Eternal Security God is faithful

விடுவிக்க தேவன் உண்மையுள்ளவர்

Abraham David John • 14 February 2022

Romans 5:1-11

Evidence of Eternal Security- Part 05

Joy in God

Romans 5:1-8, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were

reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

The message of chapter 5 is Justification.
The message of Chapter 6 and 7 is Justification embraces sanctification.
The message of chapter 8 is Justification embraces glorification.

Paul presents six great links in the chain that ties the Christian eternally to the Saviour. Six great truths inherent in salvation, which constitute its eternal character, its eternal nature and therefore, the divine guarantee.

They are six components that define salvation. 1. Peace with God, 2. Standing in grace, 3. Hope of glory, 4. Assurance of love,

5. Certainty of deliverance, and

6. Joy in God. These are the six articles in the guarantee of your eternal salvation, so we need to learn them well.

1. Peace with God

V1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith,”

God is the enemy of the sinner, and
The sinner is the enemy of God.  God is at war with the sinner, and  The sinner is at war with God.

The unregenerate hate the Bible.

Psalm 7:11, “God is angry with the wicked every day.” Every day. Since we have been justified by faith, the first one, we have peace with God. Justification, reconciliation, they are indistinguishable.

They are distinguishable as terms, but they are indistinguishable in terms of reality. 2. Standing in grace,

V 2, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. This is one of the great statements in all the Bible. We have access by faith into this Grace. You have access into a sphere of grace.

It's in this grace in which we stand. Histmi in the Greek meaning Abide. We live in this Spirit. When you became a Christian, wonderful reality is that you entered into intimate access to God. Histmi means to stand firm, to abide. We are firmly fixed in a state of grace.

This is the comforting reality.

What is grace? God's unmerited favour and forgiveness to sinners.

Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Your peace is established with God, purely on the merits of Christ's work.

Your grace, your access into this sphere of grace is purely on the merit of Christ's work on the cross.
You stand before God in a relationship of peace.
You stand before God in an environment of grace. 3. Hope of glory,

All because of what Christ has done. V 2, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Glory of God. We have taken this as our focus for this year and beyond for our lives.

That was the most life-changing discovery I ever made in all my Christian life when I discovered the reality of the meaning of the glory of God. The Greatest theme is the Glory of God. Tribulation is not a problem for Christians.

For one thing it's an honour to suffer for Christ. For another thing it is a joy to learn to experience His sustaining power in the middle of suffering. We are not moaning and groaning here with all the struggle and hoping for that heaven.

No matter also what those trials bring, and do, one thing they will never do is take away your future hope because that is secure. The greater my spiritual character the greater my hope, and the greater my rejoicing for what God has for me in the future.

4. Assurance of God’s love

V 5, Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. God has begun a love relationship that stretches through all eternity. We have become the possessors of love.

Romans 8:14-15, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of

bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” Have you ever been led by the Spirit of God? Paul says, I am praying for you that you would know the full strength of the Spirit, that you would know the full power of the operation of the Holy Spirit, that you would really know the Spirit moving in your life.

Why? If you are going to really see the Spirit operating in full power in your life then you must get rid of the sin, the disobedience, the flesh, the selfishness, and all of that. When that is gone, and the Spirit of God is operating in full strength and Christ is to settle down and be at home. When you are controlled by the Spirit then Christ is at home in your heart.

You will be rooted and grounded in love.

Whose love? Not your love for God. You will be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, length, depth, and heigh, and to know the love of Christ.

5. Certainty of Deliverance

We are anchored eternally within the veil to God by an eternal peace, a permanent standing in grace and the promise of the hope of glory.

The issue of peace was settled in the past.
The issue of grace continues to cover all the issues in the present.
The issue of hope anchors the future.

This is so marvellous and so secure that Paul comes to what is really the culmination of his whole point. V-9-10, Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

“Much more.” This is arguing from the lesser to the greater. This was a very Pauline way to argue. If we have already been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

If God already justified us in the past, we don't have to fear wrath in the future. You are going to immune from the wrath of God. If you are God's child, you are immune from the wrath of God. Peace has been made. You stand in grace with a pledge of the hope of eternal glory. You are immune from God's wrath.

