Bible Study
Chapter 3 God’s Eternal Decrees, sec 6: The means of salvation
By: Moses Flores
In our last study, we learned of the graciousness of the election of God of some sinners unto salvation. As we have seen from Scripture and professed through the Westminster Confession of Faith, God is sovereign over all His creation and is obligated to no one but His own self in what He chooses to do with His creation, even those creatures created in His image. Thus, the Scriptures declare
“He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the Earth.
No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have you done?’” (Dan. 4:35)
Apart from verses that teach the absolute sovereignty of God, there are numerous verses in the Bible that explicitly teach that God has elected, of His own will, and apart from any foresight into the future, some people to be saved while leaving other people in their just condemnation for their own sins.
As we saw in our last study, God’s election unto salvation is the highest display of the graciousness of God. As death deserving sinners, God could have let us all perish and His glory would not diminish from Him in any way. But to display His graciousness, God chose to save. Let us ever keep in mind the eternal love of God in that truth and marvel in it. Some choose to bicker that He lets any go to hell. This is not the focus of Scripture. Rather, that God chose to save any at all is the true marvel of Scripture.
But lest some run away with the doctrine of election and say that the elect of God will be saved regardless of what we do, as some called Hyper-Calvinist have done, we must note that there are means to the ultimate end that God has predestined for all those elected in Christ. That is to say, an elect sinner does not merely go through all his or her life untouched and unaffected by any prior acts and works of God only to find out at the end of their mortal life that they were elected to eternal life. Neither is it the case that they are merely going about their normal sinful life and all of a sudden become saved or realize they are elected for eternal life. Instead, God has ordained certain intermediary events, or means, which must take place in the life of the elect.
Returning to a theological construct previously mentioned in a prior study, the Chain of Redemption, also called the Ordo Salutis, helps us here. Remember that we began with election and predestination and ended with glorification. These are things that take place in eternity past and in eternity future. However, in the middle, which is in time, all those elected are also called, justified, adopted, sanctified and preserved by God to reach their final end. The Westminster Confession, in complete harmony with Scripture, states it this way:
“As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power, through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.” (WCF 3.6)
In this study, we will explore the means unto final salvation. It should be kept in mind that this study is not meant to be exhaustive, and thus is not. It is intended to be as thorough as possible while still engaging in serious theological dialogue. Further treatment of these topics will follow in the later chapters of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
“…Effectually
called to faith in Christ by His Spirit working in them in due time…”
In one of the previous studies, the “chain of redemption” was introduced which was nothing more than a theological construct intended to show the entire spectrum of salvation and to show that the ones at the beginning of the chain will certainly and infallibly find themselves at the end of the chain of salvation, glorified fully and finally with Jesus Christ. Now, in our study on the means to salvation, we will look at the means, or the way to glorification. For glorification is our intended and final end, but that will not happen without going through other acts and works of God decreed for salvation. These include the preaching of the Word of God and regeneration. Let’s begin by looking at hearing the Word of God through preaching.
In the New Testament cultures of the Jews and the Greeks, something as simple as preaching, or the proclamation of the message of the life and work of Jesus Christ was deemed foolishness. I Corinthians 1:18-24 says,
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (emphasis mine)
The Jews, in their rich redemptive
history and experiencing the mighty works of God in their historical redemption
(e.g.
Preaching, it appears, is a necessary means that God has decreed to call out for His elect. Jesus said that His sheep know His voice and they follow Him (cf. John 10:3, 14, 27). Thus, God calls out to them through preaching. Note in I Corinthians 1:23 that Christian preaching has a specific content: “Christ crucified”. One commentator has said that “Christ crucified” is to be understood as the entire ministry of the person, work, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This content is what makes the Gospel truly the Gospel.
But is preaching necessary? Can one the elect be saved apart from hearing
the Word of God about Christ? Paul
addresses this issue in Romans 10. In
context, Paul is talking about the election of same Jews to salvation and the
necessity that
“Brethren, my
heart’s desire and prayer to God for
Notice Paul’s desire is for the
salvation of the elect of
But there is the catch. If
“How then shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? … So then, faith comes by hearing the word of God, and hearing by the Word of God.” (v14-17)
With logical precision, Paul shows us the necessity of preaching in the salvation of the elect of God. If it is necessary to believe in Christ, to call upon His name, to be saved, and if ignorance of Him abounds, it is necessary that one hears of Him and is given knowledge of the one on whom they must believe. But they will not be given that knowledge unless one is sent to preach to them. Thus, the preaching of the Gospel, no matter how short or well expounded is necessary for salvation. It is a decreed means that our Sovereign God has been pleased to use in order to call out His own.
