Our Secure Salvation [Part 2]

 

Welcome back to my 3-part blog on secure salvation. 

In Part 1 of this series, we began exploring the biblical basis for eternal security—the confidence believers can have that their salvation is secure in Christ. We looked at direct statements in Scripture about our security and saw that God Himself preserves those who belong to Him.

Now, we turn to another important reason for this confidence: the unchangeable positions we receive in Christ at salvation.

There are four primary positions we will consider in this series. In this blog, we will focus on the first two: the sealing of the Holy Spirit and spiritual baptism.

 

SEALED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

 

At the moment of salvation, believers are marked as God's possession and receive the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9). This is one of the wonderful results of salvation by grace through faith in Christ and His work on the cross (Ephesians 2:8-9).

• To better understand the significance of being "sealed," consider how seals were used as a legal means of closing a document in the ancient world. 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 (1).
• 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).

 

SPIRITUAL BAPTISM: IDENTIFIED WITH CHRIST

 

Spiritual baptism is another important biblical truth that helps us understand both who we are in Christ and why our salvation is secure.

 

• What Does "Baptism" Mean? - Let’s consider the word itself. Although controversial, the Epistles mention baptism, and it refers to spiritual baptism. Water baptism might be considered an external ritual signifying the internal event. The word is βαπτιζω (baptizoo) in the Greek (the original language of the New Testament), and was an old term borrowed from the dye trade. It meant that a piece of cloth immersed in the dye became ‘identified’ with the new color (2).

• Significance of spiritual baptism to eternal security - How is being ‘identified’ with Christ associated with eternal security? Fortunately, a lot! 

• We are a new person - When we believe at salvation, we are identified with Christ’s gracious death and His resurrection. At this time, our old self dies and is buried with Christ. We are raised now to a new, holy person acceptable to God and able to enter heaven (Romans 6:2-12; Ephesians 2:4-7; Colossians 2:12-13; Hebrews 10:19-22). Similar concepts in Scripture that also appear to speak probably to spiritual baptism are: regeneration (Titus 3:5), born again (John 3:5), and new man (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). Why is this concept so important?

• Unchangeable salvation – Baptism helps us know we cannot lose our salvation because Scripture does not indicate that if we commit a sin our new self can be killed and the old dead self resurrected!

 

What wonderful promises God has given us.

At salvation, believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit and identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. These are not achievements we earn through good behavior. They are positions God gives us because of His grace.

That is why our confidence in salvation should rest not in our own performance, but in what God has already accomplished for us through Christ.

And there is still more.

In the next part of Our Secure Salvation, we will explore the final two positions believers receive in Christ and how they provide even more biblical evidence for the security of our salvation.

 

1.  http://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/seal.html

2.  https://www.westernseminary.edu/transformedblog/2014/02/25/baptisim-meaning-and-mode/

 

William C. Stewart

 

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