Eternally Secure

by Bruce Mills

I had the tremendous privilege of preaching this morning on the eternal security of the believer. My text was Romans 8:29-30. It is a passage filled with deep, rich truths regarding the doctrine of predestination and election. The debate over the security of the believer’s salvation has been debated throughout the history of the church. It is an issue which has split the whole of Christendom into two camps. One group believes that salvation is eternal and no true believer can lose his salvation, but the other side believes that salvation is not necessarily eternal, but can be forfeited by sin.

The truth is that this is an unnecessary debate because the Word of God is so abundantly clear on the matter of the believer’s security.  In fact, Romans 8:28-30 presents the clearest and most powerful statement of security in all of Scripture. These verses guarantee without deviation, variation, or exception that all those who are genuinely saved will enter into final glory.

The purpose of God in our salvation, according to Romans 8:29-30 is to conform us to the image of His Son. God didn’t predestine His elect only to the beginning of our salvation but also to the end of it which is to be conformed to the image of His Son.  When we’re finally in glory, we’ll be like Jesus Christ and so our predestination is to our eternal glory when we are completely conformed to His image.  So God’s intent is to bring us all the way to glory.  Believers aren’t saved just to help us temporarily in this life if we can hang on to it by our own power.  We were saved in order that we might be finally brought into the surpassing riches and glory of His grace in the ages to come.  And since it isn’t a matter of works to get saved, it’s not a matter of works to stay saved.  It was grace that saved us, it is grace that keeps us, and it will be grace that brings us to glory.

I don’t mean to shock you too badly, but contrary to what most modern evangelism methods seem to teach, the purpose of salvation is not primarily for you.  The purpose of salvation was not primarily to deliver you from hell and take you to heaven.  That’s a wonderful benefit, but it is a secondary benefit.  No, the purpose of your salvation was so that you could be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

What does that mean?  It means that God’s plan in salvation was to make those He saved like His Son.  Forgiveness of sin…that’s a wonderful benefit.  Removal of guilt, the granting of peace and joy and love…all of those are a part of salvation, but the primary goal is to make you like Jesus Christ.  Salvation cannot stop short of that, or it’s not the salvation God planned.  It cannot just stop with calling; that is, that God just calls and then hopes.  It cannot end with justification; that is, He justifies but then He just kind of hopes that those individuals get to glory. 

No, the plan and purpose of God, the kind intention of His will, is that we will be “conformed to the image of His Son,” and that includes the glory that His Son now has. We have been saved in hope, and the hope in which we’ve been saved is that someday we’ll be like Christ.

And the passage in Romans 8:29-30 tells us that those whom God predetermined and foreordained to love eternally, He marked out (that is, predestined) to go all the way to glory and be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  And in time, He has been effectually calling those who God has predestined to salvation.  And all those whom He has ordained, hear that call and believe.

And none of them are going to fall through the cracks between their calling and their eternal glory.  The doctrine that you can lose your salvation is a frightening aberration of Scripture.  God came, and He awakened those He has chosen from the dead, shone light into their darkness, and convicted them of sin and righteousness and judgment. They felt the weight of their sin and the pain of isolation and alienation from God.  And that awakening came upon hearing and understanding the gospel. 

They might hear it from a pastor, a teacher, a book, from the pages of Scripture, from the witness of a friend or family member, but the response of the heart with a conviction of sin, the desire for righteousness, a comprehension of the need for forgiveness, and an understanding of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, only comes about by the call of God. 

As I studied these things in preparation for teaching, I thought about those who believe they can lose their salvation because of some sin in their life.  My own grandmother went to her grave believing that all it took was to die with some unforgiven sin on her account and she would be condemned to an eternity in hell.  As I thought about such people, I was struck by how paralyzing and frightening it must be to live with such a belief.  To think that all it takes is one sin committed just prior to a fatal accident or heart attack and one would lose their salvation and be condemned to hell—how incredibly frightening that must be! How can one ever experience the joy of their salvation when they truly believe they can lose their salvation at any moment?

But I also realized that there is another consequence of believing that one can lose his or her salvation because of sin, and that is that in order to maintain any kind of sense of sanity and normalcy in one's life, he must reduce sin to a level in which it is far less of an offense against God than it actually is. After all, if those who believe that sin will cause them to lose their salvation truly understood the seriousness of sin as God portrays it in Scripture, they would know that it includes not only outward actions, but also inward motivations and attitudes. That was Jesus’ whole point throughout the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). He repeatedly stated that it wasn’t just an outward, external sin that offends God, but it was the internal attitude of the heart.  But those who think sin can cause them to lose their salvation don't usually think so-called "minor" sins such as attitudes and motives can cause them to lose their salvation. They think only so-called "big" sins result in such a loss. Their view is strikingly similar to that of the Pharisees whom Jesus was confronting. But that was not our Lord's viewpoint on sin. He saw all sin, including internal attitudes and motives, as offending a holy God, thus requiring His grace in order to be forgiven. Because all of us are continuously battling against sin in our hearts and minds, we can only be assured of going to heaven when we die because God’s grace is being continuously poured out, guaranteeing the security of our salvation.

