Romans 10:14-21: Ethnic Israel Rejected the Gospel (part 2)

 

Romans 10 part 2

Ethnic Israel (Rom 9:3 Fleshly, racial, bloodline, DNA-based) focused on behavior-based righteousness and rejected the gospel of grace that changes the hearts first through regeneration and conversion and then proper behavior follows in the believer’s life. It is spiritual suicide to get these two backwards. Good works result from true salvation; they never produce salvation. When you hear and see the gospel and reject general and special revelation, your guilt before God increases significantly.

I. Ethnic Israel does not understand the true gospel of grace vs. 1-13

II. Ethnic Israel has rejected the true gospel (all but the remnant) vs. 14-21

A. The prerequisites (required conditions) to salvation for Israel and all humans vs. 14-15a

1. God must send a person with the gospel message

2. The sent person must proclaim/share the gospel message

3. The people must hear and understand the gospel message in their language

4. The person must believe the gospel message that they have understood

5. The people must call on the name of the Lord

a. To pray in repentance, requesting forgiveness and salvation

b. To surrender to Jesus as Master, King, Boss, LORD

B. The blessing of obediently sharing or proclaiming the gospel message vs. 15b

1. Beautiful feet carry the good news that the Babylonian captivity is over and Israel will be restored (Isa 52:7) and now that sins captivity is over and spiritual Israel will be expanded. Because the message is itself a precious treasure bringing joy, the messenger can run, leap, and skip for joy—his feet (body language) can match his message

2. Those who do not pray, give, send, and go must realize the destiny of those who have never heard. Look at the prerequisites. Foreign Missions is not optional. Salvation is exclusive to belief in Jesus the Messiah (John 14:6; Acts 4:12)

C. The two results that occur when the gospel message is proclaimed vs. 16-17

1. Some will not obey the gospel call to surrender to the Messiah as Lord. Often this is the majority, but not always in every era or every location

2. Even the Old Covenant prophets’ message about faith in the coming Messiah and the need for heart-produced loyalty and faithfulness was rejected by the majority in Ethnic Israel (Isa 53:1; a verse in a Messianic prophecy)

3. Some will obey the gospel and repent, believe, and surrender to Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God

4. Faith cannot be produced in the heart of a sinner apart from the message about Christ. (Two textual variants to choose from in vs. 17)

a. The word of Christ, a specific message about the Messiah, Jesus

b. The word of God, the gospel, a specific message about the Messiah

5. Hearing and understanding the written Word of God and the specific gospel message about the Messiah contained in it is absolutely vital for salvation

D. The first three prerequisites for Ethnic Israel to be saved have been accomplished by God vs. 18-20

1. Israel had never heard the gospel. No one told us that Jesus was the Messiah who came to save us from our sins. Paul is using irony and literary sarcasm here vs. 18 (see Ecclesiastes)

2. Yes, ethnic Israel has been told. Those in Israel saw the evidence that Jesus was God in the flesh. Disease was almost removed from Israel for three years. Paul preached to the Jews first in the synagogues throughout the Roman Empire that Jesus was the Messiah

3. Evidence # 1: General revelation reveals to all humans God’s design and glory. The Hebrew Bible says, “Their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Psa 19:4a HCSB). All men have known about God since creation. The Jews cannot plead ignorance. They knew

4. Evidence # 2: Special revelation: Noah found grace in the eye of the Lord, Abraham lived by faith, the prophets told them of the coming Messiah and that works could not save them. The sacrifices told them that blood must be shed for human sin. John the Baptist came in fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy and told them the Messiah was present. Jesus preached and demonstrated that He was the God-Man. The Apostles of Christ preached and died rather than deny Jesus’ resurrection. Yes, Israel had heard the gospel message accompanied by irrefutable evidence