So let us ask this question: Can one be saved apart from hearing the Gospel? There are some who would contend that people can be saved even if they have never heard the Gospel either based on their works in their lifetime or in some form of second chance doctrine after death [1] . But what does the Bible say about the necessity of the Gospel and the means through which the Gospel comes? We have already seen that preaching is God’s chosen means for bringing about salvation. We also know that our condemnation is based on our sinful nature and the sins that we commit, not our lack of knowledge of the Gospel. Also, we know that the Gospel is a very specific message about the life, work, person, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and that through faith alone in Him we can be covered in the righteousness of God which, alone, can stand up to the bar of God’s justice. We know that without this we certainly can’t stand before God. Hebrews 9:27 says that it is appointed unto man once to die and then to judgment. Thus, it is crucial – no pun intended – that in order for any to be saved that we hear the Gospel. I Thessalonians 2:13 makes this point.
“For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”
We see here that the Apostle Paul had previously preached to the Thessalonians the Word of God. Their reception of it as such is what has caused the continued effective working of those who believe. II Thessalonians 2:13-14 echoes similar thoughts though it is a bit more explicit on preaching as a means of salvation.
“But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our Gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Note that we were chosen “for salvation” but “through” sanctification and belief in the truth. We will deal with sanctification later, but for now we can see that truth is necessary for salvation. This “truth” comes to us as God calls His chosen through the preaching of the Gospel. Paul could say “our Gospel” being an apostle and Christ’s personal ambassador of the Gospel.
Gospel preaching is also necessary to bring about another act of God that it ordained to bring the elect to faith and repentance. This is regeneration, or the new birth. I Peter 1:22-25 says,
“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because
All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flowers falls away
But the word of the LORD endures forever.
Now this is the word which by the Gospel was preached to you.”
Notice very clearly that it is through the preaching of the Gospel that one is born again of incorruptible seed. The Spirit works through the Word of God to cause the new birth; to call out Christ’s sheep.
To sum up on preaching, before moving on to regeneration, it is a necessary means ordained by God to impart not only true knowledge, but to be used by the Holy Spirit to bring about new life. Preaching as necessary means that we should share words and be active in that rather that with the semi-fatalistic attitude of “I’ll just let my life preach for me.” The word of God, not the life of the believer, is what God has ordained for calling out His elect. Important in preaching is not only the act, but the content. The Scriptures have shown that it is the Gospel – the good news of salvation from our sins based on the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. That message constitutes the Gospel. No other message saves (cf. Gal. 1:6-9). A “health and wealth” Gospel is not Gospel at all. A “socio-economic Gospel” is not a Gospel either. The Gospel is good news for sinners – not those lacking in materialistic things or economically deprived.
Regeneration
As we concluded our section on preaching, we saw that the preaching of the Gospel, the Word of God, is used by the Spirit of God to bring about what is called in theology, regeneration, or more commonly known as the new birth.
Some people use the term “born again” to describe the person who has undergone a “radical” transformation of some sort. Some people use it in reference to other religions so as to call themselves “born again Muslims” or just to indicate they have changed certain features of their character or lifestyle. Christians sometimes use it to describe a Christian who has had such a radical transformation either to Christianity or within their Christianity. The Scriptures, however, use this term to describe what must happen to all who would become Christian. It has been pointed out that the term “born again Christian” is actually redundant, for a Christian as shall see is one who is born again.
I can recall during my freshman year in college running into some friends in the game room asking me about my faith. I told them that I was a Christian to which one of them responded, “you mean a born again Christian?” I promptly responded, “Is there any other kind?”
The Scriptures have certainly quite a bit to say about regeneration. For our purposes, however, we need mainly to deal with its necessity in that one may only become a Christian through the new birth and emphasize the monergism that is taught in the Scripture, which the Westminster Confession of Faith emphasizes as well.
