Security of Salvation: Part 3

 

Your relationship with God is secure!

Welcome back to my blog. We continue this series about security of salvation. Last week we discussed the important concept of our justification before God; that He sees us without sin based on the forgiveness by faith through Christ. This week let us examine two other great promises that point to our permanent relationship with God that cannot be broken.

Adoption 

In the Bible, adoption is one of several important terms used to describe the process of salvation and its subsequent benefits. God, as a loving Father, graciously adopts believers in Christ into His spiritual family, granting them all the privileges of heirship. It’s much more than forgiveness of sins; it’s a position of great blessing. Believers become children of God, part of His eternal family. While the term “adoption” doesn’t appear in the Old Testament, the metaphor of God as Israel’s Father provides a theological foundation for their designation as His children. In the New Testament, adoption signifies believers being received into God’s family through His gracious choice, made possible by Jesus Christ.

When a family legally adopts a child, the new family member gains all the rights and privileges of a naturally born offspring. In other words, their new status in the family is permanent and cannot be overturned. What great security to the adopted child!

Likewise, in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, generally comparable to our own society, adoption provided permanent legal status for a child that could not be overturned.

The Apostle Paul states our status as adopted children into God’s family in four separate places in his epistles, indicating the importance of our assurance following accepting Christ as Savior through faith (Romans 8:15,23; Ephesians 1:5; Galatians 4:5). Consequently, we are children of God, adopted into His family with legal protection and a permanent status. What a great promise!

God’s possession

The wonderful story of our being the possession of God starts in Exodus 19:5-6 when our Father told the redeemed Israelites that He intended them to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation and His special possession. However, they failed in their commitment to God and sinned against Him. Therefore, they did not become the kingdom of priests or holy nation that God desired. Nonetheless, God will keep His promise to Israel – that the nation will be His eternal possession (Psalm 89; Psalms 132:11-17; Romans 11:26-29).

However, through Christ’s death on the cross, He redeemed us (purchasing us at the cross) and thereby enabled usto become a kingdom of priests, a holy nation and His special possession (1 Peter 2:9).

The Spirit’s sealing

We are marked as God’s possession at salvation when the Holy Spirit is given to us as God’s down payment to completing our full redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9). This is a great promise and is a part of the results of our belief to salvation by faith alone in Christ’s substitutionary work on the cross (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Seals were used in the ancient world as a legal means to make a document official. If a king had given a new order, molten wax might be poured on the document to seal it and the king’s signet ring pressed into the wax. The king’s symbol in the wax would tell the carrier or the recipient that the contents of the document were the king’s will and breaking the seal inappropriately or ignoring the order was done at a person’s own peril.

We are sealed by our King, and it reflects the same legal and unbreakable character as ancient law. Further, the Spirit seals us throughout our whole life on earth as God’s own possession, until we go to heaven. Importantly, all those who believe by grace in Christ’s forgiveness on the cross are Christians and possess the Spirit and the seal (Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9).

The benefits of salvation are profound and transformative. Remember that these benefits are not earned through our efforts but are freely given by God’s grace. Surely, we have a wonderful God who deserves our thanks and praise every day for this kind provision.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Join me again next time as we continue to discuss the great promises that provide our security in our salvation.

William C. Stewart, MD

 

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