The Great Necessity Of Recognizing God’s Faithfulness In The Security Of Salvation
2 Corinthians 1:18-24(Children’s Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes for young children to answer are throughout sermon)
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to 2 Corinthians 1:18-24. 2 Corinthians 1:18-24 will be our passage under study this morning. As you are turning there, I want to get us acquainted with the contextual atmosphere surrounding the passage. Paul has expressed to the Corinthians that he can have proud confidence in his actions as an apostle. It is not that Paul is being prideful in a fleshly sense. It is that Paul has a Holy Spirit led need to set the Corinthians straight on some issues. One is concerning his integrity as a trustworthy apostle. So he asserts that he has conducted himself toward the Corinthians in an exemplary manner. He has done so in holiness and godly sincerity in the grace of God, verse 14. Paul is trustworthy. He is faithful. His faithfulness is founded upon the faithful One Who saved Him and appointed Him to be an apostle. This gives us a good working contextual sense as we read the rest of the pertinent passage starting in verse 18. Let’s read it now, Paul says,
“18 But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. 19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us--by me and Silvanus and Timothy--was not yes and no, but is always yes in Him. 20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. 21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge [guarantee]. 23 But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm.”
Please prepare your heart to learn along with me from this edifying sermon,
The Great Necessity Of Recognizing God’s Faithfulness In The Security Of Salvation
[prayer]
/1/
One of the first things I want us to consider in respect to the great necessity of recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of spiritual salvation has to do with the foundation of everything. Essentially, the foundation is God. This would include all the aspects of God’s essential being. More particularly the foundational aspect of our God we should focus upon in this principle, is God’s attribute of His intrinsic trustworthiness--His faithfulness. To extend the principle even further, the foundation is God’s attribute of His intrinsic trustworthy faithfulness as One essential God in three persons.
@1 Recognizing our God’s attribute of His intrinsic trustworthiness and __________________. (faithfulness)
Notice that Paul refers to this as his foundation for his own defense when he says in verse 18,
“18 But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.” 2 Corinthians 2:18
Let me ask you something. Whenever you think about God, you already think about Him as being the Creator of everything, right? Now think about this creativity in respect to a certain sense. Whenever you think about God, you recognize that God is the Creator of spiritual salvation. What this means is that God is the creator of your salvation. Now I want us to consider something else; It takes faith to be saved. I want to bring these things together to magnify upon God’s faithfulness in the security of salvation--We must recognize that God is the creator of salvation, and it takes faith to be saved. At the fundamental level, then, we must trust God in His creativity according to Who and what He is. We must trust Him (faith) to be the God that He is. But think about how a lot of folks believe in so-called gods. I mean they have faith. So those people are trusting something. But there is a problem. It is a huge problem. It is a damning problem. The problem is that they are trusting in something else other than the one true God. Those so-called gods are not faithful. Why? Because they do not exist as the one true God. They are false-gods. So multitudes of people are actually trusting in falsehood when they do not trust in the One true God. But for us to trust God for salvation, we must also trust God for Who He is. For example, we think of the fact that He meets out justice. He meets out wrath and destruction. We must also trust that He is loving, right, truthful, and merciful. We must trust Him as being the perfect one. He is perfectly wise. He is perfectly knowing. He is perfectly loving. In His perfect wisdom, perfect knowledge, and perfect love, we are saved from His wrath by His perfect grace. But we must have faith in Him and His perfect work to be spiritually saved. If we can not trust God, then there is no way to trust Him for salvation, and there is no way to trust in salvation either. This is the sense that Paul explained to these same Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:4 and 6. Paul said,
“4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, ... 6 even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you,” 1 Corinthians 1:4, 6
Paul calls God “my God” in 1 Corinthians 1:4. Of course the only true living God is the only true living God for the Corinthian church that Paul is writing to. But the One True Living God of the universe is not recognized to be the faithful God to everyone. Spiritually lost people may call Him the God of someone else. They may even say that He is faithful to others. But they do not embrace Him as their own God. Even those who claim to be Christians but really are not, are not worshipping, loving, and trusting in the same God that true Christians trust in. But there is a reason why Paul always gives this particular thanks to His God which is why I am having us look at 1 Corinthians 1:8. Paul always thanks His God for the spiritual grace that the Corinthians have in Christ. In other words, Paul always thanks his God because Paul trusts God (Who is the faithful foundation) to have faithfully accomplished His saving work in the Corinthians no matter what anyone else may claim. You see, even though the Corinthians were immature, messed up, low-faithed Christians who were known more for their flesh-like behavior and sins, than for their piety, Paul thanks his faithful God for their everlasting spiritual salvation in the midst of their failures. This leads me to ask you an important question in respect to these same things. Think about yourself as I ask you,
“Are you thanking God always concerning yourself for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus even as the testimony concerning Christ is confirmed in you?”