Let’s begin with the words of Christ in John 3 and the first explicit mention of the necessity of the new birth in the New Testament.
In John 3, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, comes to Jesus by night to inquire from Christ. He says to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus cuts off Nicodemus’ polity and tells him,
“Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the
Jesus uses a negative
condition. He says that no one can see
the
“Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter the
In these verses, Jesus stresses the
absolute necessity of regeneration in order to “see” or “enter” the
The
The apostle John explicitly denies that the new birth comes through the human will. In John 1:12-13 he says,
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The ones who were privileged to
become children of God were not given this because they were born into the
family of God by natural descent, which is what John means when he says that
these were born “not of blood.”
“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Scripture doesn’t get any clearer than that! The word “cannot” shows the inability of the carnal man – the man who is still in his natural state – to do anything that is pleasing to God. So if we ask the question, “can fallen man will to be born again?” we must ask, first, if the new birth is pleasing to God? Of course it is! Is true saving faith and repentance pleasing to God? Of course they are. Can fallen man do anything pleasing to God? According to this text, we must say that the sinner cannot do anything pleasing to God, including will their own new birth.
Nothing good dwells in our flesh (cf. Romans 7:18). John himself even said “that which is born of the flesh is flesh…” (cf. John 3:6). He goes on to say that only “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The intended meaning, consistent with John 1:13 is that the true children of God have their birth from God and not because they are born into a historical privileged race, or because they could merely will to be of God all of a sudden and contrary to their fallen nature. Rather, Christians are born of God alone. James 1:18 also explicitly says of the Father that “of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” We can see from this that it was God the Father who begat us, or brought of forth, and we can also see, as previously mentioned, that it was “by the word of truth” which is the preaching of the Gospel.
One final Scripture to clarify the point and lead us to our next topic of justification, including faith and repentance, is found in I John 5:1 which says,
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…” (NKJV)
This translation, along with the NIV, is not as clear as the Greek. The grammatical construction used here is a present tense participle for the verb “to believe” (understood is believing) while also using a perfect tense construction for the verb “born” (understood has been born). The intended meaning, therefore, is to say that the one who is presently believing that Jesus is the Christ is doing so because they have, prior to their belief, been born again of God and remain to be born of God. The English Standard Version of the Bible brings this out better in its translation:
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…”
Thus, regeneration precedes our faith in Christ and flows as a gift of God to us from regeneration. Since faith – true, lasting, and saving faith – is the inevitable result of the one who has been born of God, it would seem to say that regeneration, as a sovereign act of God, is not something that can be rejected either . We are brought forth by God’s will alone without any cooperation from our own taken into account. If that were the case, God could not regenerate anyone for the Scriptures plainly state that the carnal mind is hatred toward God. Hence, those of the Reformed theological persuasion have often referred to the “effectual calling” of the Gospel through God’s act of Regeneration. For His word goes forth to accomplish that which God intends it to do and does not return void (cf. Isa. 55:11), even the for the new birth of the elect.
In our next section we will deal with the issues of Justification, especially with faith and repentance, particularly their necessity as a means unto our final salvation. For now, it is important that we understand that just as it was necessary to hear the word of God preached in the Gospel call, we should understand that it is necessary that any who are called Christian must be born again. We must be born of God. We become Christian, not because we decided it would be a “cool thing” to do, or because we want to get on God’s good side. We become Christians because God wills it to be so.
In addition to these Scriptures that explicitly teach the necessity of being reborn, we can also appeal to Scriptures that teach the promise of conversion through a regenerative act of God and Scriptures that teach the importance of the place of the new life granted to us by God.
In the former category, we can appeal to the Old Testament promises in Scriptures concerning a radical conversion. These promises of conversion usually come in the context of revealing the new covenant that God would one day work with the remnant of Israel, especially His promises to grant us His Spirit and a new heart to be able to follow His will and obey Him. For instance, in Ezekiel 36:25-27 God says through the prophet,
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Notice that these promises for a new way of covenant life and obedience to God are a foreshadowing of the life to come. These are God’s promises. God is promising us new life. Thus, the necessity of the new birth comes with the necessity of God to fulfill His own covenant promises as well. Ezekiel 37:1-14 depicts the same imagery.
