Borrowed Insights

This morning I was working in preparation for our Bible Institute class on the Epistle to the Romans. This week we will be considering much of chapter eight. What a glorious chapter beginning with the great truth of "No Condemnation' and ending with the confidence of "No Separation." The two truths sit like bookends on either side of the chapter.

In the course of study I ran across the following in a series of message by Dr. S. Lewis Johnson entitled "The Doctrine of Eternal Life."

Paul’s five questions are not arbitrary. They are all about the kind of God we believe in. Together they affirm that absolutely nothing can frustrate God’s purpose (since He is for us), or quench His generosity (since He has not spared His Son), or accuse or condemn His elect (since He has justified them through Christ), or separate us from His love (since He has revealed it in Christ).

"Here then are five convictions about God’s providence (v. 28), five affirmations about His purpose (vv. 29-30), and five questions about His love (vv. 31-39), which together bring us 15 assurances about Him. We urgently need them today, since nothing seems stable in our world any longer. Insecurity is written across all human experience. Christian people are not guaranteed immunity to temptation, tribulation, or tragedy, but we are promised victory over them. God’s pledge it not that suffering will never afflict us, but that it will never separate us from His love.

Our confidence is not in our love for Him which is frail, fickle and faltering, but in His love for us, which is steadfast, faithful and persevering. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints needs to be re-named. It is the doctrine of the perseverance of God with the saints."

We see then that the safe keeping of the child of God is a matter of God's character not that of the believer. I recall hearing it but this way "We persevere because He preserves us." Truly our security is all about God.

Let me no more my comfort draw
From my frail hold of thee;
In this alone rejoice with awe
Thy mighty grasp of me.