Exposition of 2 Peter 3:9

What about 2 Peter 3:9?
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (ESV)

Or

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (NIV)


The ESV translates the word “wishing” while the NIV translates it “wanting” but the bottom line is the same. If God is not willing or wishing that any should perish then why would Scripture also teach that Jacob was elect from before birth and Esau was not (Romans 9:13)?

First of all we need to understand that an expression of God’s will (and even a man’s will) needs to be viewed in three categories. There is the will expressed in an enforced decree (decretive), the will expressed in a prescription or rule (prescriptive), and the will expressed in a disposition or attitude.

God’s decretive will or His will expressed in a decree will can’t be resisted and will be accomplished. When He speaks forth His decree it is going to happen. A biblical example of God’s will expressed in a decree can be found in the book of Daniel. You probably remember the “Handwriting on the Wall” and this has even entered into popular language to indicate that something is decided already and can’t be stopped from occurring.

Daniel 5:24-28
“Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

God’s prescriptive will is His intent for our behavior expressed in commands that we need to obey. Disobedience brings consequences but obedience is not compelled. The 10 Commandments are excellent examples of God’s expression of His will in a prescriptive manner. He says, “thou shalt not” and yet we do what He told us not to do and then we eventually reap the wages of sin.

His will of disposition is what we would think of as wishing or expressing an opinion. For example, God tells Ezekiel to tell Israel that “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11). So God does not find pleasure in the death (will of disposition) of the wicked and continually stresses that men are making real decisions and yet they persistently stand against the voice of God calling for repentance (prescriptive will).

So we have decretive will or will of decree, prescriptive will or commands, and then God’s will of disposition.

Certainly many have looked at 2 Peter 3:9 and said that it was simply an expression of God’s will of disposition. In fact, the ESV even translates it as “wishes” leaving the interpretation a bit ambiguous. However, the meaning seems a little odd if God is omniscient since He wouldn't need to wait to see if anyone was going to get saved. Besides, there are other scriptures using wish to mean a will of disposition. For example, Matthew 7:12 quotes Jesus saying “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” So the “Golden Rule” uses wish in the way we use use wish to mean a disposition or desire.

The problem with assigning God’s will of disposition to 2 Peter 3:9 is that it uses the wrong word. It is a purposeful wanting in 2 Peter 3:9 and not the wishing of Matthew 7:12. The verse found in 2 Peter 3:9 is not a prescriptive expression of God's will from either context or simple reading of the text. Consequently the most straightforward reading of the Scripture is found by reading the verse as God expressing His will in the decretive sense. So if we read in that way God decrees that He is unwilling (will not let) any perish. Well then suddenly the context is critical (as it always is and we should make sure that we never forget that). Who is “any of you”? If God decrees that He is unwilling to let "any of you" perish and "any of you" is everyone then we wind up finding support for universalism and presto we become heretics.

Scripture always fits together but we often insert ourselves out of context and then work from the middle outward. Remember when we looked at Hebrews how we wished we knew for sure who the epistle was written to so that it would aid our understanding of the Scriptures? Well we know who Peter was written to because it is specified in the first 2 verses of the epistle.

2 Peter 1:1-2
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Therefore, the epistle is written to the Church and not to the world at large. The “any of you” are the called and elect (see verse 10). The “any of you” is you if you are a believer! You sitting in class or reading this Scripture now, if you are a Christian are the “any of you”. The context of the verse is an explanation of the delay in the second coming of Christ and Scripture tells us that God is delaying because He is not willing that any of the called and elect would perish. This verse is entirely consistent with Chapter 9 of Romans and in no way conflicts. In fact Peter is confirming that God is aware of those He will call and will not return in judgement until He finishes because He will not let any of His elect perish just as Jesus promised (John 6:35-44; John 17:12)

The struggle that we have in understanding how God made us alive when we were dead in our trespasses and sins is natural. It is also natural that we struggle to understand how God in His transcendence relates to His creation. Paul does a detailed explanation in Romans and it is OK that we take time to digest and understand all that God wants to explain to us and then leave the rest in God’s hand. Peter says in this epistle;

2 Peter 3:15-18
And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Romans 9:1 to 9:33

From the mountain top of praise for salvation in Chapter 8 Paul now looks back in sorrow for those who are by birth (but not the new birth) the children of Israel.