Having now been justified by His blood, we shall be delivered from the wrath of God through Him. The wrath, specific wrath here is speaking about the Lake of Fire.

Revelation 20:11-15, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

God admittedly is a God of wrath.

The Bible clearly assigns sinners to the wrath of God.

Romans 1:18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

Romans 2:3-6, And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who “will render

to each one according to his deeds”

God's wrath is not some sort of automated system that works apart from Him. It's not some anonymous cosmic force. God's wrath is an active, intense, personal reaction to sin by a holy God on the basis of which He punishes sinners eternally.

Unconverted people are called “children of wrath,” because it is their nature to experience God's wrath.

Ephesians 2:1-3, And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of

disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. One of the most formidable warnings about this when it talks about the Lord Jesus being revealed from heaven with His mighty angels and flaming fire dealing out retribution to those who do not God and do not obey the gospel. They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.

God is a God of wrath. Men without Christ are children of wrath. It is their nature to experience judgment.

Jesus talked about this repeatedly through His ministry. Scripture talks about it. V 9, Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Blood of Christ referring to the totality of His sacrificial death.

We have been justified by His sacrificial death. Christ bore our sins and God committed to us His righteousness. Jesus Christ became sin for us. God treated Him as if he had lived our lives so that God could treat us as if we lived His. We were declared righteous when we put our faith in Christ.

Consequently, we shall be delivered from the wrath of God through Him. You are immune from eternal wrath because you have been justified. That is the basis of everything. Because justification is not something that comes to you if you can cooperate with some kind of infused grace and achieve a certain personal righteousness and then God justifies you. You want to be very careful about that.

God justified you and declared you righteous when you were His enemy and when you were ungodly.

Godliness is not the path to justification. It's the result. You were justified by trusting in the Christ who suffered as your substitute, and God declared you righteous. Not because you were. You weren't and aren't but because he treated Christ as if He committed your sins and treats you as if you lived His perfect life.

You were made right with God by the death of Jesus Christ. That is the ground of your acceptance with God. That is the reason you have a permanent peace, permanent grace, and an eternal hope. Your salvation wasn't based on your works, and neither is your perseverance.

Your salvation in the beginning, middle, and end is based upon the work of Jesus Christ. V 1, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. V 2, through our Lord Jesus Christ by faith into this grace. It all comes through Christ, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Everything comes through Christ.

While our salvation waits its final and full consummation in the future, the security of it is based upon a work in the past on the cross and our faith in the present in Christ. We have been justified. If God did the greater, which was to save us and declare us righteous when we were enemies, will He not more readily do the lesser, which is to keep us now that we are His children?

God doesn't have any basis to condemn us. One, our sins are paid for in full. Therefore, there is therefore now no condemnation. God doesn't have any basis to condemn us because our sins are paid for. Secondly, He doesn't have any basis to condemn us because we are covered by the righteousness of Christ. To condemn us would be to condemn Christ, who is beyond condemnation because He's holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. There is no basis to condemn us.

You were made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ. You were declared righteous and just when you were a sinner, when you were an enemy, when you were ungodly.

How much more then since we have already been justified by His blood, shall we be delivered from the wrath of God through Him? A greater work needed by God to bring men to grace than being in a state of grace, and to bring them to glory.

The greatest work was the work of God that brought sinners to grace because grace is so far from sin. It's a lesser work from grace to glory, sin having been dealt with. We come back to the fact that it's through Christ substitutionary death.

V 10, For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

God never found anything in us that was good.
Never found anything in us that was worthy.
Never found anything in us that was deserving of salvation.
Never loved us because of anything in us.
Never loved us because we were lovable.
Never loved us because we were valuable.

You hear people talk about that all the time. You are so valuable. God loves you. No, that's not true. You are not so valuable. Neither am I. Neither are any of us. The only value we have is to put God's grace on display.

We have no intrinsic value. Sin has totally corrupted us. He didn't save us for our value. He saved us for His glory that would come to Him because of the kind of mercy and grace that would save valueless men. Paul says that if He saved us when we were enemies.

He reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son. He brought us into His family and made us His children. He poured out His love in giving us the Holy Spirit to take up residence in us. It is just one thing to save us and let us into the kingdom.

