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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Eternal Basis for Eternal Security

John 3:16 “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."

Yesterday I wrote about the relevance of the Bible's teaching on God's eternal covenant of redemption. The Covenant of redemption is God's eternally agreed upon plan of salvation. In today's blog we want to consider a second reason why this truth is so important for Christians: namely the believer's eternal security.

The Covenant of Redemption is the Basis for Eternal Security
Jude 24-25 reads - "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen." When you see this text, you see the Triune God active throughout the whole of Eternal Security. Notice the underlined words in the text:

1). The Spirit is the applier of redemption. We see that in the phrase "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling". From the preceeding verses in Jude, we understand the "Him" to be in reference to God the Holy Spirit. Whenever we speak of One of the Members of the Trinity, we can also include the other two, since all Three share the same undivided life and fellowship as One God. With that said, the Holy Spirit has been sent to insure that every true believer in Jesus Christ will endure to the end. A True Christian will not only endure, but they will want to endure.

2). The Father is the planner of redemption. We see that in Jude's use of the phrase: "to the Only God our Savior". The fact He distingishes "God" from "Jesus Christ" tells us that Jude is specifying God the Father, in whose nature the Son shares. It is the Father who initiated, planned and put forth the effort to send forth the Son and the Spirit to execute His plan of redemption. (Galatians 4:4; 1 Peter 1:20)

3). The Son is the purchaser of redemption. Jude rounds out this final verse of His epistle by referring to this plan of redemption being accomplished "through Jesus Christ our Lord". It was the Son who came into time, assumed humanity through the virgin birth, lived 33 years and died on the cross. He raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven. While never ceasing to be God, He became man. Now that He has ascended into Heaven, he has never ceased being man, demonstrating that He is God in human flesh. Ephesians 1:7 states -
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace."

The Eternal security of the believer is based upon what God planned in eternity, what Christ payed for in history and what the Spirit is applying presently. Jude 25 closes out with a doxology: "be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen." Notice the text does not say "glories" but "glory", reminding us that all Three Persons equally share infinitely and equally as the One God of glory.

Praise be to the Triune God for all that has been done in providing the basis for missions and eternal security.