In our last session … we looked at the role of God the Father in the eternal security of His children … and we saw a number of things about our eternal security that are dependent on the Father. Those include …
- Your Father alone has justified you and He alone will glorify you.
- Your Father has confirmed you to the end.
- Your Father has chosen you to bring Him glory throughout eternity.
- Your Father promises to show you more mercy in future ages.
- Your Father works to accomplish His will and purpose for you.
- Your Father plans to bring you to glory.
- Your Father has given you eternal life and you cannot perish.
- Your Father has promised and He is able to perform.
- Your Father promises that nothing can separate you from His love.
- Your Father is able to make you stand.
- Your Father has hidden your life in Himself as God.
- Your Father keeps what you have committed.
- Your Father preserves your spirit, soul and body blameless.
- Your Father has saved you to the uttermost.
- Your Father keeps you from stumbling to present you faultless.
- Your Father’s infinite love saved you when you were His enemy.
- Your Father has adopted you as His child and made you His friend.
- Your Father has chosen you to be without blame.
- Your Father has promised that you can never perish.
- Your Father has promised you have already passed from death to life.
- Your Father has made promises to you and sealed them with an oath.
In this session, we are going to look at …
Reasons That Eternal Security is Dependent On God The Son Alone
The second of our 17 Biblical proofs for your eternal position in God’s family or your eternal
security “in Christ” rests upon the person and work of Jesus alone on your behalf. It is very important for you to see that your present and future security rests upon Jesus’ works alone and does not require you to add or do anything.
Before we look at the specific proofs in the New Testament, read the following passage from God through the apostle Paul that clearly confirms that absolutely nothing can “separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:34-39 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You will examine chapter 8 of Romans in detail later in your study, but for now you should see in this strong passage that nothing can separate you from the love of God “in Christ.”
You can now focus your attention on 8 facets of God’s work of salvation that assure your eternal security … and which are all dependent upon the person and work of Jesus alone as God the Son.
1. Jesus bore your condemnation forever.
2. You are a partaker of Jesus’ resurrection life during your journey.
3. Jesus always acts as your Advocate during your journey.
4. Jesus never ceases to do His work of intercession during your journey.
5. Jesus is your Good Shepherd for your entire journey.
6. Jesus’ purpose is to present you without blemish.
7. Jesus is the author of eternal salvation only.
8. Jesus suffered only once for your sins forever.
1. Jesus bore your condemnation forever.
What does it mean for you to be under condemnation? It means God judged you, found you guilty as charged, and pronounced His just sentence of spiritual death upon you “in Adam.” As the physical descendant of Adam and Eve, you were born into this world under God’s condemnation and on spiritual death row awaiting your eternal confinement in the Lake of Fire. Unless someone greater than yourself supernaturally freed you from your condemnation before you physically died, you were on your way to becoming eternally condemned. This is what the repentant thief acknowledged that
Jesus alone could do for him as he trusted Christ while suffering on his deserved cross beside Jesus as recorded in Luke’s gospel account:
Luke 23:40‐41 40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ʺDo you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.ʺ
It is because Jesus was both God and sinless Man, that He alone could suffer as your substitute the righteous condemnation and wrath that God had placed you under “in Adam.” Jesus willingly suffered your condemnation alone on Calvary and the following passage confirms that His total obedience qualified Him to become the author of your eternal salvation.
Hebrews 5:8‐9 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
Did you notice that Jesus is not the author of temporary or conditional salvation? But can your
journey sins as a Christian ever put you back under God’s condemnation? Absolutely not. The reason you can never and will never be put back under God’s condemnation during your journey is based upon the kind of death that Jesus died for you.
1 John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Jesus’ death propitiated or appeased God’s wrath and God removed His condemnation from you forever. Jesus did not only bear God’s condemnation upon your past sins before you were saved; in fact, all your sins were future when Jesus died in 30 A.D. because you had not been born yet. Jesus did not die for only some of your present or future sins. Jesus bore all of God’s condemnation for all of your past, present, and future sins, and He alone propitiated God’s wrath and condemnation against you forever. If you can never again be condemned, you are secure.
2. You are a partaker of Jesus’ resurrection life during your journey.
Since Jesus now lives in you, you are now a partaker of His resurrection life and you share His life during the rest of your journey. The following verse affirms that Jesus was raised from the grave by the Father to show you that you have been justified by His substitutionary death for you.
Romans 4:23-25 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Did you notice that Jesus was raised to resurrection life because the Father had justified you by His substitutionary death? The bodily resurrection of Jesus is the Father’s proof to you that Jesus’ death for you satisfied His wrath on your sins. If the Father did not raise Jesus bodily from the grave then you are not justified and you are still dead in your sins “in Adam” and under condemnation. The bodily resurrection of Jesus is your greatest guarantee that the Father has justified you. Our next verse states that you now share Jesus’ resurrection life.
Ephesians 2:6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Did you notice that you have been raised up together with Jesus and made to sit in the heavenly
places? How were you raised up together with Jesus? You have not been physically resurrected yet … but you have been spiritually resurrected. When you received Jesus, He came to live in you and you now share His resurrection life. Can Jesus die again now that He has resurrection life? No. You too can never die spiritually because you have been raised together with Him. How can you be in heavenly places while you are still on earth? Your position has changed and your condition will, one day, equal your position because all justified will be glorified.
The fact that you are now a partaker of Jesus’ resurrection life means that resurrection life is
eternal and not something that you can possibly lose or forfeit. Your position “in Christ” has raised you up with Him now and He in you guarantees your eternal security until glorification!
3. Jesus always acts as your Advocate during your journey.
What is an advocate? In a judicial sense an advocate is someone who acts on your behalf to present your case or defense before a judge. You are eternally secure because Jesus alone sits at the right hand of the Father and always acts as your advocate regarding your journey sins.
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write unto you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Satan is called the accuser of the brethren in Scripture and when you commit daily journey sins, Satan accuses you before the Father as the righteous Judge. And the truth is that Satan does not have to invent or twist his charges, you are guilty of the exact journey sin he is presenting. Satan as your accuser insists that your just punishment should be to lose your status as God’s child and once again be put back “in Adam” and become one of Satan’s children.
But Jesus always acts as your Advocate and presents your only defense, He has paid for all of your sins, past, present, and future, and that includes the one Satan is presenting at that moment. Because Jesus advocates with His defense that He paid for your sins, the Father is satisfied that while you are guilty as charged by Satan, you are forgiven, and He declares you blameless “in Christ.” If you ever lost your salvation it would mean that Jesus lost a case to Satan. Impossible! Your journey sins do break fellowship with the Father and the Son, but because Jesus alone always acts as your Advocate before the Father, you are secure until your glorification. You can never be re‐condemned by the Father because Jesus is always acting as your Advocate.
4. Jesus never ceases to do His work of intercession during your journey.
The New Testament teaches that while Jesus is the King of kings, He is also your High Priest. As your High Priest, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and makes spiritual intercession for you every moment of every day during your journey. Jesus alone intercedes as your High Priest and His faithful intercession guarantees you will never be put back “in Adam” or to put it another way, lose your eternal security or eternal position “in Christ.” The following verse confirms this priestly work that Jesus alone performs on your behalf that guarantees you eternal security.
Romans 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Jesus’ priestly intercession is His work alone, not yours. The following verse states that Jesus saves you to the uttermost for eternity because He ever lives to make intercession for you.
Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.
Since Jesus ever lives to make intercession for you during your journey, there is never a time when He is not interceding for you, therefore you can never lose your salvation. Jesus is your faithful High Priest even when you are unfaithful. As long as Jesus lives, He faithfully intercedes for you before the Father regarding your journey sins, and His intercession keeps you secure.
5. Jesus is your Good Shepherd for your entire journey.
Jesus says that He alone is the Good Shepherd because He alone was willing to lay down His life
for lost sheep like you. When you believed and received Him, you became one of His sheep and your eternal security does not lie in your behaving as a good sheep, but in His protecting and keeping you as the Good Shepherd.
John 10:27‐28 27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
In this passage, Jesus as your Good Shepherd promises you three things regarding your security.
1. You have eternal life – and eternal has to mean what it says. If you can lose eternal life, it is not eternal, only temporary or conditional.
2. You will never perish – no matter what you do or fail to do during the balance of your journey.
3. No one can snatch you from His hand – no one has the power or capacity to snatch you out of His hand, including yourself.
Do you think Jesus will ever stop being a Good Shepherd over the sheep like you that His father
has placed under His care? As long as Jesus is the Good Shepherd, you are secure as one of His sheep, not because you are a good sheep, but because He is the Good Shepherd.
