Is God security conscious? Yes, and 2Corinthians 1:21-22 sums up God’s security alertness, which reads, “Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; [22] Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” Stablisheth comes from bebaioō (beb-ah-yo’-o): ‘to make firm, establish, confirm, make sure; to stabilize (figuratively).’ God took the initiative to bebaioo Paul and all believers in the faith (the only prerequisite) of Christ (the sole ground)! The same God went further (for HE does not rest on HIS oars, look back or stop working unto the perfection of the saints) to anoint us; anoint is chriō (khree’-o): consecrating Jesus to the Messianic office, and furnishing him with the necessary powers for its administration; enduing Christians with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Probably akin to [chraomai: to furnish what is needed] through the idea of contact; to smear or rub with oil, that is, (by implication) to consecrate to an office or religious service.’ God did not stop at the anointing (merely breaking the yoke) but HE took a further step when HE sealed: sphragizo, the same as in John 6:27. Then HE completed the business by doing the unbelievable, something to make Satan go uncomfortably greenest with envy eternally, He did a fourth thing (four is the scriptural number for creation), by giving us the Holy Spirit Himself as earnest. Earnest is arrhabōn (ar-hrab-ohn): ‘money which in purchases is given as a pledge or down payment that the full amount will subsequently be paid; a pledge, that is, part of the purchase money or property given in advance as security for the rest.’ This word is, in Greek grammar, a masculine noun, implying a wholeness of completion, needing no other element to maintain its existence. If God (a spirit Being) should make a part payment, to actualize a spiritual phenomenon, please do tell me, from what resource, riches or wealth of this terra firma can one draw from to make a complementary payment? Is it a scriptural possibility? How can God the Holy Spirit ever be insufficient as or for any payment whatsoever and wherever? The Spirit is more than enough, God had concluded already; can you not see that all God wants you to do is to continue, on your own part, to keep on believing with a yea and never an iota of a nay, for with God it is always ‘yea and amen’ (in a deeper sense – ‘Jesus and Jesus’); and also note that there is no conditionality for an effectual and conclusive establishment of salvation reality. The reality of security has credence lent to it in Luke 10:35 and Matthew 17:27. Does arrhabon tell us in the scripture that HE has paid the price of salvation in full? Tell me, if you run into a huge, life threatening debt and someone magnanimously paid your debt, in full, and got the IOU torn into an inoperativeness, are you still owing? This is what is meant by justification!
Paul, the erudite New Testament teacher, of truth, is the quintessential revelator of Divine protocol as touching His Church. In a classic Pauline of Ephesians 1:13-23, verse thirteen expounds the methodology of salvation to be the acceptance of the Lordship of Jesus, and the eventual culmination in the sphragizo. This seal is explained in verse 14, “Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” The Holy Spirit is the guarantee, God’s guarantee; and what this is, in other words, is that God gives Himself as the guarantee! Paul is not seen praying against their apostasy, rather he is ‘thanking God’ for them. I am wondering why HE would do all these ‘going beyond the extra mile’ of preceding verses just to save a disinclined soul. “….that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me;” Acts 26:18. Jesus is quoted verbatim by Paul in his unforgettable encounter with the Lord of glory through whom, by faith, we are ‘sanctified’: hagiazō (hag-ee-ad’-zo) ‘to purify by expiation: free from the guilt of sin; to make holy, that is, (ceremonially) purify or consecrate; to separate from profane things and dedicate to God; (mentally) to venerate.’ Jesus did not give a single condition outside faith. In the book of Romans 15:16, “….the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost;” in this verse, sanctified is the same hagiazo. The same Greek word is utilized in Hebrews 10:14, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” ‘Perfected’, here is: teleioō (tel-i-o’-o): ‘to complete, that is, (literally) accomplish, or (figuratively) consummate (in character);’ and ‘for,’ which comes just after ‘perfected’ is eis (ice) ‘to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place or time;’ while ‘ever’ is: diēnekes (dee-ay-nek-es) ‘continuously, continuous; carried through, that is, perpetually.’ By the language of the verse above it is clear that the ‘foreverness’ of the ‘perfection’ is more highlighted than the ‘sanctification;’ other verse of hagios are: 1Corinthians1:2, 6:11; 1Timothy 4:5; 2Timothy 2:21; Hebrews 2:11, 9:13-14, 10:10, 29 and Jude 1:1.