It's another to take up residence in us, isn't it?

1 Corinthians 3:16, Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Thereby has God shed His love abroad in your heart. If He would do all that when we were enemies, and He did it all

through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled already. If Christ dying could save you when you were an enemy, can Christ living keep you while you are a son? Profound. If when God was hostile to us as holiness is hostile to sin, He would reconcile us to Himself and if it could be done through the death of the Saviour, can't we be kept through the life of the Saviour?

If Christ dying could reconcile us to God, can Christ living keep us? We shall be being saved. Be being continually delivered by His life. That's another way of saying He is our living high priest who lives to make intercession for us, to keep us.

Hebrews 7:25, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 2:17, Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

We were reconciled to God because Christ was made sin for us who knew no sin and we were made the righteousness of God in Him. Now that we have been reconciled and that through His death, will He not save us through His ever-living intercession?

We are delivered from the wrath because there is no basis to condemn us since all our sin was paid for. We are delivered from the wrath since when God looks at us, He sees only the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are delivered from the wrath because we have an ongoing intercessor who continues to plead our case against all the accusations of the accuser of the brethren, who certainly along with his henchman, keeps the record of our iniquities to bring before God.

6. Joy in God

This is the culmination of everything!

V 11, And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. We have now reached the pinnacle. We have gone from peace to grace, to hope, to love, to deliverance, and now to joy.

Not only all these five, but we also rejoice. If there is one thing, one emotion, one attitude, one disposition that should dominate the life of a Christian, it is joy! What else do you want if this doesn’t bring you joy?

What are you holding out for? Salvation is not merely a future. It is a present joy in anticipation of that future.

Philippians 4:4, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! That is why it’s a sin not to have joy.

What do you want out of life?

Conclusion

We live in a day of unfaithfulness. Men cannot be trusted. They don't keep their promises. Whether we are talking about individuals or about nations, it's the same thing. Christians are frequently unfaithful to God, though God is never unfaithful to them.

No one of us can claim immunity from this terrible sin of being unfaithful, the sin of being untrustworthy, of not living up to your promise, not keeping your word. The only one in all the universe who is always faithful and always keeps every promise in full is God.

This is a very important truth because it is upon the faithfulness of God that everything we believe in stands. God must be able to be trusted. Our eternal destiny is at stake.

It is indeed blessed to be able to lift our eyes above the scene of unfaithfulness to the beloved God who is always faithful.

Deuteronomy 7:9, “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

2 Timothy 2:13, If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

It is God’s nature to be true to His word and so He will be.

Isaiah 11:5, Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

It is God’s faithfulness which encompasses Him and hold's everything else together. His belt, faithfulness, that holds all His other attributes in place.

Psalm 36:5, Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Lamentations 3:23, They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Great is Thy faithfulness, or Thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds because we really have no way in human language to describe the infinite faithfulness of God.

Hebrews 10:23, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Those are samples of Scripture filled with comments about the faithfulness of God. One area where His faithfulness stands out is in the area of preserving His people unto glory, preserving His people unto glory. He stands out in keeping us, of securing us in our salvation. He is faithful to do that.

1 Corinthians 1:9, God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:8, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is saying that if you are saved, God's going to confirm you to the end and the basis on which you can know that is that

God is faithful by whom you are called. If God promises you eternal life, what will He give you? Eternal life.

God is not like men, God is faithful.

1 Peter 4:19, Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.

When we give our soul to God by faith in Jesus Christ, we can know that God will be faithful to keep it to the end and bring His children to glory. That is His promise. God is faithful, then, to preserve His people to glory.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.

This is what I hope for you, that God will preserve you and He will preserve you. Faithful is He that called you, who also will do it. Great statement of confidence.

2 Thessalonians 3:3-5, But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. 4 And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and

will do the things we command you. 5 Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. He says we have this confidence about you that you are going to walk in obedience. You are going to live the way you ought to live because God is faithful, and He will keep you.

God keeps you from His side and from our side He energizes us to walk in obedience. So, we persevere. From the divine side God keeps us. From the human side we remain faithful. But it is only possible to remain faithful because God who keeps us infuses us with His power.

Philippians 1:6, "Being confident of this very thing that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ."