God's Case for Eternal Security - (Part I)

God's Case for Eternal Security - (Part I) - Terry James - http://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/

 

Jesus Christ, Creator of all that is, once asked and asks the question still:

 

"Who do you say that I am?"

 

Nothing any person does in life is more important, more crucial, than answering this question. One's response determines an individual's ultimate destiny, where that person will spend eternity after this short life on Earth is over. And it is indeed a short life lived in our physical bodies. God's Word, the Bible, speaks truth about the matter:

 

"The days of our years [are] threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength [they be] fourscore years, yet [is] their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away" (Psa. 90:10).

 

Again, God's Word says:

 

"Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14).

 

Jesus asked that most profound question to ever confront mankind. He asked His disciples directly: "...whom say ye that I am?" (Matt. 16:15). When Peter answered,

 

"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16), the Lord said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 16:17).

 

Jesus went on to declare that He would build His church upon that very foundation. All who truly believe and confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God will become children of the heavenly Father. This truth is confirmed by the inspired words of Paul the apostle following Christ's death, burial, and resurrection:

 

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9).

 

The question posed by Jesus when He asked, "Whom say ye that I am?" is the one every individual has to answer. It is not an option. One must either accept that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, or reject Jesus Christ, thus declaring that Jesus was not and is not who He claimed to be. Believing upon Jesus Christ and His redemptive sacrifice on the cross at Calvary for the sins of mankind (Jn. 3:16) means a person will be saved from sin, which separates the souls of men and women, boys and girls, from God, Christ's Father. Not believing upon Christ means eternal separation from God in a place of torment called the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:11-15).

 

To accept Christ's sacrifice is to recognize and admit you are a sinner who needs salvation. You must totally believe Christ died for you. You must ask that Jesus come into your soul and become Lord of your life. By inviting Him to come into your life, you agree that you desire to turn from your sinful life and depend upon the Lord to direct your life as He deems best. Jesus instantly comes to dwell within your soul through God the Holy Spirit. This is called being "born again" (Jn. 3:3). You are then a child of God, saved once and for all - for all of eternity. The Holy Spirit dwelling within you begins helping you grow under new management - King Jesus, the Lord of Lords!

 

Future Secure Forever

 

Your future is secure because God holds onto you forever, not because you are holding onto Him! This is most important to recognize and remember. Christ does the saving of your soul. Your part is to simply and genuinely accept the grace gift, the sacrifice for redemption God offers through His beloved Son, the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Jn. 1:29; Rev. 13:8).

 

We know with absolute certainty you are once and forever in God's family because of the words of the One who created all that exists. The Lord Jesus Christ said, "My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father's hand" (Jn. 10:29). Jesus was speaking about all people who have lived on Planet Earth who have or will in the future accept Him as God's once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world.

 

He was telling us, through the Mighty Word of the God of Heaven, that it is impossible for the heavenly Father to ever let a single born-again child of His slip from His omnipotent grip.

 

The Apostle Paul, under direct inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, nailed down eternal security of the born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote:

 

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39).

 

Paul said further, "...for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12).

 

Insecurity of Believers

 

Many who are true Christians today hold that the Bible teaches that people saved by the matchless, unfathomable grace of God can lose salvation if they backslide to the point that sin rules their lives. They reject the Bible truth "once saved always saved." Many of these who believe, preach, and teach insecurity of the believer (that one can lose salvation) declare at the same time that a Christian called "carnal" can be re-redeemed, restored to the family of God upon repentance. They accept part of the truth found in Hebrews 6:4-6 but deny the truth of the other part. That Scripture says:

 

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."

 

We will examine this terribly flawed interpretation of this Truth next week.