You may be saying,
“Yes, I do thank God for those things.”
But I want to ask you something else that is just as important. Think about the sincerity of your answer;
“Who are you thanking in the midst of your failures when you do things that do not remotely reflect Christ Jesus?”
What do you do? Think about it;
Are you thanking anyone in the midst of your failures?
Can you thank God for His faithfulness to you in the midst of your failures?
Or is there something there in you which blocks you from trusting in the trustworthy God?
I want all of us to be starkly honest with ourselves on this. There are people out there in our day who interpret certain Bible verses in such a way as to think that they are in danger of losing their spiritual salvation--their everlasting life as if it's not everlasting. But it is more than a personal thing. Those same people, when they teach, will make you think that you are on the verge of losing your salvation. There are many problems with this. One is that such assertions are contemplated and presented in such a way as to hide something that is actually being said. The fact of the matter is that to hold any kind of view which negates true assurance of everlasting life in God’s spiritual salvation that is inherently everlasting, is a human oriented view of salvation which is based upon works. In some manner, and in some sense, the theories (which are wrong interpretations of Scripture) must ultimately be based upon works. The question is,
“The works of who?”
The works of the person that is supposedly in danger of losing some sort of philosophically defined spiritual salvation. Now listen to me carefully on this; What this tendency does is it gets you off of faith in the faithful foundation (God) and onto faith in something else. But sometimes people who believe this way will say,
“Well I would never think this about myself. I know I will never lose my salvation.”
But yet they readily believe it about others who are spiritually saved, and this is part of the problem. Nevertheless, since they believe that this is a true doctrine, and that it can in fact apply to other Christians, then they actually really do believe this about themselves after all. So, no matter what they claim about their own salvation, they do not believe that they are secure in life that is necessarily “everlasting.” And this insecurity is a block to fullness.
What do I mean by this false doctrine of insecurity in Christ blocking the fullness?
I mean that it is the block that keeps you from thoroughly thanking your God who is the faithful One, as being your faithful one to you through His Son Who is the faithful one who lives in you. The block is really faith in yourself and what you can do as a Christian to keep God pleased enough to preserve you in your daily walk; and so in a sense, you really think you are preserving yourself by your efforts. Those people who teach you that your salvation is really not secure, will burden you with fearful warnings concerning sin, and hardening your heart, and falling away from your spiritual regeneration. Their intentions are sincere. But they are going about it the wrong way. They will burden you with fearful warnings concerning sin, in hopes that you will live a holy enough life in the flesh to make yourself stay acceptable to God in the Spirit, and further, to keep yourself acceptable to God. Further, they will burden you with fearful warnings concerning sin, in hopes that you will live a holy enough life in the flesh to make yourself keep from deciding, in the midst of your supernatural spiritual regeneration as a miracle work of God, to keep from walking away from the God who has given you everlasting life, thus making the everlasting life somehow not really everlasting after all. Like I say, it all based on bad interpretations of the New Covenant work of Christ in His elect, coupled with not recognizing that there are fake Christians who look like true wheat plants, but are really weeds in the field. (The false interpretations of Scripture that such people use are refuted and corrected in my book, Biblically Defending Salvation, BDS) The point is that fake Christians, though appearing to be real, were never spiritually saved at any time at all as truly regenerated miracle works of God in Christ. And Paul knows the difference, so Paul will have nothing to do with those kinds of corruptions of his teachings concerning the goodness of the good news of God in Christ. So he continues on with his point in 1 Corinthians 1:4. Notice how Paul explains God’s faithfulness in preserving the spiritual salvation of His elect. He does not explain the works of the elect. He explains God’s work when he says,
“4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, ...
