Eternal Security

Reading time: 6 minutes

Security can be elusive as no one is without doubts. However, God’s elect possess God’s security. Under what circumstances do you feel most secure? We can consider being secure from different perspectives:

• Building a foundation on the Rock (Jesus)
• Unwavering mental fortitude
• Unable to be deceived or led astray
• Holding firm against an attack
• God grasping us even if we let go

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

Mark 13:22 ESV

God’s word is a stubborn truth that cannot be denied. Doubtless, all believers are the elect. And this text affirms it to be impossible to deceive the elect. God’s elect can discern the difference between the real Christ and imposters.

Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

Job 17:9 ESV

Unquestionably, authentic salvation strengthens believers. Paul asks:

Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Romans 8:33-34 NLT

Why can’t God’s elect be charged? God justifies His elect exclusive of all others. No one is above God, able to condemn His elect. Christ died for God’s elect exclusive of all others.

The plain reasoning here is, that those whom God justifies, and for whom Christ died (justification and redemption being equal in their comprehensive accomplishments), cannot be condemned. The eternal justice of God forbids it. The apostle confines these blessings and privileges to the believer. In the same passage, it is asked,

Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for [the elect], won’t he also give us everything else?

Romans 8:32 NLT

Here we learn that all spiritual blessings — faith, repentance, sanctification, and salvation — are involved in the gift of Christ, and bestowed freely for His sake. If God has delivered up His Son for them, how much more will He bestow all things necessary to their eternal salvation. The gift of Christ’s sacrifice for us (the elect) is a certain pledge that God will give us all things for salvation.

Secure in Jesus’s Hands

God has indeed given all His chosen believers to Christ for eternal redemption. The elect are secure with Jesus.

Those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.

John 6:37-39 NLT

The elect were given to Christ before they came to Him, and God said they will come to Him. The objective of giving was that they should come. All who are thus given to Christ by the Father shall come to him, or believe upon him (verses 39 and 40 use these phrases interchangeably). Those who come, he will in no way cast out; they will all be saved.

The whole doctrine of this passage is that God, in the covenant before mentioned, did give the people of His choice to Christ, and it is the will of God that not one given will be lost; but that all of them (the elect) should be raised up at the last day. The great Savior came into the world to carry out that will of God; and all given to Him will come to Him, believe in Him, and obtain eternal life. With this view, the Savior prays:

For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him.

John 17:2 NLT

Those God gives to Jesus—no more, no less—He also gives eternal life. Those who have Jesus, have eternal life. Those who don’t have Jesus, don’t have eternal life.

All these passages point to one objective: the certain and infallible salvation of all God’s elect. And now, as God is omnipotent, there can be no failure.

I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish [not ever].

John 10:14-15, 26-28 NLT

If this text is true, falling from grace is impossible.

Secure Because of God’s Choice

Those God chooses for salvation are secure in God’s choice. God initiates and completes the work of salvation for the elect.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:11-12 ESV

Will eternal redemption save a sinner? Certainly. If not, what kind of redemption will? I would be willing to rest the whole argument here on this one text; for I feel sure that an eternal redemption is long enough to save to the greatest limits possible. Do not forget this point.

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

Romans 5:8-9 NLT

If we have been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath. We have God’s word plainly for this, and let God be true, but every man a liar that denies it. Further, consider:

When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers.

Acts 13:48 NLT

In this case, only those who were ordained to eternal life believed. This passage cannot be manipulated to sustain any human reasoning. To consider apostasy, these words of God must be denied. But we have seen many places where scripture, just as plainly as language can be, secures the salvation of everyone born of God.

This is post 13 in a series; you can read the previous post. This post started as the public domain works of J. H. Oliphant. While sections are the same in many ways, I modernized the language and added my thoughts to provide greater clarity for my readers.
Image by Alfred Derks from Pixabay

Reading time: 5 minutes

Jesus’s kingdom is secure and, by association, you are also secure. Jesus’s love holds you; it isn’t a jealously possessive grip, but an energizing and free grip. Once you have entered Jesus’s kingdom, there will never be a reason to leave!

I propose an argument for the final perseverance of saints on the virtue and efficacy of the Savior’s prayers. I know it cannot be refuted, and I know it cannot be attacked, without calling the Savior a liar.

The Savior says “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me” (John 11:41-42 NLT). Mark the words, “You always hear me.” God always answers Jesus’s prayers!

Jesus prays, “My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you” (John 17:9 NLT). After praying for His disciples, He adds, “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message” (John 17:20 NLT). He prays that they may be with Him where He is, that they may behold His glory.

Furthermore, Jesus prays, “I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them” (John 17:26 NLT). In Romans 8, Paul tells us, “He also makes intercession for us.” From all this, it cannot, without irreverence, be doubted that Jesus prays for every believer and that they may be one with Him. So then we know this prayer cannot be answered if falling from grace is true. Christ tells us, that His Father always hears Him pray. The final perseverance of saints is secure from this standpoint.

Jesus’s Kingdom Has No End

Next, let’s consider Matthew 20:20:

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

Matthew 20:20-23 ESV

This kingdom is endless for Luke 1:33 says, “Of his kingdom there will be no end.” To whom will it be granted to sit by Jesus? To them whom God prepares for it. See also Mark 10:37. When was this kingdom prepared for those persons? The Savior tells us,

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’

Matthew 25:34 ESV

This kingdom cannot mean the church, and cannot be given on account of works or character, but must be given to them for whom it is prepared, and for whom it was prepared before the foundation of the world. Falling from grace melts away before these passages, like snow before the hot sun of mid-summer.

Jesus Chooses Those Who Can Enter His Kingdom

The Savior says in John 10:14 “I know my sheep.” Again, “I know whom I have chosen” (John 13:18) and

God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and “All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil.”

2 Timothy 2:19 NLT

This is true today; He knows all His sheep; all that have this seal and all He has chosen. But in the last day, He will say to the wicked, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:23 NIV).

Now, if these two sayings of our Savior are true,

1. “I know my sheep; ” “I know whom I have chosen;” “ The Lord knows them that are his; ” and
2. “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

then, among those who are finally lost and bound for hell, there will not be one who ever was a sheep, or chosen, or sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption.

Consequently, if any do fall from grace they are not among those who are finally lost; but by reference to Hebrews 6:4, it is seen that, if it were possible for one to fall, he could not be renewed. Put all these together, and it is manifest that falling from grace is impossible.

Can you think that there will be some in the last day, who have lost their grace, that could turn upon Christ and say, you did know me once, for I was once your sheep? I was once a believer, and you said of me, “They will never die.” I ate the flesh and drank the blood of Christ, and it was said, I should live forever. I was once sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of redemption.

I was once an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ; it was said I was kept by the power of God to salvation; the kingdom was prepared for me before the foundation of the world; I was once born of an incorruptible seed, even of the word of God, which lives and abides forever; I was born of God, and it was said of me, “He cannot sin; for he is born of God.” I was also once one of Christ’s people; and Gabriel said, “He will save his people from their sins;” but now I must sink down to hell.”

The falling from grace of only one of God’s children would render false all that is on this list. All believers should consider and stand firm in the evidence found in scripture.

This is post 12 in a series; you can read the previous post. This post started as the public domain works of J. H. Oliphant. While sections are the same in many ways, I modernized the language and added my thoughts to provide greater clarity for my readers.
Image by Karen .t from Pixabay

Reading time: 5 minutes

Flowers and most other things in this life will fade away eventually. But the person who is born again possesses an unfading spirit and inheritance. God’s children, born of His Spirit, are “Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible” (1 Peter 1:23). The incorruptible Holy Spirit implanted within believers preserves them from wasting away from ongoing sin.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

1 John 3:9 ESV

So the saints are born of incorruptible seed. If it is incorruptible, who can corrupt it? Falling from grace involves the absurdity of corrupting that which God’s word says is incorruptible. Also, His word says he cannot sin. But if he can fall from grace, he can go to hell, too.

Believers’ Inheritance Is Unfading

Romans 8:17 says we are “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” How can Christ be brought into the inheritance, and those who are joined with Him be cast down to hell? Therefore, we are both heirs and unfading.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

1 Peter 1:3-5 NLT

Because the heirs are unfading, so is the inheritance. It is reserved for you, and the power of God keeps you. You can’t gain an unfading inheritance, without first having God become your keeper. If God’s power can keep a saint, my case is proven. He keeps you ready, ready to be revealed in the last time. If He keeps you ready, then there is no moment in which you are not ready.