5. Evidence # 3: Special revelation revealed that during the Messianic age the Gentiles would receive God’s righteousness. This was happening before their eyes

a. Moses in the curses of the covenant predicted the future salvation of the Gentiles would occur to incite jealousy among Ethnic Israel. Why? So, they will awaken to what they have missed and respond by believing the gospel message and surrendering to the Messiah, Jesus (Deut 32:21)

b. Isaiah declares God was found by those who did not seek Him and revealed Himself to those not seeking Him (Isa 65:1; Rom 9:30). This is in his final prophesies that are concerned with the Suffering Servant, the Messiah and His coming age. The Gentiles will enter into a covenant relationship with Yahweh during the Messianic age. This was happening before Ethnic Israel’s eyes and continues to this day

E. The last two prerequisites for Ethnic Israel are the responsibility of the Israelites themselves vs. 21

1. In Romans 9, God is 100% sovereign, Romans 10, man is 100% responsible

2. Spurgeon said human responsibility and divine sovereignty are friends that work side-by-side, so they do not need to be reconciled like two people in a feud

3. Because of the limitations of human intellect, there is a mystery here that is beyond our full comprehension and explanation. We are not omniscient. God is

4. Isaiah labeled the real problems: rebellious attitudes and an obstinate will. All men have a bad record and a bad heart. Their love of sin and obstinate will guarantee their coming judgment (Isa 65:2)

5. Ethnic Israel had heard the gospel message, understood what it claimed, and they rejected and opposed the gospel message

6. Ethnic Israel willfully did not obey the gospel and willfully rejected the true gospel of everlasting salvation

7. Am I like Ethnic Israel, refusing to fully comprehend the gospel and embrace Jesus the Messiah by repentance, faith, and full surrender, or am I like the remnant of spiritual Israel that has surrendered to the Lord Jesus in repentance and faith?

8. Future good news for Ethnic Israel is in Romans 11

Romans 10:1-13: Ethnic Israel Missed the Gospel (part 1)

                                                                 Romans 10:1-13 part 1

Ethnic Israel (fleshly), the Jewish nation, is Israel by natural birth only. It is not Spiritual Israel to whom most of the Old Testament promises were made in the covenants. Ethnic Israel missed the gospel during the Mosaic administration of the Mosaic Covenant, and they are still missing it during the Messiah’s administration of the New Covenant. But one day, this will change (see Romans 11)!

I. Ethnic Israel does not understand the true gospel of grace vs. 1-13

A. Note that ethnic Israel continues to be Paul’s concern (Rom 9:1-5) vs. 1

B. Ethnic Israel has a false religious zeal vs. 2

C. Ethnic Israel does not know the true way to a relationship with God through a transferred righteousness following faith. vs. 3-13

1. They are ignorant of God’s required righteousness that is transferred to a person’s account after they embrace the Messiah by faith. vs. 3

2. They are seeking to establish their own righteousness. But self-righteousness is never good enough. Isaiah said, “We have all become like an unclean thing, and all our virtues like a filthy rag. We are all withering like leaves, and our iniquities, like a wind, carry us off.” (Isa 64:5 TNK)

3. They are refusing to submit to the righteousness of God, which is the only standard He will accept. vs. 3

4. They do not understand the goal or purpose of the law is the Messiah, Jesus. vs. 4

a) Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law for all time

b) Jesus kept the civil law of Israel as the believer’s substitute

c) Jesus kept the moral law of Israel as the believer’s substitute

d) Jesus provides transferred righteousness to His people. Because of their depravity, they could never keep the law fully in their own power and strength

5. They do not even understand Moses, whom they claim as their guide vs. 5

a) Moses wrote that perfect law-keeping is necessary for someone to obtain righteousness through the law

b) Moses said: “So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am Yahweh.” (Lev 18:5) Not some of them some of the time, but do all of them all the time

