Secure In Salvation

28 Feb

Secure In Salvation

[If parts of this devotional seem to repeat other recent devotionals, it is because I’m in the middle of preparations to speak at a conference with the theme of “Anchored” using, of course, Hebrews 6 as the basis of my messages. This just happens to be what I am studying right now.]

1 John 5:20 gives us some details about our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we generally overlook when we talk about salvation: “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” We often overlook the basis of our security in our Lord Jesus Christ, which is that He is true and that He is, in fact, God. Since He is true, what He says in Scripture is also true.

So when Hebrews 6 explains that God guaranteed His own oath with His own word and His own pledge, He is recognized as the only one who could do so because there is none higher. “…When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf…” (Heb. 6:17-20)

God guaranteed the unchangeable character of His purpose (vs 17) with two unchangeable things. In other words His purpose of hope in salvation by Jesus Christ, is the one thing that you can safely anchor your life to. And He guaranteed it by two unchangeable things. “Unchangeable” is absolute. “Unchangeable” will not change, ever, and we have God’s sworn word on that.

As a result of God’s unchangeable purpose, we can have every confidence in God’s ability to keep us safe under His umbrella of salvation:

“…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).

“And by that will [that is the will of God] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service [that is, under the old covenant], offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet. For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14-18).

We have every reason, then, to resolutely follow the biblical directive of 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 and learn first-hand the significance of serving God on His terms, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Even before we face Jesus in eternity, we can rejoice in the promise of Jude 24-25, “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

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