Romans 9:1-5
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

You can feel Paul’s sorrow here. He has the security of God’s move in his life and he knows that those who God has saved will never fall. However, Paul also realizes that many individual members of a people chosen by God would not respond to the covenants, law, worship, and promises any better than Paul did before God’s intervention. According to the flesh or simple genetics they have the patriarchs and of course Jesus. Notice that Paul praises God for what He did in the lives of his “kinsmen according to the flesh”. Likewise, we need to praise God for His gracious ministry to the Israelites and praise Him for the Grace of His work in our lives. Our attitude toward those who are Israelites according to the flesh should be one of humility since we understand the Grace in which we stand is not based on our brains and skills but rather on the gracious move of God’s Holy Spirit. In the following Scriptures Paul tries to drive home that our position in Christ is one of Grace.

Romans 9:6-13
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Paul still experiences anguish and sorrow over those who make up his culture but he realizes that the children that are God’s are the children of promise and not those according to the flesh. To drive home the point Paul points out that it has never been simply that the children of the Patriarchs were the elect. God has always kept the children of promise and allowed those that were not of the promise to continue according to their own will and inclination. Think about Esau and Jacob. Here the doctrine of unconditional election is lived out in the lives of two guys that really were both flakes. Esau and Jacob were both, at least arguably, jerks. You wouldn’t elect either one of them conditionally (based on their natures or works). They were as bad as us and frankly most guys would rather hang out with Esau than Jacob. God had to work and work pouring out Grace in Jacob’s life. God in His mercy and grace chose Jacob before his birth and not because of anything he had done or was going to do that God was going to need. You can’t say that God is unjust because He showed mercy and compassion to Jacob and didn’t show mercy and compassion to Esau. Justice would condemn both of them. Mercy by definition can’t be required of the one showing mercy or it isn’t mercy. I think this is a key point in understanding Grace. An act of mercy can not be required; not now, not ever, never. Mercy can’t be the “fitting” or “just” thing to do. If Mercy is fitting then it is justice and not mercy. We never want to argue with God asking for justice. I want mercy and Grace. In our hearts, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” is a hard Scripture to deal with. The “Jacob have I loved” is easy for us to pass over as an acceptable portion. Why? Because we figure our sin natures should be no problem since they are so natural to us. Of course it is OK for God to love Jacob but we stagger at “Esau have I hated”. We are not really amazed by Grace are we? We think God owes us Grace as oxymoronic or maybe just moronic as that is. Esau got justice while Jacob got mercy. Which do you want?

Romans 9:14-18
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You can pray for God to have mercy and compassion on others and God may hear; however, you have no leg to stand on if you start to thing that God is unjust in dispensing mercy and compassion. If you do then please stop singing “Amazing Grace, that saved a wretch like me” and start singing “Reasonable Grace, that saved a guy with a few problems but otherwise was a pretty good guy”.

God will use a wicked man according to his wicked nature to accomplish God’s good will. God knew specifically what would harden Pharaoh’s heart and used him to accomplish His will. Events hardened Pharaoh and God used that. He didn’t need to “do violence” to Pharaoh’s heart to harden it. We need to remember what God previously told us about mankind’s lack of inclination toward God or we’ll make the error or thinking that Pharaoh was some basically nice guy who God had to corrupt. God doesn’t corrupt us we are already radically corrupt or, in other words, corrupt to the core. It is too late for God to do that. We did it to ourselves.

Now Paul is aware that since God is sovereign and it is He that has made us and that we have not made ourselves. So since God has revealed the depth of our sin nature we can just claim that we should not be subject to judgment because we are sinners by nature. Listen to what Paul says about that.