The Remonstrant quote Old Testament verses like, Deuteronomy 29:18-20, 2Chronicles 15:1-2 & Ezekiel 18:20-24 to support their conditional security didacticism. Come on, ‘conditionalists’, you cannot use the old order of salvation to explain the soteriology based on the blood the Lamb of God. New Testament scriptures they used include Galatians 5:2-4 (excluding the 5th verse!), 19-21 (excluding 25-26), 6:7-10; Hebrews 3:7-14, 10:36-39; 1Timothy 4:13-16 & James 1:12. Galatians chapter 5 is intended to teach the Churches at Galatia that righteousness of works and justification by faith cannot co-exist; that they cannot by-pass the liberty brought by the finished work of Christ and embrace the circumcision law of Judaism (which will cause the ‘fall’ from grace) for ‘the letter of the law killeth’; but they leave out the fifth verse where Paul includes himself, “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” They, who lack the faith as against we, who are of the faith. The eighteenth verse is directed at ‘ye’ the faithless ones up to the twenty-first; but at the 25th & 26th Paul turns to himself and others of the faith, who are expected to behave like those working for the heavenly reward. Chapter 6:7-10 is an encouragement to sow aright. The Book of Hebrews is to a large extent intended to rouse Judaism to the new providential salvific order which makes the blood of the animals a divinely closed chapter. From the seventh to the fourteenth verses (where he includes himself – being a Jew) of the third chapter he was reminding his fellow Israelites of God’s word. Chapter 10 verses 36-39 where we have ‘draw back’ is in reference to the fact that they were privileged to have the Saviour come from their stock. He made a distinction between the unbelieving Jews and Christians like him in verse 39, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” The idiomatic ‘draw back’ is the Greek hupostolē (hoop-os-tol-ay): ‘the timidity of one stealthily retreating; shrinkage (timidity), that is, (by implication) apostasy.’ Of course the Jews who have never truly believed in the finished work of Christian salvation can apostatize. In 1Timothy 4:13-16, the word ‘continue’ {epimenō (ep-ee-men’-o): ‘to stay over, that is, remain (figuratively persevere)}’ of the 16th verse does not imply a likelihood of losing it, but to serve as the lubricant to promote the salvation he wields as a pastor. A pastor must be born again before holding the office. The ‘crown’ {stephanos (stef’-an-os): ‘From an apparently primary “stepho” (to twine or wreathe); a chaplet (as a badge of royalty, a prize in the public games or a symbol of honor generally; but more conspicuous and elaborate than the simple fillet, (diadēma)}’ is a prize given for an industrious Christian life which determines one’s heavenly hierarchal stand, by which same hierarchy our eternal life on earth will be based.
Does John 3:16 say, “I will give you what may determine an eternal life?” No, it says, “…that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The verb ‘have’ is: echo (ekh’-o), meaning, ‘to hold (such as possession, ability, continuity, relation, or condition).’ If what was given to me is called, “everlasting (or eternal) life” then that makes me an undying inheritor of God’s very life, called zoe. Now, if, after sometime, I did a bad thing and the punishment calls for going to hell, it will then follow that what I actually got was not truly zoe, and, that will be disappointing; a disappointing fraud. Is God fraudulently deceitful? God forbid! Why would the Bible say, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand;” quoting Jesus in John 10:28? It also reads in Acts 13:48, “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” The word ‘ordained’ is ‘tasso (tas’-so): ‘to arrange in an orderly manner; (generally) to assign or dispose (to a certain position or lot).’ God had foreknown those who would believe and He was ready for what had been ‘tasso.’ “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is from Romans 5:21; and if grace reigns through righteousness, do you know that Christ Himself is our righteousness, Jeremiah 23:6; 1Corinthians 1:30: Romans 4:25; 2Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9; Colossians 3:3? This is what we have in 1John 5:10 “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” Verse eleven, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” This new life is too good to be believed, it is the spiritual revolution that has brought man and God in a union never envisaged by the philosophies of man, Colossians 2:8. This union forms Christ’s mystical body, the Church! It goes beyond the wildest imagination even of the celestial beings: for the angelic intelligentsia are still looking into the unprecedented matter, 1Peter 1:10 & 12. This is the greatest miracle (that God becoming a man, turns man into God, Psalm 82:6, John 10:34) hence God’s most treasured possession of inestimable price! It is found in Matthew 13:45, 46. Amen!
“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you…” Paul began to rail on the Galatian Church (Gal. 3:1). Why? The answer is in Galatians 3:2, “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” They, definitely, allowed their ears to itch them and thereby were channeling what was diametrically opposed to the doctrine of grace into their hearts. They needed to have been bewitched to jettison Paul’s toil! Paul’s anger, not yet assuaged, burst forth in Galatians 3:3, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Remonstrant fifth soteriological point teaches that, “Believers are capable to resist sin through grace and Christ will keep them from falling, but whether they are beyond the possibility of ultimately forsaking God or becoming devoid of grace must be more particularly determined.” This means that a born again child of God, HIS inestimable property, which none can pluck from the hand of Christ whom HE also has HIS everlasting and divine grip on, and whose (the believer) personal righteousness, for the kingdom’s sake, is no longer tenable but that of Christ Himself, and whose will (hence) is now constantly Christ’s, will lose that of which its eternal stance is a legality! Preposterous!

To read the 4th part click here

Visits: 54