Sovereign Grace of God - Eternal Salvation

SOVEREIGN GRACE OF GOD Concerning 'The Gospel' LORD JESUS CHRIST Grounded In Biblical Truth
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"And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."

Today, men talk about salvation only as something done in the experience of time with eternal consequences. But in the Bible salvation is described as something done by God in eternity past, revealed and experienced in time, and enjoyed in eternity future. Read the Word of God, marking the verb tenses used, and you will see that salvation was accomplished for God's elect in the covenant of grace before the world began (Rom. 8:28-31; 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:3-6).

Since it was done in eternity, it must have been done by God alone. Without our aid, cooperation, assistance, work, or even our will, God saved us. Salvation is the work of God alone. That salvation which God gives is the salvation God performs. And it is an “eternal salvation.”

Before the world began, we were accepted in Christ, “accepted in the Beloved,” according to the will of God. We were accepted in Christ as our covenant Head and Surety, accepted in union with him by electing love, accepted in his heart as the objects of his mercy, from eternity. But why is this eternal aspect of salvation so important?

The nature of God's everlasting covenant demands it. In the infinite mind of God all things are eternally present. What he purposed is accomplished. God has always looked upon his elect in Christ. Before the world was, he blessed us with every spiritual blessing of grace in Christ.

God's holy character tells us that he must have looked upon his ople as being justified and accepted in Christ from eternity. Had it not been for the chosen seed in Adam's loins, whom God had eternally justified in Christ, at the moment Adam sinned, the holy Lord God would have wiped our race off the earth. The only thing that keeps God from destroying the world in his wrath right now is the fact that he has an elect remnant in it, whom he has accepted in Christ and is determined to save (2 Pet. 3:9).

And the immutability of God demands that our salvation by him be eternal. God never changes. Neither does his attitude and relation to men change (Mal. 3:6). God's will to elect is election. God's will to adopt is adoption. God's will to justify is justification. And God's will to save is salvation. I do not suggest that this is the whole of salvation. Redemption, regeneration, repentance, faith, and perseverance are necessary. But in the mind and purpose of God, his people were as truly saved before the world began as they shall be when all are gathered around his throne in heaven.

Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road - Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net