Eternal security
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
In this series about eternal security we have thought about eternal salvation in terms of a divine birth, a divine gift, a divine grip, a divine seal and a divine guard. This week we focus on two additional analogies: an unbreakable union and an unshakeable anchor.
When one comes to personally trust Christ as Savior a double union is established. The frequent New Testament expression “in Christ” is one aspect of this union. We might say when we believe in Christ we believe into Him. Hence being a Christian is a matter of being in spiritual union with Christ or having one’s life hidden in Him as Colossians 3:3 states: “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
The other aspect of this double union is expressed by the phrase “Christ in you,” called in Colossians 1:27 “the hope of glory.”
‘Not quickly broken’
As believers we are in Him and He is in us. This doubly forged spiritual union secures salvation for us. The proverbial observation in Ecclesiastes 4:12 states, “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” but the twofold cord of salvation God provides to repentant sinners cannot be broken at all and so binds us to Christ eternally.
When it comes to salvation what God has joined together nothing can separate. Romans 8:38–39 puts it in these words: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 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.”
Steadfast hope
The additional analogy of an anchor further enforces the thought of a believer’s security in salvation. An anchor prevents a ship from drifting away during a storm as Acts 27:29 reports about the ship that transported the Apostle Paul to Rome. In that storm four anchors were dropped lest the ship run aground on the rocks.
The metaphor of an anchor appears in Hebrews 6:19 as a way of thinking about the steadfast hope Christians have. This hope is anchored in God in whom exists no possibility of lying or misleading. Biblical hope is not a bridge over uncertainty but is the strong conviction the God of hope is always true to His promises.
Our confident assurance in God’s promises about eternal life is our strong, unbreakable and secure link to a heavenly future where Christ dwells in ascension power and glory.
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