[now look at verse 8]
8 who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[Did you notice the surety in security in what Paul says so far? How does Paul know this about the immature, fleshly, sin soiled Corinthian Christians? The same way you need to know this; verse 9,]
9 God is faithful,
[there it is]
through whom you were called into fellowship [communion] with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:4, 8
Notice that Paul thanks God for God’s faithfulness in confirming the Corinthian Christians till the end.
Why does Paul thank God and not the Corinthians for their surety in security?
Because Paul gives credit where credit is due. Paul is assured that the One true God--Paul’s God--the God of all Christians--definitely, without a doubt, unarguably, assuredly, in a guarantee “will” indeed confirm His people to the end. Paul would not have said that God will confirm the immature, failing Corinthian Christians till the end, if Paul believed that any of God’s elect are in danger of losing their everlasting spiritual salvation in Christ. No, Paul does not trust in any so-called doctrines of insecurity in Christ. Paul does not agree with taking his words which he wrote as part of holy Scripture, and using them to build works based salvation theories. Paul only trusts the Foundation Who is the author and finisher of our faith in salvation. Paul trusts the enduring miracle work of what God has done in all He creates in Christ Jesus. It is an amazing statement of surety in security. Paul says it concerning every single Christian in Corinth because Paul knows their future doctrinally. This is the insight concerning all of God’s elect. It applies to you too, if indeed you are truly saved in Christ Jesus by grace through faith; God will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Think about what it means to be confirmed to the end and blameless in respect to eternal spiritual salvation. To be confirmed to the end and blameless, is to be a regenerated being who has died to spiritually dead Adam, and now, is alive with everlasting life in the Spiritually alive last Adam, Christ. To be confirmed to the end and blameless, is to be the very righteousness of God Himself in Christ Jesus as God’s continuous work--not yours. Notice what the Spirit pounded into the fleshly Corinthians in the midst of all their failures; 1 Corinthians 1:30
“But by His doing you
[This means the fleshly immature sinful Corinthian Christians, and you, and me. So by His doing you]
are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,” 1 Corinthians 1:30
Aren’t you glad that Christ became your righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, for you for salvation? You better say yes, because any other answer means that you think your own efforts become your righteousness for salvation; your own efforts become your spiritual sanctification for salvation; your own efforts become your redeeming work for salvation. And if you think that, then you are lost and your perishing in your sins. It is all by the doing of our faithful God in Christ Jesus; and again in 2 Corinthians 5:21,
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we would become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
It is all about the foundation and His righteousness. It is to have the blessing of our trustworthy God working with us and in us to accomplish the only desired result that saves perfectly. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 1:9 again.
“9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship [communion] with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:4-9
This is the point for you, me, and anyone else. God is your only faithful foundation. Everything else about your salvation--what it is, what it produces, how long it lasts, or whatever--God is faithful to initiate it, do it, and keep it secure. He is the One Who must call-out anyone from the lostness of the world, and into spiritual communing fellowship with His Son in everlasting life. It is through Him that any and all of His elect ones are called into that intimate relationship. He is the One Who confirms you to the end in this calling out into communing fellowship with His Son. So we need to be thanking Him and Him alone for all of this. But I ask you,
How are you going to thank Him for this if you do not even believe it?
And yet, He alone is to be trusted in this miracle action. Here is the exhortation--you will only thank Him for it, and you will only trust Him for it by the power of the Holy Spirit in operation with His sure word of truth. This leads to the second principle in respect to recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of salvation.
