A Question of Eternal Security, Part 6

Another objection I have encountered goes like so: God only seals obedient believers with the Holy Spirit. Also, He can be taken from a believer. I believe this teaching has surfaced due to a tragic and tangled misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit’s activity and function in the Old and New Testament. It is clear that the sealing of the Spirit began at Pentecost in Acts 2, and He has sealed the body of Christ since as part of the new covenant in Christ’s blood. The sealing of the Spirit was our guarantee, a promise of God’s fidelity that what He has begun, He will finish. Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us that having believed God (past tense) we were sealed; see also Ephesians 2:22. 2nd Corinthians 1:21-22 says, “He who has established us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” “Now He who prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee,” 2nd Corinthians 5:5.

A Question of Eternal Security, Part 5

Biblical justification (salvation from sin’s penalty) occurs once; having been done it is finished. Sanctification is the ongoing process of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives as He conforms us into the image of God’s Son. Sanctification can be described as salvation from sin’s power in our daily lives, Philippians 2:12. This is not to be confused with salvation from sin’s presence, which no Christian will experience here on earth; that is glorification and will occur the instant we enter Heaven and are perfected by Christ, 1st John 3:2. John further urges believers that everyone who holds this hope would purify themselves (obey God’s command for holiness,) 1st John 3:3.

A Question of Eternal Security, Part 4

This is where conversation generally becomes abrasive: we quote Scripture, but do not reason together whether we have a right understanding of Scripture. I don’t find a single place in the New Testament where Jesus simply quoted Scripture and ceased. He reasoned with His audience. So too did Peter in Acts 2 and 3, as well as Paul in Acts 17. It is a simple matter to step from sound doctrinal teaching to, “desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what [we] say nor the things which [we] affirm,” 1st Timothy 1:7. I am far from immune; if I stray in my doctrinal teaching then I expect (and I pray, welcome) needed correction from mature believers.

A Question of Eternal Security, Part 3

The new covenant has a new Mediator, and was ratified not with animal blood, but with Christ’s blood. “Not with the blood of goats and calfs, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption,” Hebrews 9:12. Again, the past tense in the verse indicates that our positional salvation is secure; it does not hinge on our obedience through the Spirit, but by Christ’s obedience. “By one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous,” Romans 5:19. If all of our sins were not paid for by Christ (as conditional salvation must maintain), then the first time we sin after being born again we forfeit salvation. Why? “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23. “The soul who sins shall die,” Ezekiel 18:20. “You are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all,” James 2:9-10.