It is not left to your faithfulness, nor the vigilance of angels, but God takes an interest, and He becomes our keeper and secures the inheritance to us, and us to the inheritance. These two, the heirs and inheritance, must be brought together, despite the opposition of the world, the flesh and the devil.

To accomplish this, the heirs are born of an incorruptible seed; the inheritance is also incorruptible, and cannot fade away, and these heirs have an earnest of this inheritance and are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of redemption. Our earthly possessions sometimes take wings and fly away, or are consumed by thieves, or in some way, we lose them. But not so with the unfading children of God; their inheritance is kept far, far above this world, and above the most distant possibility of destruction. God’s unseen hand is certainly preserving each heir for that inheritance.

We have found that both the inheritance and heirs are unfading. In Galatians 4:7, they are declared to be heirs through Christ; not only adopted legally, but “begotten of him;” and “made partakers of the divine nature.” Is this proceeding in court legal? Is this will a good one, that secures the estate to each heir? Is it immutable? or can it be broken? I know that lawyers sometimes break the wills of men, leaving impoverished some of the heirs named in the will.

But, let’s remember that here Jesus is the executor of the will, and He knows the spirit of the will, and all the heirs in the will; and it is simply slander on Christ, to charge that some of the heirs will miss their inheritance and go to hell. Disobedience in a child does not destroy its relation to its father, nor make void the legality of a will.

The Heir’s Unfading Life is Hidden in Christ

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Colossians 3:3-4 ESV

“You also will.” Christ will no more certainly appear in glory than that all His heirs shall appear there. Christ’s destiny and theirs are the same. If He shall appear in glory, so shall they also appear with Him. His glory as the Savior would be eclipsed without them; His glory as the Captain would be dimmed if any one of His mighty army should be found missing. When the great book of life is opened, and the roll called, all will and must be there, to maintain the great name of Jesus as a deliverer. Paul assures us that Jesus will say, “Here am I and the children you have given me.”

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:2 ESV

“Because I live, you will live also.” Why? “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” For you to lose your spiritual connection with Jesus, Satan must climb up to the throne of God, dethrone the Almighty, tear out His heart, paralyze His arm, and capture and destroy Jesus Christ. All this, Satan must do before he can get your life; for it “is hidden with Christ in God.”

Focus now on this image of your life hidden within Christ. Nothing can reach you or cause you harm!

This is post 11 in a series; you can read the previous post. This post started as the public domain works of J. H. Oliphant. While sections are the same in many ways, I modernized the language and added my thoughts to provide greater clarity for my readers.
Image by Aberrant Realities from Pixabay

Reading time: 5 minutes

When God makes a promise, He never fails to keep it. All His covenants are ultimately fulfilled in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). Jesus is the first in everything; He defeated death when God resurrected Him. All believers will follow after Jesus and be raised to eternal life. God promised us the New Covenant which will last forever.

And I will make him the firstborn,
    the highest of the kings of the earth.
My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,
    and my covenant will stand firm for him.
I will establish his offspring forever
    and his throne as the days of the heavens.

Psalm 89:27-29 ESV

God’s Covenant Means He Disciplines But Does Not Abandon His Children

In Acts 13:34, Paul calls Christ the sure blessings of David; this covenant was confirmed by God in Christ; the law could not annul it or make the promise of it of no effect. How can the children of this covenant fall away and be lost forever? God might discipline them, but never stop loving them.

If [the children of this covenant] do not obey my decrees
    and fail to keep my commands,
then I will punish their sin with the rod,
    and their disobedience with beating.
But I will never stop loving him
    nor fail to keep my promise to him.

Psalm 89:31-33 NLT

Now, does God’s faithfulness to His Son demand that His children (redeemed by His blood) shall be saved? Unquestionably it does because His word says that He will not stop loving them.

I will not violate my covenant
    or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
Once for all I have sworn by my holiness;
    I will not lie to David (Christ).
His offspring shall endure forever,
    his throne as long as the sun before me.

Psalm 89:34-36 ESV

The author of Hebrews refers to the same when he says:

So 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, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 6:17-20 ESV

How, I ask, is this covenant mutable? Can it be altered or changed? No, it is immutable; the oath of God secures it, and all is confirmed in Christ. Therefore, the blood of Christ is called “the blood of the everlasting covenant;” this covenant is called the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God—who does not lie—promised them before the world began.

