ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

THE WORK OF GOD

In a previous meditation on assurance of salvation, we looked at the faithfulness of God: that the salvation of those who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is in God’s hands.

It is by God’s action that anyone is saved:

God, the Father, out of his overflowing love, and in keeping with his eternal plan of salvation that was in place before the beginning of time, sent his Son to earth to demonstrate that love and to bring that plan to its completion. The Scripture says:

‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son …’ – John 3:16.
‘… when the time had fully come, God sent his Son …’ – Galatians 4:4.
‘This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son …’ – 1John 4:9.
‘Christ …was chosen before the creation of the world …’ 1Peter 1:20.
‘This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time’ – 2Timothy 1:9.
‘…the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world’ – Revelation 13:8.

Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in obedience to the will of the Father, was born as a real human being, lived as one of us, died in our place bearing the full condemnation and judgement due to us, and, having risen from the dead, entered the presence of God as our present and permanent representative Mediator and Advocate. The Scripture says:

‘The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ – Mark 10:45.
‘While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ – Romans 5:8.
‘He himself bore our sins in this body on the tree …’ – 1Peter 2:24.
‘…we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ…’ – 1John 2:1.

God, the Holy Spirit, brought us to new birth through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, united us to Christ, sanctifying us, that is, setting us apart as God’s treasured possession. The Scripture says:

‘No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again …the Spirit gives birth to spirit’ – John 3:3, 6.
You ‘have been chosen …through the sanctifying work of the Spirit’ – 1Peter 1:2.
‘…from the beginning, God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit…’ – 2Thessalonians 2:13.

There is another equally deep truth also involved here, one not often spoken of, but one affirmed by Jesus Christ – that God the Father gave those who believe to Jesus the Son:

‘My sheep hear my voice …My Father, who has given them to me …’ John 10:27, 29; ‘…those whom you gave me out of the world’ John 17:6; ‘those you have given me’ John 17:9; ‘those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory’ John 17:24.

We are saved, not by any action of our own, but by the synergistic, united action of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At no stage of our salvation – neither initially, nor continuing – does it depend on us. It can fail only if God can fail. We, Christ’s sheep who hear his voice and follow him, do so only because God has done, and continues to do, a powerful work for us and in us, accomplishing in us his purpose planned before time began.

It is no wonder, then, that both Jesus and the apostles affirm the security of those in whom God has so worked:

Peter wrote to believers as those ‘who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time’ – 1Peter 1:5.

Paul affirmed that he was ‘confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’ – Philippians 1:6.

Jesus said that ‘My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand’ – John 10:29.

We trust not in ourselves, but in God. Therefore, we are eternally secure. Safe in his hands.