Assurance of Salvation
When we look at this important truth in the Word we have to start and end with God, His nature, character and purposes! He is eternally complete in His nature and Character and His purposes stand firm forever! See Isaiah 46:9-11 and also Psalm 33:9-11. God loves His people with an everlasting love that can never change! See Jer 31:3.
God made a covenant with Abraham that was partly fulfilled in his time but had its complete fulfillment in the real Israel - the people of the same faith as Abraham, the children of God! Gen 17:7 “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.” Eph 1:3 speaks of “every spiritual blessing in Christ” which is without a doubt part of the covenant blessings of God towards his people! David himself spoke about the “sure mercies” of God, which had their roots and origin in the everlasting covenant made to Abraham. See Is 55:3, Acts 13:34. Look at the nature of the new covenant: Jer 32:38-40 “They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.” For this to happen two things are required:
- Everything that separated us from God must be dealt with and removed. This God did for us by giving Christ to us and for us as our Saviour, our righteousness and our Peace.
- We should be preserved to the end of this life and then also for all eternity! Remember that His purpose in saving us is for us to enjoy Him and be with Him forever! This He did by giving us the Holy Spirit through Whom the Father has enabled us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of light! Col 1:12.
Jesus has made this possible by His complete work for our eternal salvation on the cross. The completeness of His doing away with our guilt and sin is clearly stated in Jer 31:34 “No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Hebr 8:9-12 contrasts very clearly the unchangeable new covenant which was confirmed in the Blood of Christ with the old covenant which depended on human faithfulness for its fulfillment.
Remember that Jesus is a high priest forever and is forever making intercession for His people before God. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to Him for salvation(Heb 7:25)! It is vitally important that we focus with a perfect faith and obedience on what Christ has done for us, and not on our irregular attempts to be obedient! He loved us and saved us when we were His enemies and hated Him.Will He not, now that we are His children washed by His Blood, give us all good things and also keep us to the end? Rom 8:32. He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit for that final day! It can’t be clearer than that (2 Cor 1:21-22; Eph 1:11-14)!
Some argue that we can lose our faith in Him, but I say it cannot be! Our salvation starts and ends with God. It does not originate in us, nor are there any “ifs and buts”! Eph 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” The faith that He gave me saved me (No man has any faith for salvation in himself, as he is dead in his sins and totally incapable to respond to God unless God reaches out to him!). The Word also says that He (Jesus) is the Author and Perfecter of my faith – Hebr 12:2. Therefore if He has started my faith then He has promised to perfect my faith right to the end! It is not up to me because without Him I can do nothing! It is He living in me that enables me to live a life pleasing to Him! He is our everything and we will stand before God one day realizing that it is all because of Him and not because of anything that we have done!!! 1 Cor 1:30-31 “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Jesus also said that we would never be condemned! John 5:24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
Jesus was very direct in teaching that He would not lose any of those that come to Him:
The Fathers will is to save you to be with Him forever! John 6:38-40 “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
He even went so far as to state that none of His children would ever perish and nothing would be able to snatch them out of His or His Father’s hands! John 10:28-29 “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”
So what happens when we sin after we are saved?
- We don’t lose our salvation! If we reason that we can lose it by some serious ongoing sin, then we must also agree that our ultimate place in heaven is dependent on our obedience and faithfulness. This comes down to salvation by works! This is totally against the teaching of the whole Bible and also contrary to the complete work of Jesus on our behalf! His faithfulness, and not ours, saves us! See Rom 3:22 – a direct translation says that His righteousness is credited to our account firstly because of His faithfulness and then us believing that! Gal 2:16 says the same thing.
- We will never be without sin in this life – 1 John 1:8, but the Word teaches very clearly that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ as believers to give account for our lives-how we treated our great salvation! All attitude, actions and words that were not brought under the Lordship of Christ will be exposed (Rom 14:10; 2 Cor 5:6-10)! Therefore we need to repent of those ongoingly. This is not to secure our salvation but to ensure that we receive a rich welcome in heaven – see 2 Peter 1:10-11!!!
All the glory to God!!! Let us agree with Paul in Rom 11:33-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! 34 Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? 35 Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To HIM be the glory forever! Amen.”
Enjoy Him!!! Wynand
