Jesus Christ Prays That Our Faith Not Fail

I pray for them.

I do not pray 

for the world but

for those whom

You have given Me,

 for they are Yours.

John 17:9

 

     It is not merely the certainty of the salvation of those that believe; but their certain perseverance in holiness.This is a contradiction in terms for salvation to be aligned with sin. This is what Paul teaches by means of inspiration from the Holy Spirit that in the first part perseverance in holiness is secured by the influence of the Holy Spirit, further in part by all the means adapted to secure that end: i.e., instructions, admonitions, exhortations, warnings, the means of grace, and the dispensations of His providence. It has been spoken of in these blogs that God from before the foundation of the world (Romans 8:28-29) in His love determined all things, He determined the end, further He and He alone knows the end of all things, He determined that as well, therefore since He has determined the end then by necessity He has determined the means for its accomplishment.

 

     God is immutable, He is infinitely great and gratuitous, therefore it is certain that believers will be saved, He will accomplish His determined end. Paul writes this so eloquently so that our faith can be assured: "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, or any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of "God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).Paul's statement and belief begs us to question ourselves; are we so persuaded? do we live as we believe and are so persuaded? It is not enough to have the knowledge that God is so and that we are counted worthy by Him to be secure, it is through the living out our faith day by day, in every circumstance, that it is God first, God second, God third, Him and nothing else. We wrote earlier that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit but we too have a part and Peter writes: "But also for this very reason (Peter just spoke that we are partakers of the divine nature), giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. for if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:5-8). 

 

     As Paul teaches us that perseverance of God's children does not rest upon the indestructible nature of faith, or on the imperishable nature of the principle of grace in the heart, or on the constancy of the believer's will, but solely on solely what is out of ourselves, that is not what is within ourselves, that by our own power. Yes, we must demonstrate perseverance, it is our faith demonstrated in works and by such means we can be sure of our salvation and our call, our election: "Therefore brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble" (2Peter 1:10). It is not for God we make our election sure, our election and calling are immutable; it is for us and for our witness to the world. Perseverance is due to the purpose of God, to work in Christ, to the indwelling in the Holy Spirit, furthermore it is to that mysterious primal source the immutable love of God. We do not keep ourselves; we are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation: "who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1Peter 1:5). 

 

Do not love the world

    or the things

in the world. if anyone

     loves the world,

the love of the Father 

    is not in him.

                  1 John 2:15

Grace and Peace Be Multiplied

Richard L. Crumb

 

 

God's Love Not Dependent On Our Attractiveness

But God demonstrates

His own love

toward us,

in that while 

we were still sinners,

Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

     It has been argued that immutability of God's love, the greatness and freeness of that love, His children can never be lost. This Paul argues from the point of God's love: "He who did not spare His own Son, but  delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things" (Romans 8:32)? It is not inconceivable that if God gave the greater thing we can be assured that He will not do less. Fact in point, He gave His Son, so will He not give us faith to receive His Son? Will He not give constancy to enable us to preserve unto the end? This love of God is so great towards His children that they cannot fail to be His objects. We cannot on our own merit obtain this love, it is gratuitous. That being so then it is not found on any attractiveness of His objects; us, just as the opening verse declares. It s by the blood of Jesus, that is, His death on the cross where His blood poured out, that our faith in that propitiation for sins is applied to His children because of His great love: "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we hall be saved by His life" (Romans 5:9-10). 

    An example will well illustrate this love of God. I shall compare His love with that of parental love. A mother loves her child not because of his attractiveness, but because it is lovely. This mother love leads her to do all she can to make the child attractive and to keep it so. This love of God so mysterious inasmuch as it can be accountable to Him and not  by anything of its objects, this He does by securing them in the beauty of holiness, giving graces of His Spirit. To say that God loves us for our goodness is a major mistake, this would be the Arminian view, that man has autonomous free will and because that sinner comes to love God and put their faith in God, then God will love him and give him graces and holiness. This the Bible does not teach, for we are sinners saved by grace and that not of ourselves.There is no goodness in man that would lead him to suppose that God's love is dependent somehow upon our attractivness, this goodness. We are totally depraved, all that we deserve is death, but by the mercy of God He enables and saves men according to His Sovereignty. We should look to God for our sustaining and our attractiveness for it is found in God as He applies His love to us. He will not allow us to fail, nor can Satan destroy our relationship with Him, we are made into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore neither we or Satan can destroy this likeness which God has impressed upon our souls. God loves His children to the end, further Jesus Christ prays for them that their faith may not fail. When it is here stated that our faith can fail is not to be determined, lost. We may go through many trials, some we caused, some others caused, no matter what from where they came our salvation is secure: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time....that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it it tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory ant the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1Peter 1:3-5;7).

     Finally, this we must never forget: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light:..."(1Peter 2:9). God's children have nothing to fear, we are kept by God, but we have work to do, and that work, to proclaim the Gospel in every manner, life, words, to our children, leaving no one out of our proclamation. We do not know who are elected be God, we only have the commission to take His Gospel to the word and God will draw and enable His children. Being involved in this work will lessen the chances that we must go through hard trials and fire for we will live by His Word and that Word will protect us from our evil hearts and from Satan fiery darts.