6. They do not understand transferred righteousness by faith vs. 6-13

a) Righteousness by faith does not say, “I must do the work to be saved.” I can do the impossible. I can go to heaven and bring the Messiah back to earth with me. It is all about me, my will, my good works, my salvation. vs. 6-7

b) Righteousness by faith agrees with Moses: salvation from everlasting punishment in hell is very near those with the Word of God. When the Word of God is read, the gospel is in our mouths and can be embraced in our hearts by faith. Repentance toward God and faith in Jesus is exactly what Paul was preaching [Acts 20:21]. (Paul’s quote is from Deut 30:14, a chapter on the future restoration of ethnic Israel that they would one day also become spiritual Israel) vs. 8

c) Righteousness by faith acknowledges that salvation from sin and hell comes through the person and work of Jesus the Messiah. How does a sinner get delivered from the authoritative power and the everlasting punishment of sin? They recognize they are sinners, lawbreakers, and rebels against the holy God of the universe. They stop trying to save themselves by works. They surrender to Jesus. They confess with their mouths that Yeshu’a is Lord. This means that they fully believe He is divine, and that they have submitted to His authority so that He is their individual master, their boss, their king. Also, they have a saving faith, which is a dependent trust in Jesus’ person and work only for deliverance. They believe in their inner core with a firm conviction that the God-Man Jesus died on a cross in the place of sinners and rose from the dead the third day. He was raised by the power of God the Father through the agency of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is in the gospel. Those who embrace the God-Man Jesus by faith, believing correctly about the person and work of the Messiah, are saved vs. 9

d) Righteousness by faith declares a certain salvation, not a maybe-so salvation. Once a person has a conviction about the truth of the gospel — that faith results in Jesus’ righteousness being transferred to their heavenly court record. Then they are declared righteous by God (justification). A truly saved person will then testify to the change that occurred inside of them — their new nature and new heart — with their mouths. This shows others they are identifying themselves with Jesus by professing their faith. They are no longer worried that they might not be good enough. Jesus was good enough vs. 10

e) Righteousness by faith believes the promise from the Word of God, Isaiah 28:16, that everyone who trusts in the Messiah will not be disappointed in their surrender and commitment vs. 11

f) Righteousness by faith realizes that God has drawn to Himself both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus is Lord of everyone (all kinds of people). Everyone, Jew or Gentile, who surrenders in humility to Jesus as the Son of God, as Lord, and as Savior will be rescued from the punishment and authority of sin. To call on God’s name, on the One who is the Lord, means to have a firm conviction in the full deity of Jesus the Messiah and a full surrender to His right to rule as king in one’s life. It is not just in saying the words: Yeshu’a, Adonai, Yahweh, God, kurios, or Lord. It is surrendering to the Lordship of Christ while embracing the gospel message. God created the heaven and the earth. He is holy, transcendent, and separated from all sin. He gave men His moral law to reveal His holy nature. God the Son has always existed. Around 5 B.C., he came to Earth as God and Man. He lived a sinless and perfect life in the place of His people. He died on a cross outside Jerusalem to bear the wrath of God the Father against the sins of His people. He rose on the third day from the dead with the same body that was crucified, proving forever His deity and that His work was a success. God accepted His payment for believing sinners. He ascended to heaven and was seated on the throne to rule and reign as the God-Man until He returns to the earth for His earthly reign with His people. This is the One in whom you must believe. This is the One you must call on His name and plead with Him to save you from sin's control and its everlasting consequences in your life. He is Lord! He is my Lord and my deliverer. Is He your Lord? Have you called on Him in full surrender? vs. 12-13

Romans 9:1-33: Spiritual and Ethnic Israel in relation to Sovereign Election

Romans 9

There is a debate concerning this chapter. Is Paul discussing the election of individuals (Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, and Esau) or of nations, which would be the choice of Israel over Edom? If it is just nations, how did Pharaoh’s hardened heart fit into this text? What does the book’s context indicate?

Romans 1-3 The Gentiles are sinners, the Jews are sinners, all men are unrighteous before God    Romans 4-5 God’s transferred righteousness based on the work of Jesus the Messiah is the only way of salvation                                                                                                                                            Romans 6-8 The Mosaic law cannot remove sin and justification is by faith alone                                  Romans 9-11 What about all of God’s promises to the Jews, if they are trying to get saved by the law and it is impossible, has God’s revelations and promises failed His people?

How can God be keeping His covenant promises when the majority of ethnic Israel is outside of covenant salvation according to Paul’s teachings? Are the Jews who are trusting in their keeping of the law saved or lost, in the covenant or outside the covenant? The context and questions being answered do not support the theory that the election of Israel over Edom is what is being described in Romans 9. Those who hold this view have a motivation to believe this from outside this chapter of the Bible. Individuals are all Paul can be talking about when you consider the flow of the book and the content of this chapter. He is simply not discussing nations at all here.