Titus 1:2 NLT

God, who cannot lie, promised eternal life before the world began; also, grace was given to us in Christ before the world began, and we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. This proves the existence of an everlasting covenant, which is related not only to the crucifixion of Jesus, but to the eternal salvation of all His children; and not only is the death of Jesus a subject of appointment in this covenant, but also the result of His death. So David could say:

Is it not my family God has chosen?
    Yes, he has made an everlasting covenant with me.
His agreement is arranged and guaranteed in every detail.
    He will ensure my safety and success.

2 Samuel 23:5 NLT

Nothing about Jesus’s death — its time, manner, and purpose — was left uncertain.

But Israel is saved by the Lord
    with everlasting salvation;
you shall not be put to shame or confounded
    to all eternity.

Isaiah 45:17 ESV

Here is salvation certain, that shall reach even to eternity.

God’s Covenant Means He Does Not Forget or Fail to Fulfill His Promises

Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.

Isaiah 49:15-16 ESV

God uses a powerful illustration here. Do these words look as if fading from grace is possible? No, not until God lies under oath, nor until the everlasting covenant is annulled, nor until Christ, who is one in covenant with us, is dragged down from His throne of power, and hurled into hell. God made Christ a high priest forever…

• after the order of Melchisedec (Hebrews 6:20)
• over the house of God (Hebrews 10:21)
• by the power of an endless life (Hebrews 7:16)

As a priest of this order, and over this house, He procures endless life. He is the captain, to bring many sons to glory. For this work, He is made perfect through suffering. He is the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of all His people; He will be to them a God, and they shall be to Him a people. From what we have seen, the salvation of God’s people depends on the success of Christ as the surety of the better testament; and as he cannot fail, the salvation of all his people is certain.

The New Covenant is such good news because of all that Jesus has fulfilled for us believers. The security of your faith, of your very life, is only as strong as the object of your faith. If your faith is fully in Christ, you will experience full assurance of your salvation.

This is post 10 in a series; you can read the previous post. This post started as the public domain works of J. H. Oliphant. While sections are the same in many ways, I modernized the language and added my thoughts to provide greater clarity for my readers.
Image by Meranda D from Pixabay

Reading time: 6 minutes

God has purpose in everything He does. Tomorrow portions of the USA will experience a total eclipse of the sun. The moon is about 400x smaller than the sun while also being about 400x farther away from the sun than it is from the Earth. This combination allows the sun and moon to appear as if they are the same size in the sky. Websites like this physics one claim this to be a complete coincidence, but we know it was God’s plan. God designed the planets so that only us on Earth can experience this (someone living on Mars would never experience this because the distances and sizes are not right).

God is known in the Bible as the God of purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His own will. Therefore, what we see produced by the hand of God, is not the product of chance or accident, but the fulfillment of His purpose. The whole universe, sun, moon and stars, the earth and its fullness, are now as God purposed them before their creation; and as He had no pattern to work by, they are an exhibition of His wisdom and true creative power.

God has planned the heavens down to the smallest details of who you are. You are who you are on purpose. You are no coincidence!

The Lord of hosts has sworn:
“As I have planned,
    so shall it be,
and as I have purposed,
    so shall it stand.”

Isaiah 14:24 ESV

Reader, did God ever think He would save anyone, and yet that one’s salvation fail?

For the Lord of hosts has purposed,
    and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
    and who will turn it back?

Isaiah 14:27 ESV

If God’s hand is stretched out to save His people, is it not wicked to contend that His hand can be turned back? “The Lord has spoken—he who made these things known so long ago” Acts 15:17-18 NLT.

God Made Us for His Purpose

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” Ephesians 2:9 ESV. Conversion is God’s work and not the work of chance or accident; it is one of the works which He does according to His purpose. “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family” Ephesians 1:5 NLT. Our being children is the result, not of chance, or human appointment or agency, but of the predestination of God. Our regeneration is an inheritance we have, not for our works, but for God’s purpose.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Ephesian 1:11 ESV

Here our being born again is the result of our being predestined; Therefore, we were predestined to this end by “him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” Therefore, our being made to possess this inheritance was in the mind of God long before, and accordingly, we are blessed.

How will those be saved whom God has appointed to salvation, and who, in harmony with that appointment, have obtained their inheritance? “According to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” Ephesians 3:11 NIV. So, let us ask, what is that eternal purpose?