“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it as full of bones. And he lead me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord GOD, you know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones
are the whole house of
Notice here that the dead and dry bones have no power in themselves to live. Indeed, they are “without hope”. Rather, it is God who must put them together and give them “breathe” and ultimately life. In both of these text we find the hope and promise long awaited for by those faithful of God: that God would put His own Spirit within them.
Next, we come to Scriptures in the New Testament, in particular, that reveal the importance of the new life given through regeneration. For instance, in II Corinthians 5:17 which says,
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.”
Here we see that the one who is in Christ is a “new creation.” The “new creation” is not optional, but necessary! Here the new birth is signified by the term “new creation”. Thus, we can see here the importance of the new birth in that it changes our hearts fundamentally that it can be said that “old things” – our old and fleshly life – have passed away and that “all things” have become new to us. Galatians 6:15 says,
“For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor circumcision but a new creation.”
That is, all our external works do not give us any merit before God in any way. Rather, it is our new creation, or our new birth, that alone gives us any approval before God.
In summation, we may say that regeneration is a necessary part of salvation that every Christian goes through in their walk. Indeed, it is the door by which the elect first enter into their relationship with the Triune God. Without regeneration, the sinner is not able to place their faith in Christ for justification, nor repent of their sins for sanctification for they will not have the heart to do so! Regeneration gives us the gifts of God namely the new life from God allowing us to have true saving faith in Jesus Christ and to have true Godly repentance for our sins.
Denying the new birth as necessary deprives one of the very instrumentality by which we exercise saving faith in Christ and begin our converted life in Jesus Christ. Calvinism has never denied its necessity but has, most certainly, stressed its necessity in accord with Scripture as well as in the light of the depravity of man. Any who are elected by God unto salvation are also elected to receive the new birth leading them to faith and repentance.
Justification through faith alone with repentance
Another means that God has ordained
that the elect must pass through is justification. Though the
According to the
“Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”
In other words, justification is God’s act as a judge clearing us of all our debt to Him and declaring us to be perfectly righteous on the basis of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Let’s begin to see the necessity of justification by surveying the nature of all of fallen humanity, including the elect, and the nature of God to see our necessity for righteousness, or justification.
Our Nature
It’s no secret that something is radically wrong with mankind. Adam’s fall into sin was not only detrimental for himself, but in him, he plunged the entire human race – his offspring – into utter ruin. His own son murders and is cursed. Not very far along, humanity is so corrupted that God is sorry that He has made mankind at all (cf. Gen. 6:5-6). As one continues to go through the Scriptures, one finds that that stain of sin is universal and extensive to all of humanity. But not only to all of humanity, but to all parts of humans including the emotions, the mind, the body, etc…Humanity is so radically infected and corrupted by sin that our very wills are against God and enslaved to sin. King David even acknowledges this to be the case from our very conception and birth! In Psalm 51:5 he says,
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Futher, in Psalm 58:3 he says,
“The wicked are estranged from the womb; the go astray from birth, speaking lies.” (Psalm 58:3)
Proverbs 4:23 tells us to
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”
The heart, in the Hebrew understanding, is the seat of our emotions or passions. In a sense, it is the source of who we are and what we do. Thus, if our hearts are absolutely pure, then our lives will reflect that purity as well.
However, experience tells us that we do not. Scripture itself reveals the corruption of our hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 reveals
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Solomon, in all his wisdom, concurs in Ecclesiastes 9:3
“…truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.”
The best summation on the condition of humanity as God sees us, including the elect while in Adam, is given by the apostle Paul in his greatest exposition of the Gospel in his letter to the Romans, chapter three verses 10-18
“As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understand;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one,
Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit;
The poison of asps is under their lips
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
This is the ultimate verdict by God himself on humanity, elect included! From such a contaminated source no good thing can come forth. Isaiah says that all our righteousness – that is, our apparent good deeds – are as filthy as rags before the eyes of God (Isa. 64:6). Jesus even said that it is out of the heart that evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies proceed (Matt. 15:19).
The character of God
The Bible teaches that God is a holy
God. As such, no sin resides in Him nor
does He commit sin for He is also righteous.