I. The proper definition of election vs. 1-13

A. The true Israel is explained using the Hebrew Scriptures vs. 1-8

1. The true Israel is not ethnic (fleshly, national) Israel vs. 1-5

2. The true Israel is spiritual Israel (Isaac vs. Ishmael) vs. 6-8

B. The true Israel is entered by a sovereign act of God vs. 9-13

1. The basis of divine election is revealed. It is only the will of God and not the will of man (Isaac vs. Ishmael) vs. 9-11

2. The basis of divine election is illustrated. Two individual twins, Jacob and Esau            vs. 11-13

3. True Israelites are individuals born by the sovereign will and power of God vs. 9-13

II. The powerful defense of election vs. 14-33

A. The critics’ objection # 1: Paul, your view of divine election makes God unfair vs. 14

1. If divine election is by God’s will, by God deliberately choosing one person over another, then that is unfair. For God to be fair, He would have to choose everyone, and they would make up their minds themselves

2. Answer: No way! Do not even think that thought. The Hebrew Bible teaches that God is sovereign in the distribution of His mercy and grace (Exod 33:19) vs. 15-16

3. Salvation from sin is not by human choice or by human works. It is by God vs. 17 (The Greek term for “but,” alla is a strong contrastive)

4. The Hebrew Bible teaches that God refuses to give His mercy to some; it is God’s choice to bypass them with His grace (Exod 6:19) vs. 17

5. God raised up Pharaoh in human history for two purposes: 1) for Yahweh to display His power in His dealings with Pharaoh and 2) for God’s name and powerful fame to be spread throughout the earth. (This cannot be discussing the rejection of the entire nation of Egypt because many Egyptians were converted during the ten plagues; some even went with Israel to Canaan [Exod 12:38]. This discusses one individual—Pharaoh) vs. 17

6. God shows grace to whom He desires to show grace, and God hardens those whom He wills to harden by the means He has chosen. He saves by sovereign grace, not by the so-called powerful ‘free will’ of fallen humans who love their sin and hate God and who would never naturally choose Him vs. 18

B. The critics’ objection # 2: Paul, did you just say that God wills to harden certain people and God wills to soften other people? How then can God hold any person accountable for sin? God would then be responsible for all the sins of humans. People would only sin to carry out God’s secret decree before the foundation of the earth vs. 19-23

1. Answer: Oh, critical person, you are just a human being. Who are YOU to dispute with God, the judge of the universe? Who are You to contradict God’s Word with false charges? vs. 19

2. Paul gives no direct answer to this second objection. Paul rebukes this proud attitude. ‘I want to know everything about divine election, and the way God does it better meet all my personal standards of fairness. I want to put God on the witness stand, because I can evaluate and understand all that He does’ vs. 19

3. Paul says humans are not to question God about His secret decree of divine election. This is in the realm of God’s wisdom that is beyond a human’s understanding

4. God does not have to explain all His choices and plans to mere humans. God is the God of the universe. Humans are limited; only God is unlimited in His knowledge Humans cannot demand that God explain other doctrines so simply that everyone can understand them, even those without faith or the Holy Spirit. Doctrines like: the Trinity, the two natures of Jesus the Messiah, the decrees of God, predestination, regeneration, and effectual calling. Fully understanding how these truths work is beyond us. It is rebellion of the highest order to demand God explain to us what is above our comprehension to understand. Life has mysteries that are incomprehensible (cf. the book of Ecclesiastes) vs. 19

5. Christians should never lose sight of the majesty and glory of God. The true Israel to whom the promises of salvation were given is spiritual Israel, not ethnic (fleshly) Israel (the nation). God is more concerned with the faith line than the bloodline. What Paul is saying here is: ‘Sit down and shut your mouth. You are in God’s presence. You are not questioning me. You are questioning God with arrogant pride and with foolish presumption. This is not acceptable’ vs. 19

