Election
Is Assurance of Salvation

Up-Dated - Friday, April 04, 2014

Table of Contents
* Election is very Assuring
* Already Elected to Glorification
* Already Justified by God
* The Interceder never Loses the Intercedee
* Inseparable
* Nothing from Inside, Nothing from Outside
* Kept by the Spirit
* Holy and Unblamable from the Beginning
* Already Conformed
* Assigned to Good Works for Others
* Praisers, not Self-Savers
* Witnesses of Christ, not Self-Keepers
* Put on Humility, as the Elect
* Rejection of the World
* Election is not of Works, Being Good

Election is very Assuring

1.
God has elected some for salvation. Those that realize:
* they are sinners
* they cannot save themselves
* that Jesus Christ has already paid for their sins
* that they must call on Jesus Christ as their Savior
are the elected.

2.
God has not created anyone to go to
* Heaven
* or Hell
Everyone chooses to be saved or not saved.

3.
God has always been aware of the elect

4.
God's awareness is known as predestination. Of course, this does not mean that God created some folks to be destined to the eternal bliss of Heaven or the forever tormenting fires of Hell. It simply means that God has always been aware of the choices each would make and will accommodate them in their choices.

Already elected to glorification

Rom 8:30 "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

God has previously known, chosen, called, justified and glorified the elect.

In God's mind, we are not only presently chosen, called and justified; but already in our future glorified body in heaven.

Loss of salvation would mean loss of the already owned glorified body. Then, would a person get it again, if so, would it be the same one or different?

The Bible is completely silent on all of this talk of losing and receiving other bodies.

Already justified by God

Rom 8:33 "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth."

No one can assign
* guilt
* fault
* blame
* or anything else
to God's elect, because God is the One that took the guilt, fault, blame and "anything" in justifying them.

God does the electing.
God does the justifying.
The devil, nor anyone else, can successfully challenge what God has done.

The devil and everyone else, can
* accuse
* deride
* otherwise harass Christians
and place all kinds of doubts in their minds, about their salvation and the security of it, but God has already cared for the situation.

Illustration
When a man named John was saved, he attained the status of elect. If John then became un-saved and thereby un-elected, then it must have caught God by surprise, because He had him in with the elect, even had made ready a glorified body. Nothing surprises God, once that a person joins the elect, they clearly stay that way.

Since man does not make himself part of the elect of God, then how is man to keep himself elected? If being good did not put you in the elect, why should being good be the criteria for keeping you in the elect?

Election is all of God.

The Interceder never loses the intercedee

Rom 8:34 "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."

Jesus is risen and at the ear of God the Father, interceding (intervening, mediating, pleading) for the saved as they are accused by their adversary, the devil.

The One who will do the eternal condemning of the lost is the One that is doing the present intercession for the saved. Once we are saved, He is ever interceding for us even when we are at our worst. Actually there is no point in interceding, unless we are doing our worst.

To be lost after one is saved is to prove the intercession of the Savior incapable of keeping the ones He is watchful over. Jesus would then be unconvincing to the Father about the saved. Of course, the One who keeps: has died, was buried and is risen to eternally maintain us.

Illustration
This would be like being accused before a judge who is also your advocate or lawyer or defender (Interceder). The lawyer (Jesus) tells the Judge (Jesus) why the Judge, should overlook what you have done. If the lawyer (Jesus) is unconvincing to the Judge (Jesus), then He is unconvincing to Himself. We can easily see that this does not make sense. But if the Lawyer (Jesus) is always convincing to the Judge (Jesus), then it makes perfect sense to continue. And if the Lawyer (Jesus) is always convincing to the Judge (Jesus), then the one He is interceding for is always secure.

Intercession is all of God

Inseparable

Rom 8:35 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"

No kind of death (trying deaths, distressing deaths, suffering deaths, starving deaths, exposure deaths, perishing deaths and stabbing deaths) can remove us from the loving commitment of Christ. The reason is in the next verse ... we are already dead.

Rom 8:36 "As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

The Word of God testifies that the elect are already dead in Christ. No other death can touch them, because they are already dead. One cannot kill the dead.

If they are already dead, then they cannot commit a sin that would send them to eternal death. The occasion of dying has already transpired.

Someone may say, "If you commit a sin before you die that is offensive to God, He will send you to Hell." But our reply would be, "I cannot commit a sin before I die, I am already dead. I am dead in Christ." Or, "I cannot commit a sin unto death (in hell), because I am already dead."

Rom 8:37 "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

But we are not helplessly dead, the saved are actually powerfully victorious through Christ, as they humbly allow grace (James 4.6) to enable them.

Powerfully victorious over this world.
Powerfully victorious over hell.
What kind of conquerors would we be, if we were powerfully victorious over this world, through Christ, but not powerfully victorious over hell.

