Eternally Secure

Eternal Security

Watchman Nee tells about a new convert who came in deep distress to see him. "No matter how much I pray, no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot seem to be faithful to my Lord. I think I'm losing my salvation." Nee said, "Do you see this dog here? He is my dog. He is house-trained; he never makes a mess; he is obedient; he is a pure delight to me. Out in the kitchen I have a son, a baby son. He makes a mess, he throws his food around, he fouls his clothes, he is a total mess. But who is going to inherit my kingdom? Not my dog; my son is my heir. You are Jesus Christ's heir because it is for you that He died." We are Christ's heirs, not through our perfection but by means of His grace.

Watchman Nee.

I love Chuck Missler and some of the his explanation and illustrations.

​1 John 5:13 NASB95These 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

I mentioned about unconditional love - Agape love

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

​Philippians 4:8 NASB95Finally, 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.

​Colossians 3:2 NASB95Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

​Hebrews 12:1–2 NASB95Therefore, 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.

Mirror: 12:1 So now the stage is set for us: all these faith-heroes cheer us on, as it were, like a great multitude of spectators in the amphitheater. This is our moment. As with an athlete who is determined to win, it would be silly to carry any baggage of the old law-system that would weigh one down. Make sure you do not get your feet clogged up with sin-consciousness. Become absolutely streamlined in faith. Run the race of your spiritual life with total persuasion. (Persuaded in the success of the cross.) 12:2 Look away from the shadow dispensation of the law and the Prophets and fix your eyes upon Jesus. He is the fountainhead and conclusion of faith. He saw the joy [of mankind’s salvation] when he braved the cross and despised the shame of it. As the executive authority of God [the right hand of the throne of God] he now occupies the highest seat of dominion to endorse mankind’s innocence! (Having accomplished purification of sins, he sat down. Heb 1:3, Isa 53:11.)

​Romans 4:24–25 ESVbut 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.

​Romans 5:1 NASB95Therefore, 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,, 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.

​Romans 5:2 ESVThrough 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 . This truth is so rich that its boundaries are inconceivable and certainly untouchable. It is a vast, profound reality.

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.” . “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.

​1 Corinthians 15:1 NASB95Now 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,

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  - that is its nature, that is its essence.

​Galatians 5:4 NASB95You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

​Galatians 5:4 NCVIf 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

​John 15:16 NASB95“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.

​Romans 8:33–34 NASB95Who 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.”