Romans 9:19-29
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ” And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”

To argue that you are not subject to judgment based on this revelation would be the same as a pedophile arguing that they can’t be found guilty because they are pedophiles by nature. An unsaved person who tries to argue that God can’t find them guilty because they willingly choose to sin is in error. We always choose according to our strongest inclination at the moment. We are liable for our sins because we make bad choices and choose to sin. God has revealed that in His mercy He changes our heart (regenerates) and we choose Him. We make morally valid choices in either case.

We are called “my people” and “beloved” because of the will of God. He has made us “Vessels of Mercy” and called us and made us the Body of Christ.

Romans 9:30-33
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, “ Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Here is the summary. You guys (who did not pursue righteousness) because of God’s work in your life, have a righteousness attained by faith while most of those who are Israel according to the flesh stumbled on a stone laid by God for stumbling.

Exposition of Hebrews 6:4-6

Well I hope that everyone realizes that if they find a hard Scripture that they want dealt with in class that they can ask, email, blog, or call me and give it to me to deal with. I might want time to pray and think before I answer but I’ll give you the best answer I can come up with. You are not likely to have any question that is younger than 500 to 2 thousand years old anyway.

Along those lines … I’d like to deal with some verses in Hebrews that, at first glance, may seem to be contrary to the doctrine of the Preservation of the Saints. I want you to have the Helmet of Salvation on and well fitted to protect your mind from the enemy of your soul.

First, we always need to remember to interpret Scripture with Scripture. It is a unified whole written by divine inspiration and not with men as mechanical holy typewriters used by God but with men inspired and God writing through them in history with their style and person in the process. That is why we like to know why a book was written. What occasioned the writing of the book? This is especially important in the Epistles and that is because it gives context. And why do we want context? It is because a text without a context is a pretext. In other words if you are out of context then you are spinning the use of a Scripture to support a point that may or may not be valid but in either case the Scripture isn’t appropriate for your point.

Hebrews is a little hard in this respect because the Early Church was convinced that Paul wrote the book but modern scholars wonder and nobody is sure who the letter was written to or what caused it to be written. So we are left to listen carefully to what the author is saying.

The verse that you’ll sometimes hear from someone who is convinced that “eternal security” isn’t eternally secure is Hebrews 6:4.

Hebrews 6:4-6
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

So that verse can be taken to infer that someone can fall away and lose their salvation. So you could decide that in John 17 when Jesus said that He had not lost any that the Father had given to Him that He was wrong or meant almost none. Well that can’t be right can it?

The solution that many have sought in this verse is to argue that the person that might fall into this category isn’t really saved. They saw some light, tasted some good stuff, shared a little in the blessings and then bailed out. I’ve had some friends and acquaintances that would fall into a category like that and Scripture does indicate that Tares (the Unsaved) will grow in with the Wheat (the Saved) until Judgment Day.

I like simple explanations when possible because we don’t want to twist stuff around and the fancier we get the more likely we are to make a mistake. This verse says “repentance” and says that they have shared in the Holy Spirit. It really seems that it is talking about a saved person and not a person that was just looking for the benefits of Christianity without the Lordship of Christ. In particular I see “restore again to repentance” as restoring salvation. So if that is the case then how does this fit?

We have to back up to context here. We don’t know who the author was really writing to for sure so what do we infer from the text? Hebrews begins with a discourse on the glory of Christ as our Priest. He is viewed in His glory as finished with his provision of purification for our sins (Hebrews 1:3-4). Then some warnings and corrections begin to be found in the text as the Glorified Christ is praised and lots of Scripture is quoted. I’ll list the warnings.

Hebrews 2:1
We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 3:12
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

Hebrews 4:1
Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

Hebrews 4:11
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:14
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

It really sounds like they were rejecting the rest or position that God has provided for us on the Cross and beginning to develop some distorted gospel (which is no Gospel). The author was talking to the believers (Brothers) but their local church was in danger of forgetting the Gospel.

Then the author hits them between the eyes …

Hebrews 5:11-14
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So you have some brothers here who barely understand the Gospel. They are in need of the first principles of the Gospel and you have to assume they are teaching and practicing doctrinal error. Based on the warnings they must have a limited view of Jesus and the atonement and are not entering into the rest that Christ has provided n our justification.

