Predestination and Eternal Security
Tradition and Faith • Sermon • Submitted
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Small deviation from any truth initially may seem and feel like had not anything significant but in a long run some of them impact or consequences could be irreversible.
Before we start I want to share about an article I came across in New York times, its about the appointment of Chief Chaplain Greg Epistein.
Harvard University — the oldest college in the United States (1636)6 — was originally a theological institution founded by the Congregational church, to train Christian Clergy men.
In fact, 92 percent of all colleges and universities founded before 1932 were originally Christian institutions.4 Very few still are.
College of William and Mary was founded by Episcopalians to educate clergymen — as was Columbia. The alma mater of my parents and brother, Northwestern University, was founded by Methodists. Brown began Baptist. Even state schools such as the University of Kentucky and the University of California (Berkeley) have Christian origins.7
Moreover, the world-renowned state universities in Europe (e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Basel, and Paris) were also founded by Christians.8
Predestination
Predestination
When dealing with a doctrine predestination has caused more theological cat fighting than any other for the past 500 years.
The subject of election or predestination – God’s choosing if you will – is really a rather simple one. It is all summarized in the person of Jesus Christ.
The electing God and the elected man are One in the same. God Almighty chose His Son on behalf of the human race.
But we have overcomplicated this subject with human logic and a humanistic focus.
In the one camp, our Calvinist brothers believe that God chooses one human being over the other. One destined to Paradise, the other destined to bake forever in the flames of Hell. In the other camp, our Arminian brothers believe that man himself must choose God. Ultimately, it is man’s decision, not God’s decision that saves him. Whether it is our willpower, our choice or our ability to muster up the work of faith (how much faith is enough?), the Arminian surely implies that mankind on some level saves himself. Human willpower becomes at least one link in the chain of salvation; therefore, the entire chain becomes as flimsy as it’s weakest link. Man must save himself.
God’s Free Choice
God’s Free Choice
“Election” simply means “a choice.” The Christian doctrine of election involves a choice made by God. For Karl Barth, this doctrine – the decision of God before all time to be Who He is for humanity — is the basic truth on which all other Christian truths are built. The doctrine of election involves two aspects, the electing God and the elected man. As the electing God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit together make a choice. The choice God makes is that the Son of God will become the elected man, Jesus of Nazareth.
The Triune God eternally elects, or chooses, in divine freedom, to be for humanity the God of grace and love. Therefore, in Jesus Christ, Who is fully God and fully man, God is both the Elector and the Elected.
The Son of God empties and humbles Himself so that humans may be united in fellowship with God
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
This is the work of the Triune God: Father, Son and Spirit, in perfect love and perfect unity for the sake of humanity. We know the Father loves us because we know Jesus loves us, and we live in this assurance by the Spirit.
Scripture tells us that God is love
The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
As the Triune God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have freely shared their perfect love and fellowship within the Godhead eternally, and by God’s own free choice, He elects to share that same love with humanity through Jesus Christ, who is the elect man on behalf of all humanity.
Predestination
For Barth, predestination is identical with the election of Jesus Christ. God freely chooses or predestines Himself and all humans to be in loving relationship with and through Jesus Christ. God will have it no other way; He loves humanity and will not be without humanity.
The problem is that humans were fallen, sinful beings who rejected God and needed redemption in order to stand in that fellowship from their side. Scripture testifies to God’s foreknowledge – before creation – that human beings would be sinful and would be in need of redemption and reconciliation
knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His 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.
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, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
At the crucifixion, God rejects and says NO to disordered human sin that caused separation from Him. However, God’s NO is not directed at us – even though we deserved it because of our rejection of God. Instead, Jesus takes the rejection and the NO of God totally upon Himself as the human representative of and substitute for all humanity.
The NO is absolutely necessary so that we can hear God’s YES. Jesus Christ does not come to the world as “an accuser, as a prosecutor, as a judge, as an executioner.”
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s YES to Jesus Christ. It is the acceptance of Jesus Christ’s obedient submission to God’s will. In and through Jesus Christ, the YES of God is freely given to all human beings. Therefore, we may say that Jesus Christ is our elected representative.