/2/ Christ Jesus the “Son of God” who is preached as the cornerstone of the gospel of our salvation is sure and is the truth. Or again, I think it is fitting to re-word this principle as Christ Jesus the Son of God as the second person of the One Triune Godhead is sure and is the truth. Christ is the good news incarnate.
@2 ______________ ______________, the Son of God, the Second person of the Trinity, is sure and is the truth. (Christ Jesus)
Notice,
“20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him [Christ the Son] they are yes; therefore also through Him [Christ the Son] is our Amen to the glory of God through us.” 2 Corinthians 1:20
Now let’s think for a moment about how the promised Christ is the cornerstone of the promises of the good news. In John 14, we read the great sermon proclamation of Jesus, where Jesus said,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6
These facts about Jesus, and the promise about how to come to the Father, is at the gospel’s core. In Acts 4, we see that Christ Jesus is the very rock of our salvation. Peter proclaimed to the Jewish leaders,
“11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:11-12
It is through Christ Jesus, the crucified and living King of kings and Lord of lords, that all is accomplished in our surety in security. To accomplish all of this through Himself, Christ Jesus was predestined to come into the world as a Lamb without spot or blemish. He lived a sinless life. Then He gave His sinless life for sins to secure salvation of people in the full payment on the cross. When Paul says “through Him” is our amen (meaning our affirming agreement in belief), Paul is explaining that everything about our salvation is through Him and His comprehensive work alone. When Christ made the covenant through his sacrificial work on the cross, He did what we can never do. As 100% God and 100% man, Christ gave His life as the ultimate value price to pay the ultimate penalty-fine for the ultimate guilt. The ultimate guilt is that everyone is tainted by sin in such a way that we come into existence separated from communing fellowship with the One true God. This guilt is so extreme that it required the most extreme action for it to be resolved. Christ Jesus was the only one who could pay that price. Before the foundation of the world was laid, God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knew that mankind would fall into sin. God knew that thousands of years after that decent into sin, Christ Jesus would come at His appointed time. He knew that He would be the last Adam and firstborn of a new race of people. Those people would be all who are in Him in His resurrection life. But before His resurrection, he had to experience the sacrifice. Death is required for sins. So, He gave His life in place of the life of those whom He saves. This is the only way to appease God and establish the covenant in which anyone is saved. It was a covenant of works for Christ Jesus Himself. It is a covenant of grace for you and me and all who embrace Him as Lord and Savior by faith. On the cross, He accomplished many things to make His covenant-work effectual. One thing He did in His covenant-work, is He absorbed the wrath of God for those whom God saves by taking their punishment upon Himself (propitiation). Another thing He did was make atonement for the sins of all whom He saves. Atonement means to cover. His blood was shed as the atoning work to cover the sins of all those who embrace Him through faith in His work. But Christ’s blood was more effective than the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats which was used in atonement by the Levitical priests of the Old Covenant. His sacrificial atoning blood took away the sins of all whom are spiritually saved. In this kind of atonement, His work does more than cover sins with blood. His shed blood is like an astringent in which it cleanses everyone of their sins who embrace Him as Lord and Savior. Another thing He did was make a purchase. His work on the cross paid God’s asking price to buy all of those who embrace Him through faith as Lord and Savior. He is the center of the gospel because He is the gospel. We live the good news every day because we have our life in Him. This means that what we embraced through Him on the day we received Him as Lord and Savior, is the same thing we have each passing day of our salvation. Think about the initial point when you first got saved spiritually. Did you get saved by someone telling you that Jesus paid it all for your sins? As they were sharing the gospel with you, did they include an addendum. Did they say,
“But before you get too excited, you need to make sure you stay saved by trying not to sin anymore.”
No, nobody told you that did they?
Why?