Hebrews 6:1-8
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

So they have been returning again and again to repentance, apparently with multiple versions of baptism (here translated washings), with repeated laying on of hands (presumably for the Holy Spirit), and they apparently a problem with the doctrine of our resurrection and of the judgment throne. The author acknowledges that the Holy Spirit is needed for us to grow but it is something we must do. Then the author points out the obvious. That you can’t get saved, lose your salvation, and get saved. These guys were apparently teaching this. They were apparently stuck in some sort of multiple salvation process. Stuck at repentance over and over and forgetting our Great High Priest and his atonement for us once for all. Instead they were teaching that you got saved, lost it, got it, etc. The author wasn’t trying to say that if you lost your salvation you couldn’t get it back. He said what he said to correct an error. He was teaching that it doesn’t even make sense. How can you have all your sins past, present, and future atoned for, then lose this (how can that be?), and then have another atonement? Well you can’t. It takes a contemptible view of the Cross to make that work in which partial and progressive atonement would be possible. The author isn’t arguing for eternal insecurity but on the contrary he is saying it isn’t even a rational position and they need to stop teaching that your salvation comes and goes. If they keep teaching false doctrine then the author is afraid that they are not part of the Church but rather thorns and thistles.

Hebrews 6:9-12
Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

“Though we speak in this way” refers to both the strong rebuke as well as showing that their doctrine was foolishness and that they had forgotten the surpassing worth of the sacrifice of Jesus. Note that the authors says that they are really sure of better things and things “that belong to salvation” and by implication that they are saved eternally and may have the full assurance of hope until the end. And what does it mean to inherit the promises?

Hebrews 6:13-20
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of is purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

So if you wondered about the view of the author on Eternal Security here it is. Eternal security taught by the author! The “unchangeable character of His purpose” is so glorious for us. How can we get stuck on a verse that is simply pointing out how dumb it is to think that a salvation based on our High Priest could ever come and go and then ignore the verses that follow? God wanted an oath to assure us in our weakness so He swore by Himself that He was going to accomplish this thing for us. We are the Children of Abraham. We have a sure refuge and our souls have an anchor back behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies.

So Hebrews 6:4-6 does not teach that you can lose your salvation. The verse teaches that it is foolish to think that salvation can come and go. This portion of Scripture teaches eternal security and rebukes recipients for a weak view of the Cross and an immature understanding of justification.

Romans 8:9 to 8:39

Romans 8:9-11
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Christians are not in the flesh but on the contrary we are free from it. “Carnal Christian” is an oxymoron. Scripture says there will be tares in among the wheat but the tares are not “Carnal Wheat” because they are not wheat. Paul makes it clear that someone who is saved is not in the flesh any longer. You can’t be in the flesh and saved and your body is being given life in a new way by the power of the Holy Spirit who now lives in you. So you can’t be like you were before. You are saved by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone. Does that make sense to you? A living faith necessarily produces works. You are not saved by works. They contribute absolutely no merit toward your right standing before God. But don’t ever forget that faith without works is dead and you are saved by a living faith that gives life and leads you to act out your faith. So you judge yourself. The Church has a discipline responsibility for those within the Church but we can’t see hearts and tell is someone is in the Spirit or in the Flesh. We look for fruit and hope for fruit in ourselves and others but when it comes to salvation you obey Scripture and:
“make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pe 1:5).”

When we see someone in persistent sin who claims to be a Christian we are either looking at a child headed for discipline or a person who never possessed saving faith. We can’t tell. The longer they run without correction from God the more likely they were never saved but we can’t tell and we don’t really need to. We are required to address the sin and remove it from the Church for the health of the Church. We can’t act like a brother’s sin doesn’t matter to us in our walk with God because it does but we need to treat the person with dignity and concern.

