Romans 1-16 (MACNTC) by John MacArthur

Author:John MacArthur [MacArthur, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Biblical Commentary, New Testament
ISBN: 9780802482662
Google: RuMODYwA9TEC
Amazon: B008DYJV2S
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 1994-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

Scripture teaches that the believer’s salvation is secured by God the Father, by the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. Referring to God the Father, Paul assured the Corinthians, “He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (2 Cor. 1:21–22; cf. 2 Tim. 2:19). The Father not only grants salvation to those who trust in His Son but also seals their salvation and gives the indwelling Holy Spirit as the guarantor. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Peter declared, “who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:3–5). Although persevering faith is indispensable to salvation, Peter emphasizes that, by God the Father’s own initiative and power, He “caused us to be born again” and in that same power He sustains us toward the inheritance that our new birth brings, an inheritance that is “imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away.” It is divinely “reserved in heaven” for each believer, who is divinely preserved to receive it. Whoever belongs to God belongs to Him forever.

In order to point up the absolute and incontrovertible security of those who trust in Jesus Christ, the writer of Hebrews declared, “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil” (Heb. 6:17–19).

God the Son also secures the believer’s salvation. “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me,” Jesus declared, “and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). Paul assured the Corinthian church, which had more than its share of immature and disobedient believers, that “even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:6–8; cf. Col. 1:22). In other words, their relationship to Christ not only had been confirmed when they were justified but would remain confirmed by the Lord Himself until their glorification at His return (cf. 1 Thess. 3:13). Later in that epistle Paul reminds us that “faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass” (1 Thess.

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