Another issue with believing that one can lose his or her salvation is that it leaves man in charge of his eternal salvation and makes God a lesser god; a diminished deity who sits in heaven wringing his hands, hoping that the people He created will exercise their will to choose Christ, incapable of guaranteeing their salvation apart from their own sovereign choice over the matter. My friends, that is not the God of the Bible!

So, God determined in eternity past to bring us to glory.  And in that process, no one gets lost. It’s not our choice of God that matters, but rather God’s choice of us. It’s not our effectual faith, but His effectual call. It’s not our ability to persevere, but the fact that He has determined beforehand to persevere with us to the very end. And the only response we should have is continual praise to our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, because of His glorious grace.

God's Sovereign Choice (Part 2)

by Bruce Mills

In my last post, we were examining Romans 8:29 and saw that God's foreknowledge refers to His predetermined plan regarding certain individuals. But what did He plan to do in regard to them? If we don't understand that, it is easy to define foreknowledge improperly. So exactly what did God plan to do with those people whom He foreknew? This is a very important aspect, and here it is: The concept of foreknowledge embraces the idea of a predetermination, not just to take a course of action, but to take a course of action which is motivated by love.

You see, to foreknow, in its biblical sense, is to predetermine an expression of love. In foreknowing Christ, God was predetermining an expression of love toward Christ which would bring His Son great glory forever through redemption. It is a predetermined, foreordained, foreseen love relationship borne in the eternal purpose of God.

Please understand that throughout Scripture, the concept of knowing refers to much more than simply grasping information. In Amos 3:2, speaking to Israel, God says, “You only have I known among all the families of the earth.” Now does that mean that of all the families, all the tribes, all the peoples, all the nations of the earth, Israel is the only one He knows about? No, it’s not information, it’s predetermination. In fact, the New American Standard Bible translates the word “known” here as “chosen.” So there is that foreordaining aspect. But behind that idea of knowing, there is also a very intimate truth.

If you go back in the book of Genesis, you find in 4:1 that Adam “knew his wife Eve.” That means more than simply that he knew who she was, or where she was, or what she was like because it follows it by saying “and she conceived and gave birth to Cain.” The verb “to know” is often used in Scripture as a euphemism for sexual intercourse, so that means it is used to express the most intimate expression of love. And in the New Testament, Joseph was shocked when he learned Mary was pregnant, and then the angel revealed to him in a dream that she was to give birth to the Messiah. Matt. 1:24-25 tells us that he “took Mary as his wife, but [lit., was not knowing her] until she gave birth to a Son, and he called His name Jesus.” The concept of “knowing,” then, embodies the idea of beautiful, intimate love that brings two together. It has the idea of caring for someone.

1 Cor. 8:3 tells us, “but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” From the standpoint of cognition and awareness, people don’t have to love God for Him to know about them in His infinite mind, because He knows everyone on the face of the earth. But this is talking about knowing in an intimate sense; that is, “if anyone loves God, he is known by Him” in the sense of an intimate love relationship.

In Matt. 7:22-23, Jesus was explaining what will happen on the Day of Judgment, and He said, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” Did He mean, "I don’t know who you are," or "I never heard of you"? No, He meant “I don’t have an intimate relationship with you; I don’t have a love relationship with you; I don’t belong to you and you don’t belong to Me.”

In John 10:14, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me.” And a few verses later in verse 27, He says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them.” 2 Tim. 2:19 says, “The Lord knows those who are His.”

So, when you come to Romans 8:29 and see the word “foreknew,” there is a predetermined love included in it. When God foreordains, He predetermines to love a certain person. It is a predetermined, foreordained, foreseen love relationship born in the eternal purpose of God.

So what you have is this: God has a purpose and that purpose is to express His love to sinners. He predetermines, on the basis of His desire to express His love to sinners, exactly which sinners He foreordained unto salvation, and they are the people who will be the recipients of His eternal intimacy and love.

When He foreknew them, they did not yet exist; in fact, nothing existed, because according to Scripture, it occurred before creation (cf. Eph. 1:4). None of those whom He foreknew were worthy of His love and grace; in fact, they would all be born as His sworn enemies (cf. Rom. 3:10-18, 5:10, 8:7). So His foreknowledge of them was solely and only an act of His sovereign, infinite love and grace. There is no other reason than that.

