Security of Salvation – Part 1
Last week we wrapped up the important discussion of our sure positions in Christ. This time we were going to overview all the arguments for the security of our salvation.
The certainty of our salvation is one of the great comforting promises of Scripture. Yet the topic remains controversial even among Christians.
Why is eternal security so important for our wellbeing?
Our eternal security helps us throughout life by:
- Hope – The knowledge of our salvation and a better future life beyond helps us through every step of our lives to maintain joy despite difficult times.
- Protects our minds – Knowledge of our salvation provides good wellbeing as shown by our Foundation, Teleios (1-3). It’s difficult to have hope in the future and good wellbeing if you don’t even know you are truly saved. Our eternal security is the helmet of our salvation, protecting our minds (Ephesians 6:15) and the anchor for our souls (Hebrews 6:19).
- Service – Eternal security also allows us to better serve God as it becomes difficult to be a joyful servant when we lack confidence that we will ever really be with God. Such doubt can sap our energy and turn our thoughts from serving God to our own selves. We can only serve fully when we have a confident secure foundation (Colossians 1:9-14).
- Christian growth – Knowledge of our security is necessary for progressing to maturity in the Christian life as exemplified in 1 Thessalonians 1:5-7. We may not feel we deserve salvation (actually we do not – it is God’s gift through Christ) and it may fight against our nature and upbringing, yet as Christians we must live by the facts of Scripture and its blessed truth.
What are the evidences of our eternal security?
Direct statements to our eternal security
At least several key verses directly indicate a believer, who has trusted in Jesus Christ by faith for his salvation, is eternally secure, are the following:
- 1 Peter 1:4-5 – To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
- John 10:29-30 – My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.
- 1 John 5:10-13 – He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
- Romans 8:28-39 – And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Positions in Christ
By the results of our glorious salvation, we obtain positions in Christ which are irreversible, on both a legal and a morphological basis. It is not that we believe, become a Christian, and that’s it; it is that we believe, become a Christian, and obtain the amazing unchangeable positions listed below. These positions add strong evidence to our eternal security. There are a number of these positions, but several pertinent ones are:
- Spiritual baptism – We are regenerated by the Holy Spirit into a new person and our old self dies (Romans 6:2-9). We become identified (the meaning of the word ‘baptism’) with Christ’s death and resurrection. This marvelous spiritual truth speaks to the importance of the resurrection because it is the vehicle for our new life in Christ and eternity (Romans 6:9, 10:9-10). Indeed, we are a new person, and the old sinful self is gone forever.
- Membership in the church (1 Corinthians 12:13) – The Spirit places each believer in the church universal (the fellowship of all believers under the headship of Christ (Colossians 1:17-18). We serve others, and God, typically through a local church assembly.
- The Holy Spirit – He is given in part as a down payment to our salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 1:21) that we cannot lose (Romans 8:28-39; 1 Peter 1:4-5). He maintains us until the day of our redemption when Christ comes again (Ephesians 1:13-14; 2:10).
- Adoption – Each believer is a child of God, adopted into His family. As generally in first world cultures today, when a child was adopted in the ancient Greek and Roman world, it was a legal right that could not be overturned (4). In other words, the adopted child received all the rights and privileges of a natural-born child; so also, it is with a believer as a child of God (Ephesians 1:5).
- Justification – Before we believed we were guilty of sin for which Christ died on the cross to provide his forgiveness and to declare us innocent (Romans 3:24-25). The word for justified in Greek (δικαιος, dikaios) means legally found innocent as in court of law. In other words, there is no double jeopardy: οnce found innocent no one can bring a charge against us (Romans 8:33).
- Possession– We are the possession of God (John 10:27-30; Ephesians 1:13-14; 2:10). No one can take us out of His hand (John 10:27-30).
Come back next week to hear about the other significant evidences of our secure salvation!
- Stewart WC, Adams MP, Stewart JA, Nelson LA. Review of clinical medicine and religious practice. J Relig Health Mar 2013;52:91-106.
- MacIlvaine WR, Nelson LA, Stewart JA, Stewart WC. Association of strength of religious adherence to quality of life measures. Complement Ther Clin Pract 2013;19:251-255.
- MacIlvaine WR, Nelson LA, Stewart JA, Stewart WC. Association of strength of community service to personal wellbeing. Community Ment Health J 2014; 50:577-582.
- https://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/adoption.html
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