Whoever believes 

     that Jesus

is the Christ born 

     of God,

and everyone who

    loves HIm

who begot also loves

    Him who is

begotten of Him.

              1 John 5:1

May Your Joy Be Full

Richard L. Crumb

 

 

We Are Callied To Exercise Faith And Repentance

...that if you confess

with your mouth

the Lord Jesus

and believe in 

your heart

that God has raised

Him from the dead,

you will be saved. 

For with the heart

one believes

unto righteousness,

and with the mouth

Confession is made

unto salvation.

Romans 10:9-10

     It is God who elects His children and has predestined them to eternal life by conforming them to the image of His Son. Furthermore, those called by God are to exercise their faith and repentance. As Clement of Rome (30-100 A.D.) wrote when writing to the Corinthian Church:
"The Church of God which sojourns at Rome, to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth, to them that are called and sanctified by the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from Almighty God through Jesus Christ, be multiplied." (Chapter I). It is to those "called and are sanctified" that Clement offers a prayer for them to have peace and Grace from God. It is God who provides for His children by providing them with righteousness that satisfies the demands of the Law. This act by God entitles His children that in Christ and for His sake to have eternal life. If men were entitled to everlasting life on the ground of their repenting, even though predestined, and upon their believing through their own strength, or through a cooperation with the grace of God which others fail to exercise, then their continuance in a state of grace might be dependent on themselves. So many Churches for the past 200 years, especially since Charles Finney (1792-1875 A.D.), and others, and his "anxious seat" and the call for people to respond to his call for salvation and to come forward in repentance, people came and many by means of their own strength and feelings. How often do preachers continue their call to come forward endlessly it seems or some emotional music played as if God needed their help. If faith and repentance are gifts of God, and they are, the results of his effectual vocation, then bestowing those gifts is a revelation of the purpose of God to save those to whom they are given. As Jesus prayed: "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word" (John 178:6).  These gifts operating in the lives of His children are evidence that God has predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, to be like Him in character, destiny, and glory, and that He will infallibly carry out His purpose. No one can pluck them out of His hands. 


     We as His children and not to be tacit in our walk with the Lord. We have work to do and that work is to demonstrate Jesus Christ and the Gospel that He became incarnate, suffered, was crucified, died, rose again on the third day and after speaking and being seen by more than five hundred people ascended bodily into heaven. We do not know who are the elect of God, but we are commanded to preach the word, this is not just done by the presbyters of the Church, it is by every individual who claims the promises of Christ and believes on Him. We are to go into all the world and teach, disciple people, and God will call His elect from the world. Clement of Rome in praising the Corinthian Church wrote in his letter of their exercise of their faith:
Moreover, ye were all distinguished by humility, and were in no respect puffed up with pride, but yielded obedience rather than extorted it, and were more willing to give than to receive. Content with the provision which God had made for you, and carefully attending to His words, ye were inwardly filled. Literally, “ye embraced it in your bowels” with His doctrine, and His sufferings were before your eyes. Thus a profound and abundant peace was given to you all, and ye had an insatiable desire for doing good, while a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit was upon you all. Full of holy designs, ye did, with true earnestness of mind and a godly confidence, stretch forth your hands to God Almighty, beseeching Him to be merciful unto you, if ye had been guilty of any involuntary transgression. Day and night ye were anxious for the whole brotherhood, that the number of God’s elect might be saved with mercy and a good conscience. Ye were sincere and uncorrupted, and forgetful of injuries between one another. Every kind of faction and schism was abominable in your sight. Ye mourned over the transgressions of your neighbours: their deficiencies you deemed your own. Ye never grudged any act of kindness, being “ready to every good work.” Adorned by a thoroughly virtuous and religious life, ye did all things in the fear of God. The commandments and ordinances of the Lord were written upon the tablets of your hearts. (Chapter III). In the early Church this was true, but, far too often we become complacent, and in that complacency false teaching can creep in and destroy your faith, your walk with the Lord. This happened in the Corinthian Church for later Clement of Rome addresses sedition that had come into the Corinthian Church. We must not allow that to happen in our Churches.

     Clement of Rome reminds us of Peter and Paul and their work in faith and their suffering for the sake of Christ and their martyrdom: 
To these men who spent their lives in the practice of holiness, there is to be added a great multitude of the elect, who, having through envy endured many indignities and tortures, furnished us with a most excellent example. (Chapter VI). The call went forth in the early Church as was seen by the letter written to the Corinthian Church by Clement of Rome, and if it was so badly needed then, how much more is it needed today? Will you join with the elect of God who are placing Him first in their lives and exercising in public their faith and their repentance. God will bless your efforts and you will be deemed to be a faithful and discreet slave and hear Jesus say to you: "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few thins, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord" (Matthew 25:23).

How beautiful are the feet of 

     those who peach the

gospel of peace,

     who bring glad tidings of

good things!

               Romans 10:15b

May the Riches of God Fall Upon You

Richard L. Crumb