ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

IN ROMANS – 1

Paul’s understanding of salvation as the work of God, based on God’s mercy not our merit, includes numerous strong statements about the security of that salvation. In this meditation we will begin to look at Paul’s teaching in his letter to the Romans.

In his summary of the gospel, Romans 1:16 – 17, Paul teaches that the Gospel ‘is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes’. This Gospel reveals ‘a righteousness from God’ which is ‘by faith from first to last’, never dependant on our own merit. To understand the power of this we need to understand the word ‘righteousness’: it is a term from the law courts; it is a ‘declaration of legal acquittal’ – a ‘not guilty’ verdict from the Judge. Note that this ‘not guilty’ declaration is not at all the result of our own legal innocence. It comes ‘from God’ and is ‘by faith’.

Even if we were to stop reading Romans right there, this summary is enough to assure us of our secure salvation, because Paul here excludes any cause/effect relationship between our personal merit and either gaining or maintaining salvation – it is ‘by faith from first to last’. There is never a moment, and never will be a moment, when our salvation depends on our personal innocence.

Paul expands on this ‘righteousness’ in subsequent chapters.

Firstly, from 1:18 to 3:20, he teaches that there is not one person who is actually legally innocent, not one person who is ‘not guilty’, who can be declared ‘righteous’ on the basis of their own goodness. Note how clearly he states this:

‘There is no one righteous, not even one’ – 3:10.

‘…no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin’ – 3:20.

‘There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ – 3:22, 23.

Having thus robbed us of any perception we might have of our personal, law-based merit, Paul teaches us how God, who is totally just, can acquit those who are actually guilty. He makes several points, repeating what he has already said, and giving us additional truth:

This legal acquittal (‘righteousness’) is ‘from God’ – not from anything of ours – verse 21.

It is ‘apart from law’ – not from our keeping his law – verse 21.

It has ‘been made known’ – verse 21. It is not something that we humans would work out for ourselves; indeed all human religions require the keeping of some form of ‘law’ in order to attain the ultimate reward taught in those religions. Gospel salvation is quite contrary to human ideas. We automatically assume that we have to earn, merit or deserve it. But God knows that we can never do that. So he has made known to us the truth about his amazing gift of a righteousness that does not depend on us. Not only in the New Testament, but in ‘the Law and the Prophets’ (the Old Testament) – verse 21.

This Gospel salvation, this ‘righteousness’ ‘comes through faith to all who believe’ – verse 22.

This totally unmerited, undeserved salvation means that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ has an identical acquittal, an identical righteousness, an identical ‘not guilty’ declaration. The same ‘there is no difference’ that told us that we are all sinners and we all fall short, also tells us that there is no difference in our legal status in the presence of God, the Judge – verse 24. Paul explains how this happens:

Those who believe in Jesus Christ ‘are justified freely by his grace’ – verse 24. That is, it is sheer gift. ‘Freely’ – without having to merit it. By God’s ‘grace’ – his free gift. No good works of mine earned this gift for me; it is not, and never was, caused by some goodness in me. Therefore no subsequent deficit of mine can cause God to revoke his gift.

Rather than being through or because of some merit of mine, it is ‘through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus’ – verse 24. ‘Redemption’ involves the payment of a price (a ‘ransom’) to secure the release of someone or something that is bound/captive. The one thing that merits my salvation is the death of Jesus Christ (see Mark 10:45 – the reason Christ came was to give his life as ‘a ransom for many.’)

‘God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement’ that is, a sacrifice by which his wrath is turned away from us, the guilty ones, and onto Jesus Christ, the righteous one – verse 25.

This substitution – Christ standing in our place under the judgement of God – is fully in keeping with God’s justice – verses 25, 26. This plan was in place before time began: that by this means God would forgive all who believe in him. Apart from this, we would all remain under his inescapable wrath.

There is deep, deep truth here in these few verses from Romans 3, truth focused on the death of Jesus Christ. This death is what it took for God to acquit us, for God to save us from his wrath. It is no wonder that in 1:16 Paul called the gospel ‘the power of God for the salvation of all who believe’.

If we believe that our salvation can be lost, we are, at the bottom line, believing that our lack of personal goodness today is more powerful that the death of Christ, more powerful than the eternal purpose of God revealed and affirmed throughout the Scripture, more powerful than the power of God. And we are, at the same time, denying the legal validity and sufficiency of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.