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Chapter 57
THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER
I. DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS
The title of this chapter was not chosen indiscriminately.
In some theologies or dictionaries it would have been entitled Assurance; in others, Perseverance; in a few, Preservation.
What are the differences, and why choose Security?
Eternal security is the work of God that guarantees that the gift of salvation, once received, is forever and cannot be lost.
The concept of eternal security emphasizes God’s activity in guaranteeing the eternal possession of the gift of eternal life.
It relates to those the Holy Spirit regenerates, and its veracity does not rest on feelings or experiences.
Preservation is quite similar to eternal security in emphasizing the work of God in preserving the believer in his salvation.
Perseverance, the term generally used in Calvinism, labels the fifth point in Calvin’s theology, the “final perseverance” of the saints.
It means that believers “can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved” (Westminster Confession, XVII, I).
It seems to focus on the believer—it is the believer who perseveres (albeit through the decree and power of God).
Security focuses on God—it is God who secures our salvation.
It does not deny that there may be times of backsliding, but it stresses the need for demonstrable fruit throughout the Christian life.
Sometimes those who approach this doctrine from the viewpoint of perseverance deny the possibility of a Christian’s being carnal.
Though eternal security, preservation, and perseverance in reality all teach the same bottom-line conclusion (namely, that the true believer will not lose his salvation), assurance is a different doctrine.
It is the realization of the truth of eternal security or perseverance.
A secure salvation is a true fact whether one realizes it or not.
Thus a believer has security whether or not he has assurance.
II.
THE DOCTRINE OF ASSURANCE
Assurance is the realization that one possesses eternal life.
Lack of assurance often brings unnecessary but terrible trauma to a person’s life.
Why do people lack assurance?
Four reasons may be suggested.
(1) Some doubt the reality of their committal to Christ.
Sometimes this may be connected with the inability to pinpoint a time when one received Christ.
Regeneration occurs at a specific point in time.
People are either saved or lost at any given moment.
No one grows into conversion.
But we all do grow in our comprehension of conversion.
So, although in God’s sight and in our experience there was a point in time when we were saved, in our recollection or understanding we may not be able to specify it.
Sometimes this doubt is more basic than just the matter of time.
Did I really trust Christ?
Such doubt may be dispelled by calling on the name of the Lord again (and again and again, if necessary).
No one can be born again more than one time, but one may honestly tell the Lord his doubt and call on Him for salvation again.
(2) Some lack assurance because they question the correctness of the procedure they went through when they expressed faith in Christ.
I did not go forward.
Am I really saved?
Did I pray the proper prayer?
I received Christ privately.
Is this sufficient, or do I need to make some kind of public demonstration?
This problem, which is very real to more people than it should be, has been aggravated by elevating some method of invitation to the place where it almost becomes the means of salvation.
(3) If one does not believe in the security of the believer, then he will undoubtedly lack assurance more than once in his lifetime.
(4) When sin, especially a serious sin, enters the believer’s life, then doubt sometimes accompanies such an experience.
Security does not grant a license to sin, but to have assurance we need to realize that Christians will sin, and that sin does not cause us to lose our salvation.
The normal Christian experience never includes sinlessness, for “we all stumble in many ways” ().
This never excuses sin, for the Christian will also grow in holiness.
But the experience of sin does not forfeit salvation.
III.
THE ARMINIAN VIEW OF SECURITY
James Arminius (1560–1609) received his training in strict Reformed theology.
When asked to defend supralapsarianism against sublapsarianism, he found himself guardedly defending the sublapsarian position.
His writings, collected in three volumes, consist mostly of occasional treatises that grew out of the controversies he found himself in.
The system known as Arminianism took his views much further and was forged by Simon Episcopius (1583–1643).
Among the principal teachings of Arminianism are the following.
1. Foreknowledge.
God’s decrees are based on His foreknowledge (meaning foresight).
Election was due to foreseen faith and reprobation to foreseen resistance to grace.
Though Arminius also viewed foreknowledge as foresight, he did say that “God decreed to save some and damn certain particular persons.”1
2. Pollution, not guilt.
Man inherited pollution from Adam but not imputed guilt.
Depravity is not total, for man can incline his will toward good deeds.
3. Perfection.
It is possible for a believer to live in such conformity to God’s will so as to be called perfect.
4. Loss of salvation.
Arminianism clearly teaches that a believer may lose his salvation.
Arminius said: “I never taught that a true believer can either totally or finally fall away from the faith and perish; yet I will not conceal that there are passages of Scripture which seem to me to wear this aspect.”2
On a more popular level, Arminians sometimes equate the position of eternal security with a license to sin.
Of course, Calvinists do sin and excuse it, but so do Arminians.
Our life should adorn our doctrine, but our life, good or bad, neither makes doctrine true or untrue.
As a practical matter, the Arminian view of the possibility and reality of losing one’s salvation sometimes leads to a cataloging of sins.
In one category are sins that will cause you to lose your salvation; in another, those that do not.
Of course, some sins are worse than others (; ), but if one sin can cause the loss of salvation, then any sin can.
Resistance to this conclusion may account for the perfectionism teaching in Arminianism.
IV.
THE REASONS FOR ETERNAL SECURITY
Basically security is based on the grace of God and the fact that eternal life is a gift and it is eternal.
When a person believes in Christ, he is brought into a relationship with the Godhead that assures his salvation is secure.
Of course, this is true only of born again people.
There are those who profess but do not possess life.
Sometimes we can make a reasonably sure judgment as to whether an individual only professes or actually possesses eternal life.
Sometimes we cannot.
But the regenerated person’s salvation is secure because of that relationship to God that he has through faith.
A. Reasons Related to the Father
1.
His purpose.
God purposed to glorify the same group He predestined, called, and justified ().
This daring statement could not be made if any one of that group could lose his salvation.
If so, then the ones whom He justified would not be the same number as the ones He glorified.
But the text says they will be the same.
2. His power.
Most would agree that God’s power is able to keep the believer (and it is, ), but some would argue that it can be thwarted by a person renouncing his faith.
But the Lord said that we are secure in His hand and the Father’s hand and that no one can seize the believer from the safe position ().
“No one” means no one, including the individual himself.
The promise does not say that no one, except yourself, can seize the believer out of God’s hand.
It says no one.
B. Reasons Related to the Son
1.
His death.
Paul asks two questions in : Who will bring a charge against God’s elect, and who condemns them?
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