Posts
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