Because the gospel that saves, is the one that explains that Christ Jesus saves you spiritually through His work alone, in which you receive it by His grace through faith alone. Now think about this. The same gospel that saved you that day you gave your life to Christ, is the same gospel that you are saved in every day. Things do not change simply because you have been saved for a while. Christ does not change, and it is Christ who is in you as your salvation, Colossians 1:27,
”God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27
Now listen--You may do sinful things, and you will; but when you do them, the Spirit Who is in you of which God sealed you, will convict you of sin. When He does, He also wants you to stop by turning from that particular sin. It is called repentance. But the point is that you were, and are, saved to be able to go on to live the everlasting life of Christ that is in you. You are not saved by trying to live the everlasting life of Christ to earn the everlastingness of salvation. Because you are saved, sin is no longer your master. But, you do not stop sinning to be saved, or to make yourself stay saved. This is why the Spirit assures us through the apostle John, in 1 John 2:1-2,
“1 ... I am writing these things to you [saved people] so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world [for those of the whole kosmos who receive Him as Lord and Savor too. In other words, logically we recognize that Christ has not absorbed the wrath of those who have God’s wrath on them. No, they are absorbing the wrath in their perishing lostness.].” 1 John 2:1-2
So, you need to look at your relationship of salvation in this way; You are saved because Christ lives in you. God not only showed you mercy by saving you through the work of the indwelling Christ, but He also showed you an extra measure of grace favor. Mercy let you off the hook of lostness which is eternal damnation, and He graced you with being joint heirs with Jesus Christ who is the first-born heir. God does not see the old you anymore (no matter how imperfectly you live out the life of the indwelling Christ in your actions.) God sees Christ in you permeating you with all the work that He did for you, and is doing in you each and every moment. This is the principle; Christ Jesus the “Son of God” is your good news. He is sure. He is true. He is all in all. He is your everlasting advocate.
/3/
This leads to the next principle in respect to recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of salvation. All the multitudes of promises of God in Christ are sure and faithful.
@3 All the multitudes of _______________ in Christ are sure and faithful. (promises)
Look at verse 20,
“20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him [Christ] they are yes;” 2 Corinthians 1:20
Again, the promises of God for all whom He is going to save, and all He has saved, are the promises of the foundation. But I want us to think about something else. All the promises of God are based upon His plans. God preplanned everything that has to do with salvation. As time unfolds, God faithfully accomplishes every detail. Part of the plan involved using Himself to accomplish the promises by manifesting in bodily form to do it. In Romans 15:8, the Spirit says that Christ confirmed the promises made to the patriarchs. In Galatians 3:16, the Spirit indicates that the promises were spoken to Abraham and to His One Messianic Seed Who is Christ Jesus. All the promises of God concerning your eternal spiritual salvation are fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Paul says that the promises “in Him”--in Christ--are yes. When Paul says that those promises in Christ are yes, Paul means that they are real promises that have both been accomplished in Christ, and are promises that really will be accomplished in Christ as the rest of God’s unfolding plan materializes. Think about some of those amazing promises in Him. The Spirit indicates in Galatians 3:22 that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ, would be given to all those who believe. We think of the promise of John 3:16-17 in which Jesus proclaimed in His pre-cross ministry to Nicodemus,
“16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that those believing in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
God’s promises are what were preached by Peter at Pentecost after Christ’s post-cross resurrection and ascension,
“21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Acts 2:21
Peter repeated the promise to the Jerusalem counsel which came together to discuss the salvation of Gentiles in Acts 15:11
“11 we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.” Acts 15:11
It is the promise that Paul and Silas shared with the jailer
“30 and after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ 31 They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,’” Acts 16:30-31
We see some of the many promises in Romans 8:30-39.
30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also made righteous; and these whom He made righteous, He also glorified. ... If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who makes righteous; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 ... neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:30-39
We see some more of the aspect of this promise of the many promises in Philippians 1:6,
“... he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6
It is the Promise of 1 Peter 1:3-5. It has to do with the inheritance we will obtain in Christ. It is reserved right now in heaven. It will come to all who are protected by the power of God,
“3 ... according to His [God’s] great mercy [He] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:3-5
That protection is what this sermon is all about. Remember the theme: We’re talking about the great necessity of recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of spiritual salvation. Your inheritance is reserved. You are protected by the power of God through faith. You are not protected by the power of your flesh through faith. It is the promise of 2 Timothy 4 concerning all who love Christ and His appearance,
“8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:8-9
This promised crown of pristine righteousness is for everyone who loves the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you love Christ’s appearing? Then your future is sure in the power that is secure. All the multitudes of the promises of God are sure and faithful in Christ Jesus.