Along with His righteousness is His justice. Abraham was all to familiar with the justice
of God in the destruction of
In Genesis 18, God reveals to
Abraham that He will destroy
“Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous with the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from you to such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
At the heart of Abraham’s plead before God is the belief that God must do what is right and render to each one what they rightfully deserve. In this case, Abraham is asking God to spare the city for the sake of any righteous who could be found in city. God responds to Abraham’s bargaining always affirming that for the sake of any number of righteous in the city, He will spare the city for their sakes.
This whole dialogue teaches us about God’s character, especially His justice. It would be unthinkable for God to punish the righteous along with the wicked. Indeed, it would be unjust and even unbecoming of God to punish someone for something they have not done. Yet, on the other hand, it would be equally unbecoming for God to allow the wicked to go unpunished. Hence Psalm 130:3 tells us “If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, who could stand?” That is, under the weight of God’s perfect knowledge and judgment of our own sins, no one stands a chance before the seat of the Almighty God. And our sin is not easily dismissed, for in the just and holy character of God, who does not let sin go unpunished, the Scriptures declare in Exodus 34:7 that God “by no means clears the guilty.”
The necessity
of Justification
The dilemma is clear. We need to be righteous before a holy and righteous God, yet our very natures do not have what it takes to be or attain any righteousness. The elect of God are in this dilemma along with the reprobate. The elect are not born saved or any holier than anybody else. God will not, and cannot, even let His own elect be acceptable to Him apart from having righteousness. Hence, we need a righteousness that is perfectly acceptable to God. This righteousness is none other than the righteousness of God Himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
In Christ, God was able to fulfill His own lawful requirements in accordance with His own holy character and take upon Himself in the Second member of the Trinity the just penalty that our sins deserved. This was the only way to bring us God’s declaration of “not guilty” and “righteous” before His perfect judgment. Without justification from God, none of the elect could ever be saved.
This is so because our God is a just God. He will by no means clear the guilty but must, in accordance with His holy character, demand justice. He exacts the just penalty for our sins on Jesus Christ however! Thus, in Christ death, there was the purpose of lay down His life for the elect that He might secure for them the righteousness that the elect so desperately need. And thus, in the person and work of Jesus Christ, we can say that our redemption is accomplished fully in Jesus Christ alone for all the elect of God!
In sum, justification is necessary for the elect of God because their election alone by God in eternity is not what makes them acceptable to God. It is their justification. Election, we could say, is God’s sovereign choice and guarantee to the elect to give them righteousness in Christ Jesus.
A word on Faith and Repentance
The necessity of justification from God carries with it the Scriptural teaching of the necessity of faith alone as the sole means of justification, which is always accompanied by repentance. If it follows that our works before justification were “filthy” and sinful, even, before God and the only way that one is accepted before God is through the righteousness of another (forensic righteousness), then it must be the case that our works cannot be a means of attaining righteousness in any way. Thus, Scripture speaks of faith alone as the sole instrument of justification.
In Romans 3:27-30, Paul concludes that if we are unable to keep the law and God’s righteousness is revealed to us in Jesus Christ, then there is no place for works in attaining justification but only through faith in Jesus Christ. Likewise, in Galatians 2:16-21, Paul says that even the apostles, great as their works are, they too had to be justified by faith alone in Christ, and not at all apart from their works.
Lest one thinks that faith is all that is visible in the Christian walk, the Scriptures also ensure us of the necessity of repentance. Jesus said it most clearly in Luke 13:3,5,
“Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish…”
Repantance is the turning away from our sins and our old life. Jesus says that we – especially the elect – must do this or else we will perish even with the rest of the wicked. But God is patient with us, and is not willing that any of His should perish, but that we would all come to repentance (cf. II Peter 3:9).
“Adopted, sanctified,
and kept…”
In our previous topics, we have seen the necessity of preaching, or of hearing the word of God, or regeneration and of justification through faith alone which is properly accompanied by repentance. Our final topics still come to us as necessary in the life of the elect of God, however, their necessity will be approached by viewing them in the light of their inevitability. Something is “inevitable” if it is incapable of being avoided. Thus, I am proposing these as actualities in the life of every one of God’s elect following their justification.