The elect are assuredly victorious, not in their own strength, but through the inexhaustible strength of Christ.

Some will say, "But what about when I am really weak?" The sin of being really weak in our own strength has, also, been paid for by Christ.

Nothing from Inside. Nothing from Outside.

Rom 8:38 "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,"

Rom 8:39 "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The Apostle Paul is sure that
* no kind of death
* no other kind of life
* no angel
* no authority (our own or otherwise)
* nothing that ever lived (us or others)
* nothing that ever shall live
* nothing above
* nothing beneath
* nothing ever created (us or others)
will be able to separate us from the clinging love of God, found in faith in Christ.

Once that a person enters the love of God, because of having placed their faith at one time in Christ as Savior, they cannot be removed from that position.

If nothing or nobody can remove us from the love of God, one must assume that one will always be in that love.

Kept by the Spirit

2 Th 2:13 "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:"

Paul and others are compelled to continually thank God for those in the Church at Thessolonica. The reason is, they placed their trust (belief) in true doctrine (truth) which caused the Spirit to sanctify them, which God the Father knew would take place in the beginning.

God knew it, but did not cause it. Election is of Free Will of man.

Once that a person places their trust in the truth (Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life) they are made holy (sanctified) by the Holy Spirit.

Notice that they are sanctified by the Spirit, not their own sanctification (doing right after salvation in the power of the Lord).

If sanctification at salvation is up to God the Holy Ghost, then why would the keeping of it be left up to man? Of course it is not left to man, sanctification is the job of the Spirit from start to finish, from saving to keeping to taking home to heaven.

We can be assured that if salvation or election is not kept, it would be a failure of the Holy Ghost and He has never failed and is not going to fail.

The reason there is so much controversy about sanctification is that there are 2 of them.

One comes at salvation, by way of the Holy Ghost, through the good work of Christ, in His own power.

The other comes after salvation, by way of the Holy Ghost, through the good work that we do personally, in the power of the Lord.

The confusion is when folks look at the sanctification after salvation as the sanctification at salvation. Then it will look like it is up to us to keep ourselves saved.

Holy Ghost-kept-people are folks that are eternally kept.

Holy and Unblamable from the beginning

Eph 1:4 "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:"

The elect (chosen) are the elect because they are in Him, Christ, which makes them holy and blameless.

"Should" does not take on the thought of "maybe" or "might," but has the connotation of "must."

If the elect "should be" (must be) holy and blameless "in Him", how could they ever become unholy and guilty "in Him". God knew ahead of time the elect would be holy and blameless "in Him", if they become less than that "in Him", then the "Him" must have lost them. The "Him" is Christ and He never loses anyone. God does not make mistakes.

If folks are not holy and are guilty of sin, they have never been saved (made holy by the Holy Ghost and guiltless to the condemnation of sin) to start with.

Illustration
God changed a lead bar to gold because of what its owner did. The bar thought there had been a change, but it had laid in the dark chest so long that it couldn't remember how it all worked. The other lead bars in the dark chest talked about the gold bar as if it was still lead, since they had never really seen the change themselves. But, no matter how much everyone insisted it was still lead, the changed bar was actually gold.
Lead Bar = unsaved man
Gold Bar = saved man
Dark Chest = backslidden world

Already Conformed

Rom 8:29 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."

Those that the Father foreknew, He foreknew them to be conformed to the image of Christ, Who was the first of all conformed.

When saved, you are "conformed" to the image of Christ.

If "conformed" to the image of Christ, you can never be guilty of sin again, because Christ was never guilty of sin, and that person is in His image.

This does not mean that you will never sin. But you are never guilty of it. Sin and its accompanying guilt has been paid for by Christ.

Of course, when you sin, you will lose fellowship with God, not salvation. Loss of fellowship is simply God not having anything to do with you outside of personal repentance. Once repentant, God resumes communication.

Illustration
This is much like a natural father and son. When the son is bad and unrepentant, the father will not talk to him, but sends him to his room. After things cool down, the father attempts to reconcile the son back into communication. But there is no communication between father and son except the urging to repent. Once the son repents, regular family communication resumes.

We can be assured of our election because in God's mind we are the very image of the sinless and the guiltless Christ.

Illustration
When we disappointed our parents as children, they knew we did wrong. They did not disown us, no matter how terrible the sin. They insisted that we repent of what we did, so we could rejoin the family's fellowship from the banishment of our room.

As each sin occurs in our lives we must repent or turn from it. Not to remain merely amongst the "foreknown" but to remain in fellowship with the Lord.

If repentance is not made, then the Bible teaching on Chastisement takes effect.