Salvation is not just a closed number of elect but all might have eternal life
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
Eternal Security
Eternal Security
I love Chuck Missler and some of the his explanation and illustrations.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Forgiveness: which of your sins were yet future at the cross - all of them
Faith Alone: you are saved by faith alone, no room for any boasting
Unconditional love: (this is important to understand) - If there is a condition, even just one attached to the God’s willingness to maintain relationship with His children than it is not unconditional, and his love is not agape the unconditional love.
Focus in Christ
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Dr. Chuck Missler says there is three options in front of God.
He must condemn the humanity
Compromise His own righteousness to receive all just the way they are, which is unlikely
Or He can change them into righteous people
If he chooses the third option then He can announce them righteous, which is justification
but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
What does peace with God mean, then, in that context? It means the war is over, that’s what it means. It means that God is no longer fighting us, no longer our enemy, no longer promising judgment, death, and hell. Peace with God is the new status between God and the believer, which flows from the reconciliation accomplished in Jesus Christ.
Now remember, when Jesus died on the cross, He bore our sins in His own body and God was propitiated. God was satisfied. The penalty of sin was paid in full, nothing left to be paid. That’s why Jesus said, “It is finished.”
In Colossians 1:20 it says, “Through Him,” that is, through Christ, “to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Having made peace through the blood of His cross. Peace with whom? Peace between the sinner and God - peace between the sinner and God. God no longer needs to be angry with us. God no longer needs to punish us because our sins have all been punished. All of God’s anger was spent on Jesus Christ.
So the new reality is a new peace. Instead of being the enemies of God, we’re the friends of God. We’re the sons of God. We’re the beloved of God. God’s wrath toward us, which would ultimately catapult us into eternal hell, is removed, having been fully absorbed and resolved on Christ at the cross. And that’s what verse 1 says, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is the reconciler. He’s the provider of this peace, and certainly He promised this peace.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
The second link in the chain that eternally binds us to God, the first being peace, the second is grace - standing in grace.
Through whom, referring back to our Lord Jesus Christ, also not only peace with God, but also we have obtained our introduction by faith, always by faith, verse 1, justified by faith, verse 2, our introduction by faith, into this grace in which we stand.
First link, peace with God; second link, standing in grace - standing in grace. This truth is so rich that its boundaries are inconceivable and certainly untouchable. It is a vast, profound reality.
All through their history, the one thing that was true for the Jews was no access, no access. God was the utterly unapproachable Holy One, and that was laid down in no uncertain terms. I don’t want to take time to read the whole account but just a little bit of a look (and you can do it on your own) at Exodus chapter 19 indicates to us how inaccessible God was. God appears in a dark, thick cloud in chapter 19 of Exodus, and people are told, basically, don’t go near, don’t even get close.
Verse 21. The Lord spoke to Moses. “Go down, warn the people so that they do not break through to the Lord to gaze and many of them perish.” People cannot come up to Mount Sinai “for you warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds about the mountain and consecrate it.’” So Moses went down to the people and told them, “Don’t get near God.”
The whole Old Testament of offerings is both defined for us in the tabernacle and the temple. Where did God dwell? Well, the presence of God was symbolically in the Holy of Holies, right? In the inner sanctuary. And it was out of bounds for everybody, out of bounds for absolutely everybody.
But even the structure of the temple and the structure of the tabernacle, originally, but particularly the temple had a series of courtyards. Gentiles could only get so close to God, the Court of the Gentiles. Women could only get so close to God, a place called the Court of the Women. Men could get a little closer. Priests could get a little closer with proper cleansing and proper ritual. But anybody who got too close to God was in serious danger. Uzzah got a little too close, touched the Ark, was killed. Nadab and Abihu got too close and they were killed. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram got a little too close and they were killed.
And the high priest, who alone could go into the Holy of Holies one time a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of the Atonement, could only go in after serious ceremonial purification and he would go in there and get out as fast as possible. He had bells on his robe so that they would know if he was still moving around or if he had been struck dead. Access was not a word in the vocabulary of the Jews.
In terms of man’s relationship to a holy God, he had no access. Sinful man, no real access, but Christ’s death forever altered that, and you remember Matthew 27:51 tells us that at the time and the moment that Jesus died, the temple that separated the Holy of Holies was split from top to bottom, and the whole thing was thrown wide open, and all who desired to come were given access.
