Pastor Edward J. Collins

Eusebeia Bible Church - Pastor Ed Collins
Guest Speaker - Evangelist Scott Grande: EternalSecurity - Part 2
January 31, 2012

OUTLINE:

1 Peter 4:1 – Message Bible
Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like Him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.

So-called “Doubtful Passages”
Any passages that question eternal security do not directly speak to loss of eternal salvation. They are somewhat vague, and clearly not related to loss of salvation when the context is examined.

Study it out for yourselves
For more details on these “doubting” passages, go to Lewis Sperry Chafer’s book called “Salvation: God’s marvelous work of Grace”.

Eternal Security
The Family of God Rationale : Believers are sons of God.
(Gal 3:26, 4:7, Rom 8:16-17)

The Family of God Rationale
If we cannot remove ourselves from our earthly family, it is foolish to think that we can remove ourselves from our heavenly family.

The Family of God Rationale
All Church-age believers are members of the same Royal Family; they cannot lose their family identity, and they have an heirship with God.
Rom 8:16-17

The Family of God Rationale
You are now a child of God forever. You can now address almighty God as “Father”! Gal 4:6-7

The Body of Christ Rationale
In the Royal Family of God, Jesus Christ is called the Head, Eph 1:22, 4:15; Col 1:8, and every believer is a member, or part, of His body. 1Co 12:14-27

The Body of Christ Rationale
The Body of the Lord Jesus Christ will never be maimed by amputated members.
Eternal Security

The A Fortiori Rationale

The A Fortiori Rationale
“A fortiori” is a Latin phrase meaning “with stronger reason.” It is a system of logic using comparison.
The logical approach to eternal security is developed from two words in the book of Romans—“much more.”

The A Fortiori Rationale
A fortiori is a system of argumentation and debate that takes an accepted fact and by comparison produces an inescapable fact and confident conclusion.

The A Fortiori Rationale
The “greater”: God saved you and made you like His Son.
The “lesser”: Now that you are a son, He will keep you saved.

The A Fortiori Rationale
“Much more” is the Greek phrase “pollo mallon”, and this is the indication of an ‘a fortiori’.
Mat 6:30, Rom 5:6-10,15-20

The A Fortiori Rationale
A fortiori logic states that if God can do something that is extremely difficult (such as saving us), it only makes sense that He can do something much easier like keeping us saved!

The A Fortiori Rationale
Salvation is the greatest manifestation of God’s power, and He can only do “much more” for us once we have already been saved.

The A Fortiori Rationale
The phrase “if God is for us” is a protasis of a first class condition; “If God is for us, and He is!”

The A Fortiori Rationale
If God provided salvation for you BEFORE you were justified (declared innocent), how much more can He do for you now that you are justified?!

The A Fortiori Rationale
Therefore, once God has saved us, and He has, then it follows a fortiori that God can keep us saved. And that is eternal security!

The logic of ‘a fortiori’
How could you live the life of REST that God asks you to live if He didn’t first give you eternal security?

The A Fortiori Rationale
If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can never be judged at the last judgment. The wrath of God is not for the children of God.
1Th 5:9* For God has not appointed us unto wrath.

The logic of ‘a fortiori’
It would make no sense for someone with perfect righteousness to be sent to the last judgment or go to the eternal lake of fire.

The A Fortiori Rationale
If the greater benefit has been given (justification), God will not withhold the less (deliverance from the lake of fire).

The A Fortiori Rationale
The a fortiori rationale protects the believer from worry, Matthew 6:30, “‘But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, o men of little faith?’”

The A Fortiori Rationale
The a fortiori rationale protects the believer from judgment, Romans 5:9, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”

The A Fortiori Rationale
The a fortiori rationale protects the believer from destruction, Romans 5:10, “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

The A Fortiori Rationale
The a fortiori rationale protects the believer from spiritual poverty, Romans 5:15, “For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”

The A Fortiori Rationale
The a fortiori rationale gives the believer the opportunity to reign with the Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5:17, “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

The A Fortiori Rationale
The a fortiori rationale reveals that if the Lord treated His people graciously under the law, how much greater will He treat us in the dispensation of grace, 2 Cor 3:9,11, “For if the ministry of condemnation [the Mosaic Law] has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory… for if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.”

The A Fortiori Rationale
The a fortiori rationale protects the believer from fear of death, Philippians 1:23, “But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better [pollo mallon].”

The Essence of God Rationale
Because of His immutable, eternal, infinite attributes, God cannot and will not cancel the salvation of any believer.