6. Jesus’ purpose is to present you without blemish.
When you became a Christian, the Holy Spirit placed you into the universal Church or Body of
Christ, which is also called the Bride of Christ. In Ephesians 5:25 below, believing husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loves the Church or His bride. Then Ephesians 5:27 states that one of Jesus’ current works for those like you who make up His bride the Church, is to present you and the entire Bride to Himself without spot or wrinkle and that she be holy and without blemish.
Ephesians 5:25‐27 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Jesus died to purchase His bride and He lives in each believer to purify the true Church so that it will be without spot or wrinkle when He comes to get her for the wedding ceremony. If any person in His Body or Bride, including you, lost their salvation and was removed from the Bride, it would not be without a spot or wrinkle or blemish. Once you are a member of the Bride of Christ you are eternally secure because Jesus alone will keep the Bride without spot or wrinkle or blemish and He alone will present the Bride to Himself at His second coming.
7. Jesus is the author of eternal salvation only.
Earlier you saw that Jesus’ total obedience qualified Him to become the author of your salvation.
What kind of salvation is Jesus the author of? The following passage states that the only kind of salvation that Jesus ever has or ever will author is eternal salvation.
Hebrews 5:9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
Through His death, burial, bodily resurrection, and ascension, Jesus alone became the author of
eternal salvation. When you believed and received Him as your personal Savior, you received the gift of what He alone had authored: eternal salvation. You are not the author of your salvation or your security; Jesus alone is the author and finisher of your faith. The salvation you now have is an eternal salvation, therefore, it cannot ever become temporary or conditional.
8. Jesus suffered only once for your sins forever.
The only crucifixion that Jesus ever experienced as the substitute for your sins and mine was the one He experienced at Mt. Calvary in the year 30 A.D. outside Jerusalem. The following verse confirms that Jesus suffered only once for your sins forever.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit …
Why is it significant to your eternal security that Jesus suffered only once for your sins to bring you to God? Simply put, you can only be saved as many times as Jesus died and He only died once! If you can lose your salvation, you would then need to be saved again. Since the only way you were saved the first time was through the death and resurrection of Jesus as your substitute, then your second or subsequent salvations would require Jesus to keep suffering and dying again and again for you. Is there any chance that Jesus will ever suffer on a Cross again? The New Testament clearly says never!
Therefore, if you could lose your salvation through a journey sin requiring Jesus to die again, you could never again be saved, because Jesus died only once and will never die again. Remember that there is not one single case in all of Scripture where someone was saved, lost their salvation, and was later saved again. Not one! If losing your salvation was possible; don’t you think God would have addressed that possibility and the cure in the Bible?
Jesus alone suffered only once to bring you to God and He has brought you into the family of God permanently. Why will Jesus never suffer again? Jesus will never suffer again because His once-for-all sacrifice satisfied the Father forever on your behalf. If God the Father, the Supreme Judge of the universe, is satisfied with the one sacrifice of Jesus for your sins forever, shouldn’t you too be satisfied and know you are secure “in Christ”? Since Jesus will never again suffer and die to provide for your salvation, you are now eternally secure through His once-for- all sacrifice for you. Remember that you can only be saved as many times as Jesus died for you on the Cross.
Reasons Dependent on God the Son Alone
1. What can possibly separate you from the love of God “in Christ”?
2. What does Scripture mean when it teaches that Jesus bore your condemnation forever?
3. What does your now being a partaker of His resurrection life mean?
4. How does Jesus’ work as your Advocate keep you secure during your journey?
5. How does Jesus’ priestly work of intercession for you keep you secure?
6. How does Jesus being your Good Shepherd keep you secure?
7. What does Jesus’ purpose to “present you without blemish to Himself” mean for your security?
8. What does Jesus’ being the author of eternal salvation mean to you?
9. What does Jesus’ one death for your sins mean for your security?
Reasons Dependent on God the Son Alone
- Jesus secures you because He alone bore your condemnation forever.
- Jesus secures you because you now share His resurrection life.
- Jesus secures you because He always acts as your Advocate in your journey.
- Jesus secures you because He always intercedes for your journey sins.
- Jesus secures you because He alone is the Good Shepherd.
- Jesus secures you because His purpose is to present you without blemish.
- Jesus secures you because He is the author of eternal salvation only.
- Jesus secures you because He suffered only once for your sins forever.
- Jesus secures you because your security is in your position “in Him” and not in your performance for Him