We can’t lose our salvation because we are pardoned by and reconciled to God. This devotional reading looks at Jesus’ part in that.
Nuggets
- Jesus doesn’t lose us because He advocates for us when we sin.
- Jesus doesn’t lose us because we have been cleansed from sin.
- Jesus doesn’t lose us because of our self-righteousness but because of His righteousness.
The Surety of Our Salvation study has been looking at our struggle in wondering if we are really saved or not. We’ve been using one of Beveridge’s sermons as the foundation.
We just completed the Christ Will not Lose What Is Given to Him series. Next, we are going to begin the How Christ Doesn’t Lose Us series.
Jesus doesn’t lose us because our sins are forgive and we have been reconciled to God.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the The Surety of Our Salvation study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this study is Beveridge’s sermon The Believer’s Safety
Resource
The headings are Beveridge’s Words.
Their Sins Pardoned
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (I Jn. 2: 1-2 ESV)
Jesus doesn’t lose us because He advocates for us when we sin.
We have to put some things together. John is talking to fellow disciples here. We know that because he called them “My little children …” (I Jn. 2: 1 ESV).
So, yes. We are going to continue to sin after conversion. “… But if anyone does sin …” (I Jn. 2: 1 ESV). Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
Glossary
We can take heart. We have an advocate – Jesus. “… we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (I Jn. 2: 1 ESV).
Would God rather us go and sin no more? Oh, most definitely.
Does God think we are going to do that? Not in this lifetime.
Does this give us license to sin? No way.
Candlish explained Jesus’ advocacy. If we sin, we are restored in a way that we don’t abuse God’s forgiveness. This happens through Jesus’ advocacy.
Only Jesus can be our Advocate because only Jesus has a righteous character.
I agree with Candish. He wrote, “Give me an advocate who, much as he may care for me, cares for honesty and honour, for law and justice, still more.”
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Think about it. Worldview people think the best thing about God and Jesus are their love. It isn’t.
They could love us all they want, but if They did not design the Plan of Salvation and carry it out, we would still be corrupted by sin.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
We have to admit we have been separated from God through sin; believe that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, making Him be our Savior when we ask Him to; and confess that God is Sovereign Lord by submitting to Him. That is how we show our love for God.
We can be secure in our faith because Jesus is our Advocate. Jesus pleads our case before God. Would He be wasting His time pleading for someone He didn’t want to keep?
No.
Jesus wants to keep everyone. “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (I Jn. 2: 2 ESV). Propitiation means that a substitute is offered to avoid God’s wrath.
Where is Jesus at when He is pleading our case? He is at the right hand of God, Who is sitting on His throne.
No, they are not in a court room, but They are in a place of authority. Jesus’ argument is not that we are not guilty. It is that we have been forgiven when we ask for that particular sin.
Yes, Jesus has already forgiven us of our sins, but we have to confess our sin as they occur or as the Holy Spirit makes us aware of them.
Jesus is pleading the surety of our salvation. How can we doubt it?
Their Hearts Cleansed
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you” (Ezek. 36: 25 ESV)
Jesus doesn’t lose us because we have been cleansed from sin.
Sin makes us impure. A term that has been is used is we are black with sin.
That impurity needs to be removed so that we can be in God’s presence again. Sin is a barrier that keeps us separated from God.
Since we are impure, our hearts needs cleansing.
Cleansing by water should be familiar to us. Those in Ezekiel’s time would have been familiar with the cleansing ritual for those who had become unclean by touching a dead body.
We are familiar with baptism. While it provides a visual picture of dying, being buried, and rising with Christ, that is done visually by the water washing us free of the dirt of sin.
The cleansing had a purpose. Maclaren helped us with that. He wrote,
“The difference between that first washing with clean water and the subsequent gift of a new heart and spirit is not so much that the one promises pardon and the other sanctifying, as that the one is mainly negative — the removal of sin, both in regard to its guilt and its tyranny; and the other is positive — the giving of a new nature. Forgiveness never comes alone, but hand in hand with its twin sister, purity.”
Resource
What that tells me is forgiveness is not the goal of salvation. Salvation starts with us asking for forgiveness.
This clean heart opens a way to a life of obedience. Blessings only come through the obedience.
Mankind can only be justified through this cleaning and regeneration to become a new creation.
Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
Glossary
This pure, new creation comes after salvation. We do not have to clean up our act before we come to Him. Guthrie said the order was election, justification, and sanctification.
Election is God’s plan to bring that salvation to His creation, a gift of His grace because of His mercy. When we choose to accept the gift of salvation, we become the elect.
Justification is the act through the merits of Christ that makes us free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
Sanctification is the transformational process of the mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
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Glossary
Why would Jesus lose us if He came to save us while we were still sinners (Rom. 5: 8)? The only reason would be that we did not make a genuine confession or turned away from Him.
That is on us, not Him.
Their Hearts Renewed
“he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Ti. 3: 5 ESV)
Jesus doesn’t lose us because of our self-righteousness but because of His righteousness.
Only God can make us clean. It isn’t through anything we do. We can’t save ourselves any more than we can make Jesus not lose us.
We see Matthew’s to-do list (Mt. 25: 35-36) and think that is the way to salvation. It isn’t.
Yes, we have been created for good works. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2: 10 ESV).
In other words, we have been created to serve God to expand His kingdom.
This only happens through grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2: 8-9 ESV).
Redemption has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God and Jesus.
We are cleansed through God’s love and mercy. We are made whole again because He chooses to allow us to be.
Wagstaff gave us some synonyms for that: kindness, goodness, love, pity, and philanthropy.
Resource
I know. Worldview people can get tripped up on this. No salvation because of works, and no salvation without works.
No, it isn’t contradictory. Works aren’t the beginning – they are the end product. They are our service to God that shows our salvation is real and growing.
The deciding factor for our service being acceptable to God is the presence of moral character in our lives. That moral character is only present in our lives when we are initiating Him.
As we said in the last section, this only comes through regeneration. Only God can regenerate us. Regeneration only occurs through a genuine salvation experience.
Jesus does not lose us because we become a new creation. This new creation is like Him.
Making the Connections
Believing isn’t enough. Saying we’re sorry isn’t enough.
We have to truly repent of our sins. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
Glossary
The directive that Jesus gave was sin not. “… And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more’” (Jn. 8: 11 ESV).
That is what happens when we meet Jesus. We go from condemned to not condemned. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (Jn. 3: 18 ESV).
At first glance, we may ask did the woman have a salvation experience. We focus on the part where they almost stoned her for being an adulterous.
But she did. When Jesus asked who condemned her, “She said, ‘No one, Lord …’” (Jn. 8: 11 ESV). She acknowledged Jesus as Lord.
How Do We Apply This?
- Rest assured in our salvation because Jesus is our Advocate.
- Fully submit to God because He advocates for us.
- Commit to Christ by faith.
- Believe Jesus is our personal Advocate.
Resources
Father God. Thank You that the decision to never lose us has already been made. It is not incumbent on what we do but on Your covenant. Thank You. Amen.
What do you think?
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