Now, that’s the richness of that word. Listen to 1 Peter 3:18, “Christ also died for our sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.” In the Jewish concept, that’s a huge idea, bring us into the presence of God.
Now, this is promised in the New Covenant, Jeremiah 32, listen to verses 38 and 40 in Jeremiah 32 where the New Covenant, portions of the New Covenant, are described. “They shall be my people, I will be their God.” They shall be my people, I will be their God. “I will not turn away from them. They shall not depart from me.”
There is, then, in New Covenant salvation an access, an opening into the presence of God. The word access (or introduction here) is a rich word. Secularly, it is used of a harbor, or a haven, a place of safety and security.
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
I love this - “in which also you stand.”
This is the testimony at the end of Jude, the familiar and beloved benediction, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy” - how does He do that? How does He get us there? By grace.
Our sins never cancel out our salvation because we live in grace. He is able, He has the power. We are held in safe custody, that’s what the other verb in 1 Peter says. We stand immovable in a realm dominated by grace, which is God’s unmerited favor by which He saves us, makes us righteous, and keeps on cleansing us from all sin. First John.
Now, it’s a horrible thing to tell people, I think, that you were saved by grace and grace alone, but you’re going to live the rest of your life in danger of losing your salvation. If that’s true, then I went from the realm of grace in my salvation to the realm of law in my sanctification. That is not what Scripture teaches. We stand in grace. Never does that change.
Since our peace and our access - is purely on the merits of Christ and His work, it is all by grace, we can’t earn it, nor can we maintain it. It is all grace, and grace always forgives and always forgives and always forgives and always forgives - that is its nature, that is its essence.
You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
If you try to be made right with God through the law, your life with Christ is over—you have left God’s grace.
Fallen from grace? That certainly sounds like they’ve lost their salvation. And the way the term is popularly used doesn’t help, either. When we hear in the news about a celebrity who has “fallen from grace” today, it typically describes someone who was behaving well but then suffered a moral failure.
But in Galatians, falling from grace means something very different: falling away from the message of God’s grace and toward the Law. Paul wrote Galatians to a variety of people. Some had accepted the Gospel; others were acquainted with the message but hadn’t accepted it. Some in the Galatian community had flirted with the idea of salvation by grace through faith but instead chose to seek rightness with God through keeping the Law.
In Galatians 5, Paul was speaking to those “seeking to be justified by law” (v.4) and notes that they were planning to “receive circumcision” (v.3). Clearly, this means they were unbelievers who had no clue how to get right with God. How can we be certain that Paul was not speaking to believers who had lost their salvation? Notice the contrast between “you” and “we” in the passage: You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.
If I have to keep myself saved, I can’t. Put it another way, if I could lose my salvation, I would. And if I could get it back, I’d get it back and lose it again. If it was possible for a believer to lose salvation, every believer would do it. If it’s up to me, I can’t maintain it.
I knew that my own crooked willpower was incapable of choosing God, much less “keeping” Him. I didn’t choose Him; He chose me
“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
I did nothing to get my salvation, and it was not up to me to maintain it. Arminianism is chock-full of willpower and striving. My choice didn’t save me; Jesus did. I knew that even my repentance didn’t save me. Repentance is not the price tag for salvation; it is a fruit of salvation. Salvation is about His will – His choice to save.
Peter says, “Grow in grace.” We live in grace, we breathe the air of grace, and we grow in grace. The state of salvation is a state of grace, it is Christ’s gracious mediation that brought us in, keeps us in. By grace, all our sins are forgiven - past, present and future. Never in the realm of grace does law play any role at all in keeping us saved.
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
It all goes back to sufficiency and finality and completion of the work of Christ. “Who can bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who is the one who justifies. Who can condemn? Christ has died, and raised again at the right hand of God, interceding for us.”
No one can successfully bring a charge against us,
no one can successfully overturn God’s commitment to us.
No one can condemn us.
No one can separate us from the love of Christ.
No one and no thing is able, as verse 39 says, to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is an unspeakable blessing to understand the fullness of our salvation. We live in permanent relationship of peace with God and we live in a permanent state of grace, which overrules all our sin. Romans chapter 8, verse 1, actually began this way, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation. There can’t be. No one can condemn, for Christ has paid in full. First Thessalonians 5:24 says, “Faithful is He who calls you, and He will bring it to pass.”
