|
Is
it the eternal purpose of God to save those who have believed in His Son?
One reason for a rejection of the doctrine of eternal
security is that it is evaluated from the perspective of time and not
eternity. In other words, if it has been God’s eternal purpose to
save the believer in Christ, can the believer ever be lost in time?
Put another way, if, as Ephesians 1:4 declares, God chose the believer in
Christ from before the foundation of the world, at what point did
the believer lose his/her salvation?: "Just as He chose us in
Him before the foundation of the world… in love He predestined
us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the kind intention of His will…. We have obtained an inheritance having
been predestined according to His purpose who works all things
after the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:4-5, 11).
Some argue that when believers lose their salvation, it
is because of their rebellion against God and/or the sins they have
committed against Him. But God knew for all eternity everything
believers would ever do, good and bad. Yet God still chose them to eternal
life, "Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace
which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity" (2
Tim. 1:9). So how could there be anything that exists in believers’
lives now, in time, that could turn God against them when their
relationship to God was already eternal? God chose a believer knowing
beforehand every sin and failure that would be his. God knew the
times of rebellion, all the sin, unbelief, lack of faith, etc., and yet
the Scripture still teaches that the believer was chosen before the world
was ever created because God had, quite literally, loved them forever. As
God told Jeremiah, "…I have loved you with an everlasting love,
therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness" (Jer. 31:3). All this
is why, "Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come you
who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world" (Mt. 25:34).
God looks at His plan and His Church through the eyes of
an eternal plan that to us in many ways remains a puzzle. None of us can
presently know what plans or necessities were formulated in the council of
God in all eternity before there ever was a creation.
One of the things that God apparently decided in
eternity was that salvation was ultimately going to be His decision, not
ours, something we will discuss in the next two questions. This would seem
to be a necessity, for were salvation up to us, it is, by definition,
insecure, indeed, eternally insecure. Why? No creature could ever
guarantee his/her salvation for all eternity apart from the saving power
of God. If even a third of the once innocent angels fell (those remaining
being termed "elect angels" (1 Tim. 5:21), which Christian
thinks that, as a sinner, he or she could do a better job?
Does the Scripture teach that salvation is from God and
not man?
When we examine the possibility of loss of salvation,
one way to help resolve the issue is by determining the final cause of
salvation. How much of our salvation is dependent on us and how much on
God? The following Scriptures and our next question show that in its
ultimate sense salvation originates and finishes 100% in God. It never
originates in a wholly independent decision of man:
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author
and perfecter of our faith…. (Heb. 12:2)
Salvation is from the Lord. (Jonah 2:9)
Salvation belongs to the Lord. (Ps. 3:8)
In the exercise of his will he brought us
forth…. (Jas. 1:18)
A man can receive nothing unless it has
been given him from heaven. (Jn. 3:27)
No one can come to me, unless it has been
granted him from the Father. (Jn. 6:65)
And as many as had been appointed to
eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48)
Yet to all who received him to those who
believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of
God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a
husband’s will, but born of God. (Jn. 1:12-13)
For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Eph.
2:8)
It does not, therefore, depend on
man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. (Rom. 9:16)
If salvation is an act accomplished by God, one would
assume it must endure by definition because "I know that everything
that God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there
is nothing to take from it…" (Ecc. 3:14).
In fact, the Scriptures teach that every component of
salvation is of God: regeneration (Jn. 6:63); repentance (2 Tim. 2:25;
Acts 11:18); faith (Acts 16:14; 18:27; Rom. 12:3; Heb. 12:2);
justification (Rom. 8:33; Titus 3:7); union with Christ (1 Cor. 1:30);
grace (Rom. 12:3, 6; 1 Cor.1:4; Eph. 4:7); atonement (Acts 20:28);
sanctification (Eph. 5:25-26; Heb. 2:11; Jude 1); bodily resurrection
(Phil. 3:21); reconciliation and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:18;
Col. 1:21-22; Eph. 1:7), etc.
This shows that God has removed every form of human
effort or merit as a means of salvation. Theologian Lewis Sperry Chafer
discusses this point as follows:
Through the divine decree, as has been
seen, every human merit has been set aside in order that pure grace might
reign unchallenged and uncomplicated. That salvation might be by grace
alone, God has removed every possible conflicting issue which might arise
because of human merit. The whole human family is now "under
sin"; for only thus are they objects of pure grace. Such grace can be
exercised only toward the meritless. Salvation is based on the loving
goodness of God and never on the supposed worthiness of the sinner. In
like manner, God is now equally free to continue the exercise of His
boundless grace toward the Christian without reference to the
Christian’s merit. All that the love of God may prompt him to do in
grace, he is free to do. His unconditional covenant of eternal blessings
is the guarantee of his abiding purpose…. The great covenant promises of
salvation are not limited to the moment when the sinner accepts the saving
grace that is in Christ Jesus; they all reach on and guarantee every step
of the way from the first moment of faith till the last moment of
fruition. Even the word salvation, in its largest biblical meaning, covers
all that is past, all that is present, and all that is future, in the
outworking of the grace of God for the one who believes…. In the great
promises of grace there is not measurement as to time, not any human
condition imposed other than believing.1
If salvation is from the Lord, then it isn’t from
the believer or what the believer does or does not do in the course of his
or her Christian life.
Has God chosen the believer for salvation?
Although the subject of election is a mystery and must
not be pressed beyond the bounds of clear scriptural statements, no one
can logically deny that the Scripture teaches that the believer was chosen
by God. If the believer has been chosen by God for salvation before the
believer was even born, then nothing in that believer’s life later can
thwart the purpose that God in love had eternally covenanted and
established to accomplish. The following Scriptures prove the doctrine of
election:
In love he predestined us to be
adopted as his sons…. (Eph. 1:5)
You did not choose me, but I chose you,
and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit
should remain…. (Jn. 15:16)
For the promises for you and your children,
and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to
Himself. (Acts 2:39)
And so, as those who have been chosen
of God, holy and beloved,… (Col. 3:12)
Knowing, brethren beloved by God, his choice
of you. (1 Thess. 1:4)
All things have been handed over to me by
my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone
know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to
reveal Him. (Mt. 11:27)
For God has not destined us for
wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Thess. 5:9)
But we should always give thanks to God for
you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the
beginning for salvation…. (2 Thess. 2:13)
For this reason I endure all things for the
sake of those who are chosen that they also may obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. (2 Tim.
2:10)
But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession…. (1 Pet.
2:9)
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?
God is the one who justifies. (Rom. 8:33)
In the same way then there has also come to
be at the present time a remnant [of believers] according to God’s
gracious choice. But if by grace, it is no longer on the basis of
works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. (Rom. 11:5-6)
But God has chosen the foolish things of
the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the
world to shame the things which are strong…. (1 Cor. 1:27)
For the faith of those chosen of
God. (Titus 1:1)
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to
those… who are chosen… (1 Pet. 1:1)
For though the twins were not yet born, and
had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according
to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of him
who calls…. And he did so in order that he might make known the
riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand
for glory, even us, whom he also called, not from among Jews only, but
also from among Gentiles. (Rom. 9:11, 23-24)
Could all these verses be clearer? The election of God is
a mystery, but it does not undermine human responsibility and
freedom nor is it inconsistent with the love, mercy, and goodness of God.
Regardless, if the believer is chosen by God for salvation, and especially
if this has been an eternal choice, on what basis can a believer logically
conclude that God will not fulfill His purposes? Rather than argue over
such a doctrine or dispute it, true believers should rejoice and give
thanks to God for their election to eternal salvation.
Note:
1. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Grace (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1972), pp. 63-65.
|