6. Paul’s illustration from the Hebrew prophets (Isaiah & Jeremiah) of the Divine Potter. God has the right, just like a potter, to take from the same supply of clay some clay to make a wonderful bowl (honor) and some clay to make a bowl that is a bedpan (dishonor). Does the bedpan have the right to challenge the potter and ask why it was made for an unglamorous purpose? NO. Does the potter have the authority to use the clay and make the vessels he needs just like he desires to do? YES. What if God, the great potter, desires to make what he wants from one handful of clay from the supply and then to leave another handful of it unfinished? Can He not make one son in a family a believer and pass by his brother and allow him to receive his just reward for his sin and rebellion (Jacob, Esau)? All humans are from the same supply of clay. God does not owe any of us anything. No human deserves grace, mercy, and heaven. We deserve hell for our rebellion and sin. Our sinful nature is fallen, and we love the darkness (error, sin) rather than the light (truth, holiness). When sinners are punished, they only get exactly what they deserve (justice alone) vs. 20

7. What if God wants to magnify His justice and wrath in a clay vessel that was prepared (passive voice verb) for perdition, everlasting punishment, and everlasting destruction? What if God also wants to take other vessels and magnify His love and grace by appointing them to salvation? God can do what He wishes when it is according to His holy nature. God is sovereign in all things, yes, including the salvation of sinners from everlasting punishment. God is saving some and God is bypassing others. God, at times, raises up a person to be an example of His wrath (Pharaoh) vs. 21-23

C. Paul’s conclusion: The effectual call of God comes to individual Jews and Gentiles vs. 24-27

1. The Gentiles found transferred righteousness by faith in Jesus vs. 24-26, 30

2. God is calling out a true Israel by election, His choice for Himself vs. 27-29

3. Most of God’s covenant promises were to spiritual Israel, not ethnic Israel. He is fully fulfilling His promises of salvation from sin to His true people, the spiritual people vs. 27-29

4. True Israel has always been those who come to God by faith (including Rahab and Ruth). God is keeping His covenant promises with His elect ones, the true Israel of God. Just being a physical descendant of Abraham, being Jewish, does not automatically make you a called and chosen person of God vs. 30-32

5. Many of the Jews stumbled away from heaven by trying to earn it by works vs. 31-32

6. The Messiah’s transferred righteousness is the only way any person can be justified and allowed to enter heaven vs. 33

7. [Romans 11 will show us there are future promises left for ethnic Israel also, but here Paul is showing the promises are being fulfilled by God electing individual humans out of the mass of humanity. He is not discussing picking one nation to receive more blessings than another. Spiritual Israel comprises elect individuals called by God to salvation.]

The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith: Chapter 3: Of God’s Decree

3. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated, or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise of his glorious grace; others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of his glorious justice. (1 Tim 5:21; Matt 25:34; Eph 1:5-6; Rom 9:22-23; Jude 4)

4. These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished. (2 Tim 2:19; John 13:18)

5. Those of mankind that are predestinated to life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving him thereunto. (Eph 1:4, 9, 11; Rom 8:30; 2 Tim 1:9; 1 Thess 5:9; Rom 9:13, 16; Eph 2:5, 12 )

6. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so he hath, by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto; wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ, by his Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by his power through faith unto salvation; neither are any other redeemed by Christ, or effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only. (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Thess 5:9, 10; Rom 8:30; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Peter 1:5; John 10:26; John 17:9; John 6:64)

Romans 8:31-39: The Everlasting Security of the Believer (part 2)

Part 2

SBC Baptist Faith and Message, 2000: “V. God’s Purpose of Grace”

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Gen 12:1-3; Exod 19:5-8; 1 Sam 8:4-7,19-22; Isa 5:1-7; Jer 31:31ff.; Matt 16:18-19; 21:28-45; 24:22,31; 25:34; Luke 1:68-79; 2:29-32; 19:41-44; 24:44-48; John 1:12-14; 3:16; 5:24; 6:44-45,65; 10:27-29; 15:16; 17:6,12,17-18; Acts 20:32; Rom 5:9-10; 8:28-39; 10:12-15; 11:5-7,26-36; 1 Cor 1:1-2; 15:24-28; Eph 1:4-23; 2:1-10; 3:1-11; Col 1:12-14; 2 Thess 2:13-14; 2 Tim 1:12; 2:10,19; Heb 11:39–12:2; Jam 1:12; 1 Peter 1:2-5,13; 2:4-10; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:19; 3:2.

