroom setting that we looked at last week in Romans 8. Why don’t you turn there with me? Last week we focused on v. 33, now let’s continue to v. 34 [READ Rom. 8:33-34]. Paul pictures a courtroom scene in which God is our judge and Jesus is our defense attorney. That’s even better than having Matlock on your side!
And as we noted last week, who could possibly win a case against us in that courtroom? If we could lose our salvation, that would mean that Jesus either failed in His defense of us, or He chose not to defend us. But 1 John 2:1 seems to give us the assurance that Jesus will always take up our case! And remember, its not as though God the Father could be persuaded to rule against us anyway. He has already ruled in our favor. That’s why I mentioned the idea of redundancy when we started this morning. God the Father has ruled in our favor, and God the Son is defending us.
So we are doubly safe in the courtroom of God. But we even get a third layer of protection when we consider the work of the Holy Spirit.
2. How does God the Holy Spirit secure our salvation?
A. He acts as a seal to secure our salvation
The purpose of a seal is to keep something safe and secure. The idea is to keep whatever is inside the seal from getting out and whatever is outside the seal from getting in. For example, if you seal up a letter in an envelope, your intention is to keep the letter safely inside the envelope until it arrives at its destination. You are also intending to keep other people out of the envelope to protect the privacy of the letter.
Or, if you seal your windows, the intent is to keep wind and rain from coming in and to keep the hot or cold air in your house from getting out. Or, you may encounter a safety seal on food packaging at the grocery store. The idea of the safety seal is to keep the product in the package and to keep anyone from tampering with the product from the outside.
The idea of security is the same idea behind this ministry of the Holy Spirit. Let’s look together at Ephesians 1:13-14. Notice the word picture in v. 13 [READ v. 13]. The picture is that when we believed, we were placed into Christ, and then the Holy Spirit was placed upon us to seal us in, to keep us safe and secure. And then as we learned a few weeks ago, v. 14 says that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance. He is like a down payment that we’ve received from God until God gives us everything that He has promised—like a heavenly body and a home with Him.
Paul writes about all of this again in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, where he says, “It is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
Now as stated a moment ago, a seal is meant to keep things that are outside from getting in, and things that are inside from getting out. I believe the Holy Spirit functions the same way with respect to our salvation—He protects us to keep anyone else from tampering with our salvation, and He keeps us from ever losing it or rejecting it. Now I realize that if this conclusion is true, then, as Ricky Ricardo used to say, I’ve got some ‘splainin to do, because there are many verses in the Bible that speak of the possibility of a Christian losing something. We will start to talk next week about what to make of those verses, but please hear me out and consider with me one final work of the Holy Spirit.
B. He places believers into the body of Christ
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul compares our connection to Jesus and to each other to the connection that exists between different parts of the human body. The parts of our body have their differences—the hand is not the same as the eye or the foot, for instance—but they are all connected to form just one body. There is a unity to them that joins them all together.
Well, the Bible says that we have a spiritual unity with Christ that is very similar. Colossians 1:18 states that Jesus is the head of this spiritual body, and all of us are like the various parts of His body. So we enjoy a unity with Christ, one that is so close that Paul can say in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Our lives are now wrapped up in His life, and that includes our destiny as well. Turn with me to Colossians 3:1-4. Notice how these verses describe your connection to Christ [READ Col. 3:1-4].
Pastor F. B. Meyer once wrote about two German thrill-seekers who wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They hired three guides and began their ascent at the steepest and most slippery part. The men roped themselves together with the two amateurs between the guides, so they climbed in this order: guide, traveler, guide, traveler, guide. They had gone only a little way up the side when the last man lost his footing. He was held up temporarily by the other four, because each had a toehold in the niches they had cut in the ice. But then the next man slipped, and he pulled down the two above him. The only one to stand firm was the first guide, who had driven a spike deep into the ice. Because he held his ground, all the men beneath him regained their footing. F. B. Meyer concluded his story by drawing a spiritual application. He said, “I am like one of those men who slipped, but thank God, I am bound in a living partnership to Christ. And because He stands, I will never perish.”1
As Jesus said in John 14:19, “Because I live, you also will live.” My friends, does Jesus live today? Praise God that He does! And if you are certain of that, you can be just as certain of your salvation. The Holy Spirit has united us to Christ, so that “[our lives are hidden] with Christ in God.” Your life and destiny are bound up with Jesus, so you can be certain that “you also will appear with him in glory.”
Notes:
1. From http://bible.org/illustration/because-he-stands-i-will-never-perish. Accessed 10-26-11.
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