Romans 8:12-17
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Our lifestyle must change as we yield to the Holy Spirit. The struggle we find in our flesh is a spiritual struggle as we learn to let the Holy Spirit dominate and rule in our lives. It strikes me as odd that almost every departure I’ve heard of from the Gospel taught in the New Testament so clearly in Romans involves a move into a spirit of slavery and fear in order to control human behavior. But we are now children of God and we have that new birth in our hearts that connects us to God by means of the Holy Spirit and we inherit all that God has for us as we enter the struggle to obey and live before God in our Sanctification. When we as obedient children pray the Lord’s Prayer and say, “Our Father, who art in heaven” then it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we pray “Our Father” in humility and thankfulness.

Romans 8:18-25
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

We really need to guard our hearts against whining about the struggle to put to death the sin nature that we find within us. As Christians we struggle in our lives (as Chapter 7 makes clear) to live according to the Spirit and to stop living according to the flesh. We need to realize that if we make a realistic contrast of the struggles we have in this life with what will be ours someday we really should certainly be able to patiently run the race we find ourselves in. In some sense, all of creation is waiting for us to be revealed (as God intends us to be and His intent will be accomplished) and we also groan inwardly until the redemption of our bodies is complete. We sometimes lose sight of the hope that we had when we were saved. God has promised to complete the work that He began in us and that is our hope. Once again we don’t want to leave our minds in the struggle described in Romans Chapter 7 without moving on to the tremendous blessings and promises of Chapter 8.

Romans 8:26-30
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Most of us will admit that on occasion we are hard pressed to put up with our own failure in spiritual things. God knows our weakness and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God. One of the beautiful aspects of these verses is the unity of the Trinity in our threefold salvation. The Holy Spirit is interceding (so that we may be saved day by day); God the Father working everything according to His purpose (so that we may be saved someday and live in Glory), and the Son who died for us that He might be the firstborn among many brothers (so that we are saved and justified by His work on the Cross). Then we have a golden chain of predestination, calling, justification, and glorification and that chain forged by God isn’t subject to breaking or even modification by anything or anyone. It is most certainly not subject to modification by the accuser who is the enemy of my soul.

Romans 8:31-34
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

What can we say about these things? If we meditate on our salvation and get rational about our situation we should naturally have a great assurance of salvation. Romans Chapter 8 starts with the statement “There is therefore now no condemnation” and we see clearly why there is none. It is because God who could justly accuse us has justified us. Christ could condemn us but He is at the right hand of God interceding for us. I think these verses are one of the main reasons I love this chapter. There is such finality with regard to my justification here. I can rest in my relationship with God and not fear losing it. It is also why all I can do is shake my head in disbelief at an organization that would teach that a sin might kill the grace in me and then I’d need to go earn merit to get right with God again. There is nothing about a salvation that comes and goes in this Gospel. The Gospel is all about God’s ability and not about my ability. I was saved, I’m being saved, and I’ll be saved in Heaven someday. In each case it is God who saved me, is keeping me saved, and who will raise me up in the last days. It is all God and not me. The evangelicals who abandon the P in TULIP as a means to scare people into holiness are in error. I can understand that as a man who is acquainted with sin I can understand why you might think that you could manipulate human behavior with fear of losing salvation. Many don’t even stress the glory of this doctrine because they think it might result in more sin. So would you assume that God would thank you for altering the Gospel to do him a favor? As Paul says to the Galatians, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)

Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“ For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord.

Here is a wonderful and beautiful affirmation the doctrine known as the “preservation of the saints”, “perseverance of the saints”, “eternal security”, and “once saved always saved.” God tells us this so that we will know that we are His and kept by Him. This causes an attitude of worship in my heart. It is a source of awe at God’s patience and sovereign Grace in my life.

I think some reject this doctrine out of fear. You can’t reject the Gospel because it is too good. And I’ve also seen those who were supposed to reject the doctrine of the preservation of the saints (because of denominational affiliation) cling to this doctrine in times of trial.

Considering the basis of the “love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” we have to praise God along with Paul and leave the question as a purely rhetorical question with the obvious answer that, with all the glory going to God, I’m sitting in the palm of God’s hand and nothing can remove me from that place.