THis is Good Read,IMO.
John Macarthur;
Is Your Salvation Secure?
Romans 8:28-30
For many years people have debated the issue of whether a Christian can lose his salvation. Some within Christendom believe you can lose your salvation; others say you can't. That, perhaps more than any other single doctrine, has been a dividing issue in the church. How sad that is, because the Bible is clear about the matter. It is surprising that many Christians would deny or ignore the straightforward presentation of the doctrine of security in Romans chapter 8. There are other texts in the Bible that discuss the security of the believer, but none are as pointed as
Romans 8:28-30.We find in those verses that everyone who has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, without exception, will be glorified.
The key phrase in this trilogy of verses is at the end of verse 28: "called according to His [God's] purpose." We are forever secure because that was God's purpose. The Son of God and the Holy Spirit intercede for us so that the plan of God might come to pass. So our security is guaranteed not only by the purpose of God, but also by the outworking of that purpose through the intercessory ministries of the Son and the Spirit.
The phrase "called according to His purpose" helps us to understand verses 29-30, which explain God's purpose: "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."
God causes all things to work out for the believer's good, which is "according to His purpose." There is no other way to explain why He does that; He simply wants to. God is free to make whatever decisions He wants. And He sovereignly chose for all things to work together for the good and glory of those who are redeemed. Nothing can change tha
Your Salvation Was a Sovereign Act of God
You are a Christian not because of something you did, but because of something God decided. In
Ephesians 1:3 the apostle Paul says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Why are we to bless the Lord? Because "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him" (v. 4). God chose us and will make us holy. Ultimately, all sin will be overruled. That is another way of saying that all things work together for our ultimate good.
Paul continues in verse 5, "[God] predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will." God predetermined to make us His sons.
He planned that our salvation would lead to glorification. We are saved by God's plan, and preserved for future glory. So our security does not depend on our ability to stay saved, but on God's ability to keep His promise (
Heb. 6:17-18).
Ephesians 1:9 says that God "made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him." God swore by Himself, for there is nothing or no one greater that He can swear by (
Heb. 6:13 ). Because He is absolutely perfect and the Persons of the Trinity cannot violate their word, we are assured of our security.
Ephesians 1:11 tells us that in Christ also "we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His [God's] purpose who works [Gk.,
energeo] all things after the counsel of His will." God energizes all things according to His will. He planned to redeem us. Salvation is not based on what we decide, but on what God decides.
John 1:12-13 says, "As many as received him [Christ], to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." It is true that we have to respond to the gospel message. We have to receive Christ and believe in Him (
Acts 4:12 ). However, we are regenerated by the will of God. Even our response is according to God's decision.
Much of contemporary evangelism leaves people thinking that salvation is predicated on their decision for Christ. Actually, it is based on God's decision for them. That's the emphasis of Scripture. How could a person ever make a decision for God?
First Corinthians 2:14 says the "natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him."
Second Corinthians 4:4 says, "The god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
Man is ignorant in darkness, and dead in sin (
Eph. 2:1). There is no way he could muster up enough of whatever it would take to turn around and accept Christ. God makes the first move in line with His eternal purpose.
The Paradox of Salvation
Contemporary Christianity has a shallow view of salvation. Many people don't understand the security of the believer. God, in eternity past, chose us to believe in the truth (
2 Thess. 2:13 ). Now we have to show a response. I don't fully understand how those two come together. Some people think that the people who go to hell go there because God rejected them. But the Bible says that people go to hell because they reject the gospel (
John 3:18 ). That may not make sense to us, but it shouldn't matter. God is smarter than us. Would you want a God who is our equal? I wouldn't!
The paradox regarding God's choice and man's responsibility isn't the only paradox in Scripture. For example, who wrote the book of Romans? Paul did, but so did God. Did they take turns writing verses? On the one hand, every word is pure and from the mind of God. Yet, every word also came from Paul's heart and his vocabulary. How could Romans have been fully written by both God and Paul? We know it was, but we can't explain it fully.
Is Jesus God or man? He was both. Christ was not a blend of God and man. He was 100 percent Himself. He was fully God and fully man. We can't figure that out.
How about this: Who lives your Christian life? Paul said, "I discipline my body and make it my slave" (
1 Cor. 9:27 ). He also said, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (
Gal. 2:20 ). Which is the right answer? Both you and Christ live your life.
Most major doctrines in the Bible have an aspect that we cannot fully explain. When we try to bring God down to our level, there is still much we won't understand. We simply can't resolve everything in our minds. So the reason anyone goes to hell is because he rejected Christ and is completely responsible. But when a person comes to Christ, it's because he was chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (
Eph. 1:4).
Adrain Rogers...Eternal Security
