Grounds for Assurance that God Will “Keep us Trusting”
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By John Piper About Assurance of Salvation
Last Sunday we sang this prayer as a congregation: “Keep me ever trusting, resting, fill me with thy grace” (“Jesus, I Am Resting, Resting”). I commented that this prayer implies a dependence on God to keep us from waking up as unbelievers tomorrow morning. I saw some furrowed brows of perplexity.
So let's try again. What are you depending on that your faith will last 'till Jesus comes? The question is not, Do you believe in eternal security? The question is, How are we kept secure? Does the perseverance of our faith rest on the reliability ofour own resolve? Or does it rest on the work of God to “keep us trusting"?
I said it is a great and wonderful truth of Scripture that God is faithful, and will keep forever those whom he has called. Our confidence that we are eternally secure is a confidence that God will “keep us trusting”! The certainty of eternity is no greater than the certainty God will keep us trusting now.
But that certainty is very great for all whom God has called. At least three passages put the call of God and the keeping of God together.
- 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 - “The Lord will sustain (keep) you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
- 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 - “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, he will do it.”
- Jude 1 - “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.”
The “faithfulness” of God guarantees that he will keep safe all whom he has called.
“Those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30)
“He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6)
“[We] are being kept by God's power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5)
“Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing . . . be glory forever!” (Jude 24)
Kept by the power of God,
Pastor John