God corrects us until we repent, as a Father to His children, because our sinning after salvation never took us out of His family.

We can easily see that if a person lost his sonship, then there would be no chastisement, because only sons are chastised.

Assigned to good works for others, not self

John 15:16 "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."

The saved are foreknown and charged ("ordained") to witness to others that they might also witness to folks to come Christ, too.

Those that carry out this charge have their prayers answered.

Notice that the elect are not charged ("ordained") to do good to stay the elect, but are ordained to bring forth fruit (more elect) that remains.

If the God-appointed elect or chosen are to keep and maintain their own election, then one would suppose that their charge would be to do everything they can to keep themselves elected.

But since we are divinely commissioned to spend our time bringing others to Christ, then one would have to conclude that our own eternal salvation is secure, or else we would have to spend our time keeping ourselves saved.

Someone will doubtless counter, then giving a good witness must be the thing that saves, if this is how we are to live our life. If that is true, why are the Scriptures completely silent on the subject?

The whole tenor of the Word of God is towards humility. Humility is not something that is done for self (like saving our self), but for others. If we expend our time putting others first, then when will we be able to do good (not sinning), to keep ourselves saved?

The truth of the matter is this, we are perfectly secure in our own salvation, because it is not of us, but of Christ, and we need to be witnessing to others about our good, forever-safe position in Christ.

Praisers, not self-savers

1 Pet 2:9 "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:"

The elected (chosen) have the job of showing praises of God for His calling them out of darkness into light.

The job of the chosen is not to keep themselves saved or elected, but to praise the Lord for saving them.

The election of the saints must be secure, since they are not to concentrate on keeping their election, but are to concentrate on praising God for their salvation.

Witnesses of Christ, not self-keepers

Acts 22:14 "And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth."

Acts 22:15 "For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard."

God has chosen (elected) you
* to know His will
* know Christ
* hear and heed His directives
The saints are not to do these things to be saved, but as the saved.

The elect are elected
* not for being good
* nor to stay elected
* but for knowing and hearing God and being faithful witnesses of the Just One.

God is not interested in our caring for ourselves. Neither is He interested in our caring for our eternal disposition. God is solely interested in our hearing Him and knowing Him so we can tell others and help them.

If we are not to be concerned about our eternity, then it must be unassailable.

Put on humility as the elect, not to be the elect

Col 3:12 "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;"

Col 3:13 "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."

The elect are to be merciful to others, kind to others, longsuffering of others, forbearing others, and forgiving others; as the forgiven, elect of God.

The elect are to put others first as the elect, not to be the elect. Being good Christians (humble) is the elect's duty after salvation, not to gain salvation.

If your total concern is for others and not self, then your election, which is the most important thing in the universe, must not be of ourselves but of God, who keeps us chosen and elected.

Rejection of the world

John 15:19 "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

If Christians would involve themselves with the world, the world would love them, but since Christ has led us out of the world, the world hates us.

There is not a place for Christians in this world. The elect Christian's place is in Christ. Be assured that you are saved, if the world does not like what you do for Christ.

If you were theirs they would love you. If they hate you, you must be in Christ and if in Christ, confident of that position.

Also, we are "chosen out of the world". This could not mean that we are removed from the world, because we can easily look around and see we are still here. We are chosen out of the world's methods (too many to list). The elect are elected to a position in Heaven, but they, for the time being, must serve on the earth.

Illustration
An ambassador is placed in office as a citizen of this country, but must serve his country in another country.

We are placed in the office of the elect as a citizen of Heaven but in the country of the United States to serve Christ.

Chosen out of all the world to serve the world, and not as citizens of the world.

Election is not of works, being good

Rom 9:10 "And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;"

Rom 9:11 "(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)"

The elect are chosen not according to good or evil, so that election might be of God and not of man or self.

Election is not given by God according to the doing of good or evil of the elect, but it is totally of the One that calls or elects the elected.

If election is not of man's conduct, then not only will good conduct not keep man's election, but bad conduct will not lose it either.

The saved can feel behaviorally assured of salvation because it is up to the Lord, not there behavior to stay saved (elected).

Illustration
Practically speaking, the elect are elected by the electoral. The President of our nation does not elect himself, he is elected by the electoral. No where in the Word of God does it say that the elect, elect themselves, nor in any reasonable practice of men.

The elect are un-elected by the electoral. They never un-elect themselves. Therefore since God does the electing, He must also do the un-electing. But since He knew ahead of time, it would be foolish to elect someone He knew He would later un-elect, why elect them to start with?

It is all up to a foreknowing God. Take joyful assurance in this. Know that you are saved to start with, then know you are forever saved.

G. Steven Andres
Psalms 45:17
Missionary Evangelist
Copyright - 1996 to 2010