In our next post, we will deal with the next word in Romans 8:29 which has also caused great consternation throughout church history, and that is the word "predestined."

God's Sovereign Choice (Part 1)

by Bruce Mills

For the past 16 months, I have been teaching through Romans in my Sunday School class. I recently taught through Romans 8:29-30, which reads, "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."

Those verses obviously contain some of the most complex truths in all of theology. There is, perhaps, none so controversial as the matter of God's foreknowledge and predestination of certain people to salvation. In reality, once the two terms are explained, most people's problem isn't with predestination, but rather with foreknowledge, because once the brick of God's foreknowledge is laid, the brick of predestination follows naturally. However, through the years, those two terms have come to be used almost interchangeably, even though they are not synonymous.

After finishing teaching on God's foreknowledge, one man approached me and asked me to summarize my teaching and put it on the blog. My response was that it would be entirely too long to be a blog post. I later discussed this request with another of the elders at the church and he suggested breaking it down into a series of posts so that each could be more "bite-sized." So that is what I intend to do; to write a series on the subject of God's foreknowledge and predestination. I'm not quite sure how many posts it will take, but eventually, I will finish. I'll do my best to summarize what I taught in class and not throw the entire truckload at you. So let's get started.

The first phrase of verse 29 says, "For those whom He foreknew..." Salvation begins with God’s foreknowledge. A Christian is, first of all, someone whom God foreknew. Salvation is not initiated by a person’s decision to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Scripture is clear that repentant faith is essential to salvation and is the first step that we take in response to God, but repentant faith does not initiate salvation. God's foreknowledge is the first step in initiating an individual's salvation.

So let’s examine what this word means. Some people think it means that God looked down through the corridors of time into the future and saw who was going to make the decision to follow Christ and who was not. And once He looked down through history and saw how each of us was going to choose, He then predestined those whom He saw were going to choose to believe in Christ.

However, that viewpoint contains a very serious flaw. Man—who, according to Rom. 3:10-23, 8:7, is wicked, spiritually ignorant, spiritually blind, incapable of understanding the truth, incapable of stopping his iniquity, hates God, and is God's enemy—is dead in trespasses and sins and, on his own, will not make a decision to follow Christ. That’s the first thing we have to recognize.

Secondly, we have to ask the question, “If God just looks into the future and sees some people who believe and some people who do not believe, then where did the faith of those who chose to believe come from?” Is it natural for an unregenerate, wicked, blind, hopeless, helpless sinner to suddenly exercise saving faith in Jesus Christ? No, it’s not natural; in fact, it’s impossible. It can’t happen. The terminology used in Scripture to describe fallen man is that he is “dead in…trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) and his mind is spiritually blind (2 Cor. 4:4). A dead man is incapable of doing anything, and a blind man cannot will himself to see light.

Think of it this way: If “foreknowledge” means that God knows beforehand what people will do in response to Him or to the preaching of the gospel, and then determines their destiny on that basis, what would God possibly see or foreknow except for a fixed rebellion against Him in every person’s heart? Paul has gone to great lengths in Romans 1-3 to explain that man is completely and totally opposed to God. So if foreknowledge was defined in the way some would like to define it, then the only thing God would see would be opposition to Him; not a decision for Him.

So, if the "God-looks-down-through-the-hallway-of-time" approach is incorrect, what does the word "foreknowledge" mean? I believe Acts 2:23 provides some wonderful insight as to what it means. Scripture is always the best commentary on Scripture, and in Acts 2:23, Peter, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, defines it for us. He says that Christ went to the cross “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” That’s very important.

The word translated “plan” was used in classical Greek for a council which was convened to make a decision. This was a decision for a pre-decided course of action, so “the predetermined plan” of God means God determined the course of action. “Predetermined” is a perfect participle; that is, it speaks of an action which was completed in the past, but with continuing, on-going results. The word is ὁρίζω, which speaks of marking off boundaries or limits. We get our English word “horizon” from this word. The horizon is the border or boundary between earth and sky. So God pre-decided a course of action and marked off the boundaries of that action. This was His “predetermined plan.”

Now, notice that Peter also says that God’s “foreknowledge” was involved. In fact, I believe that what he is doing here is clarifying what “predetermined plan” means. He is defining “foreknowledge” as meaning a “predetermined plan.” “Foreknowledge” doesn’t just mean that God knows what’s going to happen; it means that He has pre-decided His course of action with the boundaries and limits marked out.

So when we speak of God's foreknowledge, we are saying that He predetermined precisely what He was going to do in regard to certain individuals, and according to Eph. 1:4, He did this before the foundation of the world. So what was it that He pre-decided to do? We'll look at that in our next post.