/4/
This leads us to the next principle in respect to recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of salvation. God the faithful one establishes His elect in Christ (Who is the sure way, truth, and life) verse 21.
@4 God the faithful One, _________________ His elect in His Son. (establishes)
“21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God,” 2 Corinthians 1:21
Again, notice the “in Christ” language. Also notice that being in Christ is not something you establish. It is something that God establishes. Of course, to be saved, you must receive Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior by God’s grace through faith. You must respond effectually to God’s effectual call. But even though this is true, you do not, and you can not, establish yourself in Christ. The Spirit indicates this in Paul writing the participle of God establishing us by using the present tense. This means that God always, continuously makes us stable, and keeps us stable, each and every moment. I can not begin to tell you how many people I have met who are trying to establish themselves in Christ. They do not rest in the finished work of Christ for them and in them. Instead they are trying to finish the work of Christ by their own efforts. Now listen--they have a belief in their heart. It is a belief in which they think that if they sin too much, then they will not establish themselves in Christ. They are afraid that if they do not confess some remote sin somewhere back in the recesses of their soul before they die, then they will not establish themselves in Christ. They think that salvation is simply a mental change of mind, instead of a miracle change of heart that is worked by God. So they think that they can somehow quit believing in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior after they have truly embraced Him as such. But none of us establish our salvation in any way whatsoever. God alone establishes those whom He saves, and He does it in Christ the living covenant giving life and light. Not only does God establish us, but He also anoints us. He sets His seal of the Holy Spirit upon us by putting Himself as Holy Spirit in us.
/5/
This leads us to the next principle in respect to recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of salvation. God’s amazing faithfulness in Christ the sure One is that He faithfully sealed us in salvation, and in His sealing work He gave us the third person of His triune being in our hearts as a pledge of our eternal glorious resurrected life after we die,
@5 God the faithful One, _____________ us with the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a yes yes pledge (guarantee). (seals)
Notice 21 and 22,
“21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge [guarantee ESV].” 2 Corinthians 1:22
In the miracle work of God, He recreates us from being the spiritually dead body of Adam, into being the living body of Christ. He transforms you from being a pagan temple which houses spiritual death, into a living temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. The establishing Spirit who lives in our hearts as the pledge, is the guarantee of being once saved in everlasting spiritual salvation. This is what we read in Ephesians,
“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ... the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 1:13, 4:30
Because God sealed you with the Spirit, you will necessarily, as a guarantee, be resurrected to everlasting glory forever as the continuance of your salvation now.
/6/
This brings me to the last principle in respect to recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of salvation. In our faith we stand firm in all of this work of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, because of God’s faithfulness. This means that our salvation is always yes yes which means that our salvation is yes yes today, tomorrow, and forever. We are Once Saved In Everlasting Spiritual Salvation, and this means that we will never perish because we can never perish. We have everlasting life as part of our spiritual salvation.