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

John 6:39 ESV

So this eternal purpose, counsel, and will is that all given to Christ shall be saved. “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” Matthew 1:21 ESV. Will He fail? Will God’s eternal purpose be defeated, and His will unexecuted?

Falling from grace argues that He may fail; and if He may fail to save all given him, all His people, He also may fail in His blood, and the cross may be a failure. If so, then God’s purposes, counsel, and will may be a failure, and the Holy Spirit may fail; and there might well be a song of triumph in hell; all Heaven might be clothed in sack-cloth and mourning; and Christ might be mocked, thus: “This man began to build and was not able to finish” Luke 14:30 ESV.

We also learn that God possesses foreknowledge in the highest conceivable perfection; therefore, all His works are in perfect harmony with perfect wisdom, love, and power; and where He has begun a good work, He will perform it until the day of Christ. I would argue the truth of the final perseverance of every saint, upon the ground of the covenant of grace.

For our shield belongs to the Lord,
    our king to the Holy One of Israel.

Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said:
    “I have granted help to one who is mighty;
    I have exalted one chosen from the people.”

Psalms 89:18-19 ESV

And of this chosen one he says: “‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations” Psalm 89:4 ESV.

He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
    the sins of us all.

Unjustly condemned,
    he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants,
    that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down
    for the rebellion of my people. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
    he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
    my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
    for he will bear all their sins.

Isaiah 53:5,6,8,11 NLT

The many justified are the many whose sins are borne; the bearing of sin results in justification. These two things are tied together so inseparably in each of these passages, that anyone willing to see truth can see it.

While His soul is being offered, He shall see the anguish of His soul, and be satisfied. He shall see the end and object of His death and be satisfied; what would satisfy Him but the ultimate salvation of all His people? Do lashes heal us on their own or we are healed because of His lashes? In all these passages, we are presented as one with Christ in the covenant; so our release from suffering is a necessary consequence of His suffering.

Consider today how strongly you are tied to God’s purposes and rejoice that you are no coincidence!

This is post 9 in a series; you can read the previous post. This post started as the public domain works of J. H. Oliphant. While sections are the same in many ways, I modernized the language and added my thoughts to provide greater clarity for my readers.
Image by Susan Cipriano from Pixabay

Reading time: 8 minutes

The scriptures teach that God is love (1 John 4:8) and that salvation’s plan, in all its parts, is the fruit of that love. God did not give His Son to die for us, that He might love us; but He loved us and, because of that love, He sacrificed His Son for us.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 NIV

You might have been told that God only loves you because of Jesus. But this is not true nor biblical! God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit loved you and agreed on the plan of salvation. The trinity is always unified in everything. God’s love toward us, even when we were sinners, was sufficiently intense to cause Him to give up His Son Jesus to death. Jesus laid down His life willingly (John 10:18; 1 John 3:16). We are not told just when this love began to exist, but it is written:

But he alone is God, and who can oppose him? God does as he pleases.
He is always the same and never makes dark shadows by changing.

Job 23:13; James 1:17 CEV

Therefore, God who is love, has loved us as long as He has been what He is now; but, if He is unchangeable, we cannot say He ever began to love us. Therefore, God’s gifts, Jesus and the salvation inseparably joined to Jesus, are the fruits of God’s everlasting love. But not only is it true that God’s love comes before the giving of Christ as a Redeemer, but it also produces our delivery from sin.

But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much he made us alive with Christ, and God’s gift of undeserved grace is what saves you.

Ephesians 2:4-5 CEV

We are not regenerated and saved, and therefore loved, but loved, and therefore regenerated and saved.

We love Him because he first loved us. God’s love to us has “causative power,” and produces in us love for God. “Love (in us) is of God,” and “He that loves is born of God.” The thought that God loved us before the world began is incomprehensible; yet we have seen that God’s gift of Jesus is a fruit of that love. As grace was given to us in Christ before the world began, so we know that God loved us before the world began. Therefore, there is nothing older than God’s love for us. Thousands of years have come and gone, and yet God’s love exists and bears the most precious fruit.

God’s Love is Not Fickle

No saint can say that he has loved God and obeyed Him, and that God loved him as a consequence; but certainly God loved us, and our loving Him and obeying Him is a fruit of that love.

