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I remember passing notes with a friend of mine
in high school. We were debating that age old doctrine of
eternal security. He didn’t believe in it, and I did. A few
months ago, while cleaning out one of those old drawers that
you haven't opened in about ten years, I found one of those
notes. I had to chuckle some as I read it. From a hopefully
more mature position I could see that my friend was not realty
talking about eternal security - he was pushing
works-salvation. And I could also see that I was doing little
more than quoting a verse here and a verse there - I never got
into the basis for the belief. Maybe that’s why we never got
anywhere in the discussion? And, probably, that’s why so many
Christians today who engage in the same debate feel that they,
too, never get anywhere.
During the summer I translated the Gospel of John. While
translating the sixth chapter of that wonderful book, I ran
across Jesus’ clear presentation of the doctrines of election
and eternal security in verses 37 through 46. My Greek
professor has many times said that the best commentary on the
New- Testament is the New-Testament in Greek - and he is
right. One of the reasons is that you see things that you
would not otherwise notice when reading an English
translation. From this work of translation, I came to set how
the eternal security of the believer is based upon the very
nature of God. In John chapter six, this is represented by the
functions of the Father and the Son in salvation. And in
Ephesians 1:13-14, the Holy Spirit’s role is presented. We
will look at both of these passages to see how our salvation
is based upon the Tri-Une nature of God.
Secure in the Father and the Son
Jesus said, “Everyone
whom the Father gives to Me shall come to Me, and the one
coming to Me I will never cast out; because I have come from
heaven not in order to do My will but the will of Him who sent
Me; and this is the will of the one who sent Me: that of all
which He has given Me from Him, I lose nothing but raise it up
at the last day.” (John 6:37-39). Jesus presents the
complete sovereignty of God in salvation. All that the Father
gives to Jesus - everyone - will come to Him. The operative
factor in answering the question of why some come and others,
presented with the same opportunity, do not, is simply the
nature of the Father’s choice. The Father "gives" persons to
the Son - a gift of love, to be sure. When the Father gives to
the Son a person, that person will come to Christ (as the one
avenue to the Father). There is no question that if a person
is so given to Christ (or, to use the terminology of verse 44,
is so "drawn" by the Father) that he/she will come to Christ.
This is the "Godward" side of salvation - absolute certainty
and security. Yet, He says that they will "come to Me” which
speaks of the human response - not that the human can change
the decision of God - but that the response is there all the
same. Man is not pictured simply as a “thing” that is bounced
around like a ball, but rather a vastly important person who
comes to Christ for salvation, all as the result of the
gracious working of God in his/her life.
Jesus continues by stating
that when one is so given to Him by the Father, and comes to
Him, that one is secure in their relationship with Him He will
never cast them out, The aorist subjunctive of strong
denial makes it clear that rejection of one who seeks refuge
in Christ is a complete and total impossibility. What words to
a sinners heart! Those who come to Christ will find Him a
loving Lord who will never cast out those who trust in Him!
Why
will the Lord never cast out those who come to Him? Verse 38
continues the thought with the explanation - the Son has come
to do the will of the Father. And what is the will of the
Father? That “of all which He has given Me from Him I lose
nothing hut raise it up at the last day.” Can we doubt that
Christ will do what He promises? Will the Lord Jesus ever
fail to do the Father’s will? Here is eternal security
beyond dispute. But note that again all is pre-eminently
balanced - the security of the person is based on two things -
the will of the Father that none he lost, and secondly, the
fact that those who are not lost are those who are given to
the Son by the Father Himself. So, in reality, there is
security in the Father (He gives us to Christ) and security in
the Son (He always does the Father’s will).
The
realization of the co-operation and interaction of the Father
and the Son in the salvation of each individual Christian is
an awesome thing! It is self-evident why so many
soteriological systems cannot deal with eternal security - it
is based on the understanding that salvation is completely the
work of God! Man is the object of salvation, the object of
God’s sovereign grace. The gospel is the message of grace, and
grace is something given totally on the basis of God’s desire
to give it. Such is terribly damaging to man’s “self-esteem”
and to any concept of our being able to save ourselves or even
to “help God along” in our being made righteous. We must
realize that we come to God wholly unworthy of His love and
grace, totally incapable of effecting even the beginning of
His work in our hearts.
Once
we rest ourselves in God’s provision of salvation, however, we
see that our position in Him is one that is based upon the
sovereign act of the Father in giving us to the Son, and in
the eternal obedience of the Son to the Father in effecting
our salvation! Can we possibly picture a more secure situation
than this? I think not! But wait, there is more...
Sealed by the Spirit
Paul
wrote, "...by whom also, having believed, you were
sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the down-payment
of our inheritance, unto the redemption of His possession,
unto the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14). In
this signal passage that is found, rather significantly I
think, on the heels of some of the loftiest teaching on the
eternal predestination of God in verses 3 through 12, we find
the fact that the Holy Spirit is described in two important
ways relevant to our eternal security. First, we are said to
he “sealed” by the Holy Spirit of promise. This term was used
in secular documents to refer to the act of placing a seal
upon one’s possessions to mark them as one’s own. In this
case, the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is
God’s way of sealing that person as His own. The believer is
shown to he God’s “own property” - His possession.
Paralleled with this is the phrase “who is the down-payment
of our inheritance.." Both phrases speak of the same fact.
Here the Spirit is described by the Greek term arrabon
- a term used in secular documents to refer to
guarantee money. The giving of an arrabon
contracted the giver to finish the process of payment. In our
context, this would refer to the fact that the Holy Spirit in
a believer’s life is the guarantee on the part of God the
Father of completing the work which He has begun in that life
(Philippians 1:6). Both phrases are then tied together by the
paralleling of “promise" and “inheritance.” These terms are
used by Paul of the completion of God’s work of salvation in
our lives in the end time.
Hence, we see that the presence of the Holy Spirit in our
lives is God’s way of “this person is mine - I have begun of
salvation in his/her life, and by placing My Spirit in this
life. I am telling all that this person belongs to Me,
and I will finish the work I have begun!”
We
learn from other discussions of the role of the Spirit in the
believer’s life (e.g., Romans 8) that the Spirit empowers and
sanctifies the believer as well. So it is clear that each of
the Divine Persons is vitally involved in the work of
salvation. The Father sovereignly and unilaterally chooses us
for salvation. He gives us to the Son, who, in obedience to
the Father’s will, saves those who are joined to Him by the
Father, and raises us up to eternal life. The Spirit of God is
placed in our lives to empower and seal us as God’s own
possession. Salvation, then, is of God - God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Since salvation is of God,
and is God’s work, its eternal character is simply the
reflection of the nature of its author - God Himself. Each of
the three Persons is intimately involved in bringing about the
salvation of the elect, and that salvation is eternal and
secure. |