In this study we will see the inevitability of our sonship to God, the inevitability of our sanctification and the inevitability of our final salvation as we are kept by the power of God unto it. Let’s begin with our inevitable adoption.
Adoption
First of all, what do we understand of the concept of adoption? The basic idea, sociologically speaking, is transferring to another family. Theologically speaking, the term takes much more significance. The Westminster Larger Catechism helps us out here. It says:
“Adoption is an act of God’s free grace of God, in and for His only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of His, have His name put upon them, the Spirit of His Son given to them, are under his fatherly care and dispensations, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow heirs with Christ in glory (WLC 74)
The huge difference between adoption in a sociological context and the adoption we speak of now is who is adopting us: God the Father! What a glorious thing to say that God is our Father!
The Scriptures tell us that our previous spiritual father was the devil and that we were even children of wrath. Ephesians 2:1-3 reminds us that,
“[we] were dead in our trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
Prior to adoption, our problem was our legal standing before a holy God. Now we are in need of a new family for our legal status will no longer allow us to be associated with our old one. Therefore, we are privileged to become sons and daughters of God! John 1:12-13 tells us that,
“As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Having come to Christ by faith and being justified through that faith, God gives us the authority, or the right, to become children of God. This takes place through the act of adoption.
Now it might be the case that some doubt their sonship or adoption, but the Scriptures never leaves us to doubt this. Rather, they affirm it emphatically. In fact, the one who is a Christian cannot be without being adopted into God’s family. Take Galatians 3:26 for example. This Scripture reads,
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
The verb for “you are” is a present tense verb indicating current state of affairs. Christians are sons and daughters of God. One cannot be justified by faith and still be a child of the devil. Such would be contradictory to the Scriptures and even the justice and majesty of God!
That this point may be more explicit from Scripture one only needs to read 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. Here the apostle Paul is exhorting the Corinthians to holiness. He says to them,
“Do not be
unequally yoked with unbelievers. For
what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an
unbeliever? What agreement has the
Paul is here make the dichotomy between those things that are contrary to each other:
Righteousness vs. lawlessness
Light vs. darkness
Christ vs. Belial
Believer vs. Unbeliever
God vs. Idols
These things are contradictory and mutually exclusive of one another. They are categorically different. But why should we be separate? Paul continues,
“As God said,
I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters to me, says the Lord almighty.”
One reason the children of light have no business with children of darkness in binding relationships is because God is among us: “I will make my dwelling among them…” But more than that, because God is our Father! God dwells with us through the Holy Spirit. The presence of God in us should lead us to separate form those things that are not holy. Romans 8:14-17 also re-affirms that the ones with the Spirit of God are the Sons of God.
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
It is through our adoption into God’s family that we can call God Father in a most intimate way. This is a privilege given to the elect! Ephesians 1:5 says that God “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself…”
Thus, adoption is not something happens to us optionally, but as inevitably to the elect. We are predestined to adoption. The elect should never doubt their sonship to God for it is what God has chosen us for with all the other blessings of salvation.
Sanctification
Another blessing that all the elect share in is the blessing of sanctification. According to the Shorter Catechism, sanctification is:
“the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more die unto sin, and live unto righteousness” (SC, Q35)
The inevitability of sanctification may be approached from two ways. The first is that it is inevitable in the sense that no matter how much we fail to live up to the perfect will of God in our lives, God has sanctified us positionally and will sanctify us experientially. The clearest promise of this to the elect comes from Ephesians 1:3-4,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love…” (Italics mine)
Notice that God chose us to be holy! If, as we have seen previously, our final salvation is guaranteed, then certainly all that God has planned in between will also come to pass, including our holiness, or sanctification. Thus, for the Christian struggling with sin, as an elect child of God, we can know that God’s desire and even decreed will is to make us holy. He Himself has chosen us to be holy! Ephesians 2:10 likewise blends the themes of election and sanctification together.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Here we see that our newness of life as Christians who are born again is to be lived as a sanctified life showing itself in good works. But these good works, that is our progressive move toward holiness, is not something accidental but rather “prepared beforehand” by God for us to do.