You cannot believe that God’s love is directed by perfect wisdom, is given fully to us, and that it could possibly be removed at some point. For instance: He loves you today; His perfect wisdom comprehends not only what you are now, but what you ever will be; therefore, he is not disappointed in what He loves. You never can become worse than He knows you will be; and, in fact, He loved you while you were dead in sin, and certainly you can never be worse than dead in sin. Therefore, to say that God will cease to love you is to reject His wisdom, and charge him with misplacing His love, and attribute changeableness to Him.

But, if it is argued that God loves character, and that He loves persons only as they produce that character, we would answer, that every grace of the Christian is produced in him by the Lord; and it is simple nonsense to say that God clothes His people with every benefit of the cross, and then loves them only because of that dress. Instead, He loved us first and then saved us.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Galatians 5:22-23 NLT

For those who believe in God, He provides the fruit of love in their hearts, so that they can return the love. Therefore, He loves none of us for our good character, but our good character grows out of His love for us. If He had not loved us, given His Son to die for us, regenerated us, and worked in us all that makes up the difference between our present selves and former selves, we could never have good character.

You cannot conceive of an immutable God, with mutable, changeable love, affectionately embracing believers today, and tomorrow casting them down to hell; today calling one an heir of Heaven, beholding his name written in the book of life, and tomorrow erasing that name and disinheriting that heir. The Bible gives no account of such a God; neither do we, poor, sinful, erring beings, need such a God.

God’s Love is Stronger than a Parent’s Love

Have you never thought of the tenderness of a parent’s love toward a prodigal son or daughter? Though that child goes away in sin and disgrace, and others have forsaken and cast the child out of their hearts, yet that good father never stops loving the child, and that mother wets her pillow with tears, as she thinks, in the stillness of the night, of her erring child; and they both lift their petitions to God, to save the wanderer.

Few children know how much parents love them, till the parents are cold in death; so, few Christians know how much God loves them, and how carefully He watches them. We admire pure, disinterested love in parents (love from God for their child); love that floods cannot sweep away; that will follow their offspring as long as life lasts; love unchangeable, unalterable, constant.

Could such a high, noble, and perfect love be possible for parents, and yet God is destitute of it? Should we measure the perfection of creature love by this standard, and throw it aside as too glorious for God?

If God’s love for His children is fickle, changeable, dependent on changing circumstances, alternately given and taken away, then, in my opinion, God’s love is imperfect, and therefore He is imperfect. But if God loves those whom He loves eternally, infinitely, and perfectly, then is His love directed in wisdom, and He is perfect; and one sweet thought here is, that the evidence that He loves me now, or ever did love me, is a certain, unalterable, and irreversible title to Heaven.

The Savior prays:

I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

John 17:23 NLT

Jesus desires the world to know a great truth here: that as God loves the Son, so he loves His children. And a little further he says: “You loved me even before the world began!” (John 17:24 NLT). So, if God loves us as He loves His Son, and loved His Son before the foundation of the world, then He loved us before the foundation of the world. If the Son lives by the Father, so we shall live by the Son (John 6:57).

God Disciplines Those He Loves

It is for our profit that we are chastened, and not for our destruction. God says:

then I will punish their sin with the rod,
    and their disobedience with beating.
But I will never stop loving him
    nor fail to keep my promise to him.
No, I will not break my covenant;
    I will not take back a single word I said.

Psalm 89:32-34 NLT

And in Hebrews, He speaks:

And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins. If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

Hebrews 8:12; 12:8, 11 NLT

How delightful the thought that God never changes, and that, though we are prone to wander, God never forgets nor forsakes us. Our own experience will bear out this thought. We have left undone the things we should have done, and done many things we should not have done; yet God has not turned his back upon us, and we can sing:

“Oh, Lord, you never change;
But because I stray;
Lord, guide me by your Spirit,
And keep me in your way.”

The Christian may apply the following lines to himself:

“So close, so very close to God,
I cannot nearer be;
For, in the person of his Son,
I am as near as he.

So dear, so very dear to God,
More dear I cannot be;
The love with which he loves his Son,
Such is his love for me.

Why should I ever careful be,
Since such a God is mine?
He watches o’er me night and day,
And tells me, ‘Mine is thine.’”

A Mind at Perfect Peace

This is post 8 in a series; you can read the previous post. This post started as the public domain works of J. H. Oliphant. While sections are the same in many ways, I modernized the language and added my thoughts to provide greater clarity for my readers.
Image by Ginger Palmisano from Pixabay