III.              The believer victoriously awaits the future glory that he/she will receive at the moment of glorification vs. 24-39 (see the two previous outlines)

F.      The believer continuously waits, knowing that God’s promise to maintain our everlasting salvation will be completely successful vs. 31-39

1. Q # 1: How shall we verbally respond to these things (God’s causing ultimate good for us and our steel-chain of salvation)? Answer: we respond by praising God for the answers to the next six questions

2. Q # 2: Since God is for us, who can successfully stand against us? Answer: absolutely no person or thing

3. Q # 3: If God has already given us His best, His Son, and He has, once we have Jesus, will not God also provide the lesser things, including the persevering of our faith? Answer: Yes, He who gave the most will not now withhold the least things we need. Jesus was not spared from suffering and death but was delivered over to sinful men to die in our place. Our salvation is purchased with too great a price for God to let us throw it away or an enemy to snatch it away (John 10:27-29, 6:37-39; Phil 1:6; Heb 5:9; Rev 5:9-14).

4. Q # 4: Who can successfully bring a charge against those people whom God has chosen? Answer: No one. Many believe Satan lost his access to God’s courtroom after the cross (cf. Gen 3:15; Col 2:14-15; Rev 12:7-12). So, not even the accuser of the brethren may lodge a charge against one of God’s elect now as he could during the book of Job (Job 1:11, 2:4-5). Since God is the one who has declared us righteous (justified) based on the work of Jesus the Messiah, who could possibly charge us before Him? No one can, because our judge has already declared us not guilty

(For God’s elect, see Eph 1:4-6, 11; 2 Thess 2:13; John 6:38-45)

5. Q # 5: Who can successfully condemn a genuine Christian? Answer: No one in the universe. Yeshu’a the Messiah was the one who died for us, was raised for us, and now stands at God’s right-hand interceding for us. His redemption was accomplished and applied to every real Christian. His prayer for us cannot fail. No one can undo Jesus’ past or present work. Which time period of our sins did Jesus pay for in full? Our past, present, and future sins---and note all our sins were future for the Messiah at 33 AD. (Our sins before and after our conversion were all future when the price was paid)

6. Q # 6: What will separate us from the love of Christ? Answer: Nothing can. We remain abundantly victorious

7. Q # 7: What things will cause the snatching away of the salvation of a real believer? Answer: Not emotional stress and pain (tribulation, distress, persecution), not physical deprivation of food and clothing (famine, nakedness), or threats of death (danger), or physical attack and physical death (sword). There is nothing new about the mistreatment of the people of God by the world system and leaders

8. The unchangeable love of God for His chosen ones and the covenant relationship we have with God cannot be severed by death or life, elect angels or top ranking evil angels (demons), things around today nor things coming in the future, nothing in the sky (height) nor at the bottom of the sea (depth), nothing supernatural (powers) nor anything created (which is everything but God). The love God has for us as His own children is everlastingly connected with the person and work of Yeshu’a the Messiah, who is our Lord and Master. We are safe and secure in Jesus and God’s everlasting love. “The LORD appeared to them from a distance: I have loved you with a love that lasts forever. And so, with unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself” (Jer 31:3 CEB)

G.     Paul’s evidence to the works-righteous critic, who argued one could lose their salvation based on poor performance, follows

1. No human being can successfully snatch away our salvation; God is stronger than all, including the individual believer themselves

2. God the Father will not change His mind. He is eternally ‘for’ us. He is infinite and not stuck in time

3. The accuser of the brethren cannot snatch away our salvation

4. Jesus’ work was a success (Isa 53:11-12) and He is not willing to undo His work or to cease praying for us (Heb 7:24-27; 1 John 2:1)

