I'm not fond of the expression "eternal security" because of the way the doctrine is abused by antinomians and people who think it's possible to own Jesus as Savior without bowing to Him as Lord. I prefer to speak of the perseverance of the saints, because that expression better captures the gist of what the doctrine entails.via Pyromaniacs: The Perseverance of the Saints.
Following up on the last post, I am pleased to include this note from the brother man, the big cheese, the master pyro-techy, Phil. My verbosity in the last post not withstanding, another verbal avalanche, I fear, is in the making as hints of dissent appear to challenge the Faith once and for all delivered to the saints. Perseverance, security, preservation, whatever you want to call it, is another aspect of the Faith that is sometimes captured in that pestilence known as Calvinism by the kudzu known as the TULIP. See, when I wrote about Faith in terms of justification, there is far more to what the definition of Faith is than I could possibly get into such a short note. One of the divergences of the variegated reality of Faith, is its eternal nature. Or, as the kudzu would invade it, the P. This thing, having begun, goes on and on and on, running as it were on an eternal charge supplied by the only Energizer, the Holy Spirit.
We have, or should have, heard the parable of the wheat and tares. There is a reason that the parable was taught, and why we are admonished not to judge by the outward appearance but with righteous judgement.
To be fair, even though it should not be, many judge wrongly and think themselves in the right and able to inspect another's fruit. They believe in judging by the outward, in other words, when God clearly tells that it is the heart and not the appearance that matters. The fact is that the Pharisees, like Paul, were Jews of Jews, of the circumcision (an outward slice of reality), according to righteousness, from what could be seen, blameless. They had all the good outward signs. Paul makes his boast about that fact and then... calls it all dung at the very same time calling for a life of righteousness.
Mysterious, isn't it? Not at all, if we consider that a man is not justified, that is perfected, by the works of the law, at all, but by the perfected work of Christ. Then who are we to judge? We are told not to. We are only to judge ourselves, and not by the outward, but by the Faith. Are you believing in Christ's obediences, active and passive, or do you fall into the category of Hebrews 10, rejecting the final work of Christ as the only good and holy thing, by making his blood as common as your works that must be done over, and over, and over so as to establish themselves but never achieving the end?
Security, perseverance, preservation, they're all good, bibly terms. But like all other Scripture, men will often twist them to their own destruction, and thus arises a need to distinguish meaning... and perhaps avoid one word or the other out of a desire not to confuse issues.
That said, the fact is that security, preservation, perseverance, all share a common word group. They all simply mean saved or some variant of it. As in Titus 3:5 where the aorist indicative of the verb sozo (sode-zo) means having been saved we are being saved and will be saved, or simply, "He is saving" us now. It is obvious from the context, in fact, it is explicit, that not only the initial but the continuance and consummation of salvation rests in Christ. Yet, the apostle doesn't pull punches, filling in the blank "What must we do," with the commandment to live holy and righteous lives commending the Faith before the people and by that glorifying our Father, as the Commandment says.
So it doesn't matter what you use. But it does matter what you mean when you use it. If you are saying that salvation can fail, you have joined the club of Hebrews in the book by that name who reject the perfecter and the means by which he perfects. If you believe you are not bound by the perfecting of holiness in the fear of God, likewise, for Hebrews 12 instructs us about the pathway of sonship and the requirements of good works. In either case there is only the fearful expectation, that of wrath. You may well do well and look good, but unless your salvation rests entirely upon Christ's doing, you're one of those who have gone out from us because you are not really of us. Still, if one is of the Faith, he will show those works which accompany it. Here in is the trick, however. The process and fruit of sanctification, is not one that is seen, really. And being that it's the renewing of the inward man, one man's fruit cannot be judged by another. Yet...
Is it really hard to understand the prescriptive demands of the law of righteousness as binding upon believers? No, that is only natural. One who loves God, John says, following the words of his Sovereign, will keep his commandments. It makes perfect sense when we understand that we are secured by faith, because faith does what it is by nature. It loves, it rests safely protected, in that love, guarded in the strong tower of God's love spread abroad in the heart, seated eternally in the eternal throne of heaven in Christ, now, by those who by good doing demonstrate that they are children of God, joint heirs with Christ, known for good works, as Ephesians defines it.
Preserved, protected, secured, guarded, pick your term. Scripture defines salvation as eternal life, as belonging to the Eternal One, and he gives it to whom he chooses. But since it is his life and not our own, it does what he did, striving always to be pleasing to the Father. Those who make salvation to depend on man's character and not Christ's, his sacrifice and not man's, so that man merits it in any way, in any sense, whether in securing to begin with, or securing it so that it is not lost, are simply denying that Christmas was once and can never be repeated. In short, they cannot stand to be carried home to God by a baby.
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