@6 God the faithful One saves us once in ___________________ spiritual salvation. (everlasting)
Notice the select clarifiers of this great promise as I reiterate through the flow,
“18 But as God is faithful, ... 19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us ... is always yes in Him. 20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. 21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge [a guarantee]. 24 ... for in your faith you are standing firm.” 2 Corinthians 1:18-24
All of those nuances of what Paul says are vitally important, and we must spend sufficient time meditating upon each one to see just how sure Paul is of the surety of security in actual spiritual salvation. This is true, and we have spent some good time on each, but now I want us to focus upon those last eight words in verse 24. They are a positive declaration,
“24 ... for in your faith you are standing firm.” 2 Corinthians 1:24
Everything that Paul has said about the work of God in salvation does not suddenly stop at this point and then turn to you to make the guarantee effective. In other words, salvation is God’s work from a to z. This is important because you can only be saved through faith, and yes, the faith that you are standing firm in, is your faith; but nobody does this unless God is the faithful One--and He is. And so since God the faithful One is faithful to save the elect whom He effectually calls, He makes sure that His work is accomplished from a to z. He makes sure that His people are saved through faith. He makes sure that His people are standing firm in their faith. He makes sure that they have the faith. This is directly seen in passages like Acts 18:27. There we see that Apollos went to the Corinthian region of Achaia to encourage,
"those who had believed through grace," Acts 18:27
They believed (not through the flesh, not through being smart enough to do so, not through clever persuasion) but they believed through the grace gift of our faithful God. This is the same faithfulness of God described as causing Lydia to heed the gospel in Acts 16:14,
“The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.” Acts 16:14
Paul did not open Lydia’s heart. Lydia did not open up her own heart. No. The Lord opened her heart, and he opened it to do something. The Lord opened her heart to heed the good news spoken by Paul. This is what we see as the gift of believing which was granted by faithful God to the Philippian Christians,
“29 For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, ... to believe in Him,” Philippians 1:29
God granted the Philippians the gift of belief for Christ’s own sake. In His trustworthiness to them, they got blessed in Christ blessing Himself with their salvation. This is as Jesus explained faithful-God’s work in John 6 in which belief is God's work that He works in, and through us,
“29 Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him ...’” John 6:29
Remember, Abraham was justified by belief; not works. So are we. This is why it is important to recognize that saving belief in Christ, is a work of God that He works in us and through us. The writer of Hebrews harkens to this fact in Christ’s post-cross ministry in Hebrews 12:2, where we read of
“Jesus, the author and perfecter (finisher) of (our) faith,” Hebrews 12:2
All of this enabling work of the Spirit is necessary as we saw earlier in 1 Corinthians 2:14 where,
“a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” 1 Corinthians 2:14
It is where the natural gets the supernatural gift as Paul explains in Ephesians 2:8-9,
”For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that [touto, neuter gender pronoun] not of yourselves, it is the gift [dwron, neuter gender noun as the antecedent to touto] of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
Both grace and faith are that which are not of yourselves. It is all a gift of our faithful God. Now when we think of this faith that we have because it is given by faithful God, we also see that we stand firm in it, and this folks is the point. In real spiritual regeneration, you really stand firm in your faith until the end. To know this, to love this, and to rest in this, is the great necessity of recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of your spiritual salvation.
Let’s recap; We have been recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of spiritual salvation. We considered the foundation. The foundation is God and His intrinsic faithfulness. We also saw that this means that Christ Jesus the “Son of God” who is preached as the cornerstone of the gospel of our salvation, is sure and is the truth. With these foundations in mind, we have explored the important fact that all the multitudes of promises of God in Christ are sure and faithful. So in recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of salvation, we have seen that God the faithful one establishes His elect in Christ the sure way, truth, and life, verse 21. Finally, we saw the power-action of God. God’s amazing faithfulness in Christ the sure One is that He faithfully seals you in salvation, and in His sealing work, He gives you the third person of His triune being in your heart as a pledge of your eternal glorious resurrected life after you die. What all of this means in recognizing God’s faithfulness in the security of your everlasting salvation, is that God operates in His triune being in every aspect. He does it as fully Father, fully Son, and fully Holy Spirit in His accomplishment. We are involved, but we are secondary. He is primary, and our salvation is primarily in Him because of Him. Even our faith is a gift given by Him as part of our assurance. In all of it, we are held securely by Him according to His own good pleasure. Amen.
@1 Recognizing our God’s attribute of His intrinsic trustworthiness and __________________. (faithfulness)
@2 ______________ ______________, the Son of God, the Second person of the Trinity, is sure and is the truth. (Christ Jesus)
@3 All the multitudes of _______________ in Christ are sure and faithful. (promises)
@4 God the faithful One, _________________ His elect in His Son. (establishes)
@5 God the faithful One, _____________ us with the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a yes yes pledge (guarantee). (seals)
@6 God the faithful One saves us once in ___________________ spiritual salvation. (everlasting