5. Emotional pain cannot steal away our salvation, nor can torture, hunger, lack of shelter, danger or physical attacks (Acts 7:54-60; 2 Cor 11:23-33)

6. We cannot snatch ourselves away because we are overwhelming super-victors through God’s electing and saving love and amazing power (John 10:27-29; Rev 20:12-15, 21:27)

7. True believers cannot get un-saved (lost again) while living or while separated from their earthly body in heaven, supernatural beings cannot remove us, nothing in time past, present, or future, nothing supernatural, nothing in the universe created by God is able to break our everlasting covenant relationship with God (Rev 13:8, 17:8). All the examples that people provide of people losing their salvation are actually make-believers like Judas and are not real believers like Peter. One was a weed; the other was wheat

Romans 8:28-30 The Everlasting Security of the Believer (part 1)

Everlasting Security

I was saved (justification); I am being saved (sanctification), I will be saved (glorification). The Word of God promises: I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you [plural] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6 HCSB). Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me . . . This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day (John 6:37, 39 HCSB). My sheep are hearing My voice, I am knowing them, and they are following Me. I give them everlasting life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand (John 10:27-29). For anyone to undo everlasting salvation, they would have to have more power than God the Father, which is impossible. The Bible says: All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does what He wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can hold back His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ (Dan 4:35 HCSB) Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You, for You gave Him authority over all flesh; so, He may give everlasting life to all You have given Him (John 17:1-2). [Eternal = something or someone that has no beginning and no end. Everlasting = something or someone that had a beginning but does not have an ending—forever and ever.] Once you receive everlasting life, it lasts forever, by definition of the very words that are used.

I.                  The believer victoriously awaits the future glory that he/she will receive at the moment of glorification vs. 24-39

D.     He/she continuously awaits glorification with a certain assurance concerning his/her past, present, and future salvation vs. 28

1. God is working behind the scenes to complete His will in the lives of His children (the selected or called ones = those who love God)

2. God is using the diverse circumstances to bring about something good in the future for His people. Unbelievers are not addressed here

3. God has the power and ability to direct His world for His people, who are described as those who love God, which are those who were called by God to salvation as part of His worldwide plan of redemption. If He calls you, you will come

E.     He/she waits continuously, knowing that God is working out His purposes in this world, especially His purpose and will for their salvation vs. 28-30

1. God is the subject of vs. 28-30, and all believers are the objects of the 5 verbs. Thus, we can have complete confidence in God that He will complete in us what He started and not change His mind (Mal 3:6)

2. God is infinite and eternal and outside of time. He exists in the past, present, and future all at once, and His omniscience makes it impossible for Him to save someone in humanity’s past and then un-save them in the future because of human weakness

3. Both the views of Pelagius and Arminius require God to be stuck in time rather than the creator of and outside of time. Their views denying eternal security or the perseverance of the saint, also denies God’s infinity, omniscience, and power 

4. This is God’s gold-plated steel chain of salvation with five links

a)     ‘Foreknew’ proginosko to love beforehand, to select beforehand, to foreordain (in other contexts it can be to know a thing in advance)

b)     ‘Predestined’ prooridzo decide upon beforehand, predetermine destiny, a predetermined plan that each believer would be like Jesus in character, displaying God’s glory as children of God and the preeminence of Jesus

c)      ‘Called’ kaleo God’s invitation to salvation or summons to discipleship

d)     ‘Justified’ dikaioo to be acquitted before God, declared righteous in God’s courtroom in heaven

e)     ‘glorified’ doxadzo to receive a glorified body and cleansed soul that are rejoined at the resurrection of the righteousness at the return of Jesus Christ

5. These are past tense events in the plan of God and in the believer’s life except the last one (glorified). Paul uses five past tense verbs to describe all five events. Why would Paul speak of a future event as if it had already occurred (glorification)? Because it is so certain to happen, once the process of salvation starts for a person, it is guaranteed to be completed by the God who cannot lie (Titus 1:2) [doxadzo is a gnomic aorist active third person singular verb].

 

See David Steele and Curtis Thomas, 1963, Romans: An Interpretive Outline, Phillipsburg, NJ: p. 70.