Eternal security
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Our theme continues to be that of the eternal security of believers in Christ. The approach continues to be that of allowing some common human analogies to undergird the theological conviction that persons who are once saved are always saved.
Previously such common ideas as birth, gift and grip have served to illuminate this biblical teaching. This week two additional ideas illuminate further the theme of eternal security, namely divine seal and divine guard.
These two items surface in connection with the burial of Jesus following His death. Matthew 27:62–66 tells how the religious leaders were troubled following the death and burial of Jesus.
‘I will rise’
They went so far as to approach the Roman Procurator Pilate with their troubling thought. Having remembered Jesus was known to have promised, “After three days I will rise” (v. 63), they feared friends of Jesus might steal His body from the tomb and then put out the rumor, “He has risen from the dead” (v. 64).
In response to their request to secure the tomb two actions were allowed: “They went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard” (v. 66). We borrow these two actions as ways of thinking further about a believer’s security in Christ.
First is the divine seal. The agent of the divine sealing is the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 sets forth the admonition, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Using the same idea of a seal 2 Timothy 2:19 says, “The solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: the Lord knows those who are His.”
Firm foundation
Believers are secure in understanding that our all-knowing and all-powerful God knows who genuinely belong to Him, and this truth provides a firm foundation upon which we may stand assured that God will preserve and protect those who belong to Him. Of the Holy Spirit the Baptist Faith and Message statement says, “He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption” (Article II.C).
Second is the divine guard. In the case of Jesus’ burial, a posted guard kept watch over His sealed tomb. In the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy believers can say with confidence, “I know the One in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that He is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to Him” (2 Tim. 1:12).
This week as believers we can confidently confess we are divinely sealed and eternally guarded.
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