Several other passages of Scripture encourage us that God is for our sanctification. For instance, in writing to the Thessalonians, Paul tells them:
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification…” (I Thess. 4:3)
We may wonder about the will of God for our lives concerning our jobs, or careers, or whom we date or marry, etc…but Christians should never doubt that God wants to see them sanctified. Yes, we fail and will fail numerous times in our Christian walk, but that should not be providentially interpreted that God wants us to fail and not to be sanctified or holy. Paul seems to have understood the struggle for holiness through failure in Romans 7. Yet, he still concluded that the presence of the Spirit of God would give him ultimate victory over all sin in his own life.
In the same letter to the Thessalonians Paul combines, again, the calling of God and sanctification in 4:7 saying,
“For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.”
In His second letter he says,
“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” (II Thess. 2:13, Italics mine)
An encouragement to holiness is given as well in the light of adoption. In II Corinthians 7:1, after having admonished the Corinthians to flee from relationships with unbelievers, Paul says,
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves form all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
In other words, everything is set for the Christian to be sanctified. God has decreed it and He will and certainly encourages it. He has given us His Spirit to enable us too. The Christian need not be discouraged, therefore, at the presence of sin in their life for God is and ever will sanctify us till we are holy even as He is holy. That is a promise.
The second way the inevitability of sanctification may be seen is that if sanctification is necessary for salvation, then the one claiming to be Christian cannot be without it. There are some who would reason this way: “Well if I’m justified by faith alone and accepted by God on the basis of another, then it doesn’t really matter how I live my life – whether holy or not.”
The Scriptures, however, are prepared for such an attitude. In Romans 6, that same objection is raised to the apostle Paul. He anticipates the objection in this way:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Essentially, Paul is saying that the person who would reason that the justified life can be a life in sin has severely misunderstood the nature of justification and salvation altogether! Any Christian who professes to be such but consistently walks in a life that is characterized by sin with no sanctification has reason to doubt their salvation. I John 3:7-9 tells us,
“Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
The verb “sins” is in the present tense giving the understanding that the one who lives their life continually characterized by sin in their life is not truly Christian but rather “of the devil.” Instead, the one “born of God” does not sin – that is, does not live a life characterized by sin. Indeed, they cannot for they have undergone the radical act of being born of God. They are a new creature. Holiness is not an expendable matter for a creature born from holiness unto it!
Hebrews 12:14 is very clear on this matter. The author tells us to “pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” Leviticus 11:44 also reminds us that holiness is God’s command to us. Thus, though final salvation is guaranteed for the elect that is not an excuse to neglect our quest toward holiness, but rather our encouragement to pursue it!
Kept by the power of God
Finally, we come the glorious truth that every Christian should rest in. That is the truth that our salvation is kept, or preserved, for us by God. That is, ultimately my salvation does not depend on my works or performance, or how holy I was able to become (because we are all short of God’s holiness!). Rather our salvation is totally based on God’s sovereign purposes which He will accomplish.
In making this point I only want to turn one clear portion of Scripture that teaches God’s relentless preservation of our salvation. That passage is Romans 8:31-39 in which Paul asks five rhetorical questions that can only lead one to conclude that God guarantees the salvation of His elect. In Romans 8:31-39 we read,
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all
The day long;
We are regarded as sheep to be
Slaughtered.’
No, 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.”
Let’s look at each of the rhetorical questions briefly
First, “If God is for us, who is against us?” The idea here is that if the Almighty God who created and purposed all that is and will be, who is it that could significantly challenge God regarding our salvation? Who would we dare be able to challenge God’s judgment resulting in our justification and overturn it? The main thing to take here is that God is for us. He is on our side supporting us. He is not like some neutral party who can be persuaded by a better argument. God, the Judge, is supporting His own elect! He has done all that has needed to be done in order to insure His intended results including providing full atonement and propitiation for our sins through Jesus Christ and has caused us to appropriate the results of the atonement through our new birth and sanctification in the Holy Spirit. The outcome is settled for God is with us.
