Tagged: eternal security

September 10, 2019

You are sealed

This is the 12th in a series of excerpts from the new MBC resource, “What Every Christian Should Know About Salvation,” available at mobaptist.org/apologetics.

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When believing sinners entrust their lives to Christ, the Father seals them with the Holy Spirit, placing His divine mark of ownership on them, thus ensuring His everlasting presence and their eternal security.

As the Father’s imprint on the surrendered heart, the Spirit reminds followers of Jesus they are secure as coheirs with Christ; authentic citizens of the kingdom of God; in the permanent grasp of the Father; and recipients of God’s divine pledge to finish the work He began in them.

In three New Testament passages, the apostle Paul describes the role of the Holy Spirit in sealing Christians:

2 Cor. 1:22 – “He [God] has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.”

Eph. 1:13-14 – “In him [Christ] you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.”

Eph. 4:30 – “And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.”
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September 4, 2018

To The Only God Our Savior

The Missouri Baptist Convention has published a new resource called The Last Apologist: A Commentary on Jude for Defenders of the Christian Faith. The 275-page book is available in print and Kindle editions on Amazon, and in print from the MBC. But we also want to make each of the 16 chapters available online. This post features the beginning of Chapter 16: Doxology: To the Only God Our Savior.

Previously: Under the Spell of False Teachers

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Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now, and forever. Amen. (Jude 24-25 HCSB)

The epistle of Jude is rich with graphic imagery and stark warnings. It is an urgent message, a wake-up call to the saints, imploring them to wrestle vigorously in defense of the core doctrines that define the Christian faith.

False teachers have crept into the church. They are ungodly, promiscuous, arrogant, immoral, disrespectful, blasphemous, beastly, selfish, fearless, grumbling, flattering, scoffing, and devoid of the Spirit. Their judgment has been marked out long ago. They have passed the point of no return. Their goal is to take as many people as possible to hell with them in a stretch limousine.

Israel’s history shows that their ilk goes down for the count beneath the judgment of God, yet they persist in their wickedness. They are dangerous reefs, waterless clouds, fruitless trees, wild waves of the sea, and wandering stars.

It seems overwhelming to contend with such foes. Equally frightening is the nagging fear that no doubt runs through the minds of Jude’s readers, including us: If the apostates were immersed in Christianity and still walked away, could the same thing happen to us? And then, the unthinkable: Did they lose their salvation – and could we?

But Jude’s warning comes with an ironclad guarantee. Yes, God judges the wicked, but He also remains faithful to His own. And, in the end, He keeps them secure. No one is able to pry them from His loving arms.
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June 1, 2011

The Doctrine of Divine Election – Download Free Study

The debate over the doctrine of divine election goes back at least as far as the 5th Century but came into sharpest focus in the wake of the Reformation. Calvinism is enjoying a resurgence today among many evangelical Christians. What is Calvinism? Arminianism? What “doctrines of grace” does TULIP represent? How are the sovereignty of God and the freedom of people compatible? Is it possible to go too far in embracing Reformed theology? And where do you fall on the “five-point” scale? This study takes a balanced approach to Calvinism and Arminianism and attempts to explain the similarities and differences between them.