In Romans 1:16 Paul describes the gospel as ‘the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes’. Similarly, in 1Corinthians 1:18, Paul says that ‘to us who are being saved’ the gospel ‘is the power of God’, and in 2:5 that our faith rests ‘on God’s power’. In 1Peter 1:5 Peter describes those who believe in Jesus Christ as ‘shielded’ (= kept, guarded) ‘by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time’.
These verses clearly tell us that our existence as Christians and our survival as Christians depends on God’s power, not ours. Our salvation is assured because it depends, from start to finish, on God, not on us. To doubt our acceptance with God today and to fear what will happen to us on the day of judgement, is to doubt the power of God, and to deny the above texts.
Obviously then, it is important for us to understand what this ‘power of God’ is by which we are saved and by which we are kept saved. Paul describes it in Ephesians 1:17 – 2:10, where he tells the Ephesian Christians what he kept on praying for them. He prayed:
‘that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe’ – verses 18 & 19.
Then he explains that power of God and what it had accomplished (verses 20 – 22):
It is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
It is the same power that seated Jesus at his right hand in the heavenly realms.
It is the same power that exalted Jesus above every other ‘power’, both present and future.
It is the same power that placed everything under Jesus’ feet.
It is this same power of God that accomplished our salvation:
We also were dead – dead in transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5), and God made us alive and raised us up (2:5, 6).
God ‘seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus’ (2:6).
The power of God that raised Jesus from death to life and seated him in his position of authority at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms, is the same power of God that saved us: We were spiritually dead, just as Jesus was physically dead. God raised us up spiritually, just as he raised Jesus up physically. God has already seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms in Christ, just as he has seated Jesus at his right hand in the heavenly realms.
That is what it took to get us saved. And that same power also keeps us saved.
It is no wonder that Paul includes in his explanation of this power of God that saves us:
‘it is by grace you have been saved’ – verse 5.
‘it is by grace you have been saved, through faith’ – verse 8.
‘this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God’ – verse 8.
‘not by works, so that no one can boast’ – verse 9.
‘we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus’ – verse 10.
We are saved, and kept saved, by God’s power. The new life that we have in Christ we have as a result of God’s power and by God’s gift. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are both ‘with Christ’ and ‘in Christ’ – who is already seated in the heavenly realms, ‘far above all rule and authority, power and dominion’ with ‘all things under his feet’ (Ephesians 1:21, 22). It is no wonder that Paul in Romans 8 speaks of the great security of those who are united to Christ by faith:
‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any powers, neither height nor depth, no anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ – Romans 8:35 – 39.
Our salvation is assured, not because of anything we have done, but because we are ‘kept by the power of God’ – 1Peter 1:5 KJV.
© Rosemary Bardsley 2026