This leads to the next question to consider when one thinks that God’s elect might lose their salvation somehow. Paul asks, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” This is an argument from the greater to the less. The gist of the argument is that if God has already given us His greatest and best gift, Jesus Christ His Son, and given Him over to death for us, why wouldn’t God give us anything else that could help us to in our salvation? If God has already given to us the atoning sacrifice of His Son, why would God withhold the Holy Spirit to sanctify us? Why would He now provide care and comfort for His elect from the world, the flesh and the Devil? The answer should be obvious that there is no reason to think that God would withhold any blessing from His children (cf. Ephesians 1:3-14). We have been redeemed, chosen and sealed by the Spirit. God, as a good Father, does not withhold any good thing from His Elect (cf. Luke 11:11-13). Hence, the only answer to this question about the security of our salvation is that God has given us His best already in Jesus Christ and, thus, He will not hold back anything else necessary for our salvation.
The next question deals with our justification. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” Paul answers this question in order to remind us that it is God who justifies. If God has already cleared us of all charges and declared us righteous, especially with knowledge of all our sins past, present and future, charge is there that could be brought forth against Christians to cause God to reverse His own judicial declaration? With God’s complete knowledge of our sins and the full atonement of our sins through Jesus Christ, what new charge, or sin, is there that God missed when He cleared our case? Is there a new sin that He didn’t anticipate? It sounds silly, but the absurdity is the point. There is no charge that would cause God to consider any charge against any of the Elect. Hence, the believer can rest secured in the justification of God upon them!
Paul continues this same line of thought and asks, “Who is to condemn?” Again, Paul’s reason for this question and the following response is to remind us that because of Christ, who was condemned for us in our place, we cannot be condemned. Thus, for God to condemn us who have been justified, He would have to condemn Christ who died for us. He would have to reject the sacrifice of His own Son. He would have to reject His own provision and plan. But more than this, Christ was not only condemned in our place, but He was raised for our justification (cf. Romans 4:25) and He bestows His resurrected life on believers (cf. Romans 8:11). His entire person and work is now represented to the Father on our behalf as He makes intercession for us on the basis of His atonement. What a mediator! How can He not reconcile to God? How can He not receive what He asks of the Father in our behalf?
Being so powerfully united to God the Father through our perfect High Priestly mediator, we have but one question left to ask: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... 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.”
With this too, I am persuaded that God indeed does preserve His children from all their enemies that would seek to take them from God’s purpose for their life, no matter what form they come in.
In tying this all in with our theme of inevitability, it is clear that the elect sinners who are inevitably adopted into God’s family are inevitably sanctified and will inevitably be preserved by God. This is so because God would not, and can not, condemn His own child adopted by Him. His love is too great. God won’t condemn what He has set apart as holy.
Summary
In sum, the Scriptures and section six of chapter three of the Westminster Confession present a very clear picture that though election guarantees the final glorification of salvation, it happens through the necessary God-ordained means of hearing the Gospel, being born-again, being justified through faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone but is accompanied by repentance. This justification results in God’s adoption of the elect into the family of God as sons and daughters bringing about their inevitable sanctification and preservation in holiness unto glorification.
The confession concludes, as previous sections have concerning the blessings of salvation and the elect saying,
“…Only the elect, and no others, are redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified and saved.”
This is entirely consistent with what we have already seen from Romans 8:29-30 and the chain of redemption, and thus need no further commenting.
In light of these things, there is no reason to think that Reformed Calvinism hinders, or stunts, things like evangelism, preaching, faith or repentance, or even living a Godly and sanctified life. Rather, the doctrine of election emerges as the basis for each of these. Without election, preaching is but futile for there is no real hope that any might be converted at all. Without the doctrine of election, it is entirely possible that none might be saved at all if they are left to their own sinfulness and corrupt ways. Election guarantees the conversion of some of all peoples on the face of the Earth through the preaching of the Gospel. This guaranteed conversion of some is trailed by their inevitable justification, continual faith and repentance, adoption and sanctification.
What a glorious thing is the marvelous and mighty doctrine of election! What a wise and loving God we have! May He be forever praised and exalted by all creatures, especially those of us who deserved eternal death but, all glory to God, have received His eternal mercy. Amen.
[1] Some Arminians contend that if one has not heard the
Gospel, then there is no basis for their condemnation since they did not
explicitly reject the offer of salvation.
Mormons also hold that in baptism for the dead, those who were still in
the “spirit prison” may be freed.