Ephesians 1:19-22 ( NKJV ) 19and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
Philippians 3:20-21 ( NKJV ) 20For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
This is a further discussion in many ways of the purposes of God in salvation. Whatever God purposes He must have the power to carry out. A God who calls ( Romans 8:28,30; Romans 9:24, 1 Corinthians 1:2,9,24,26; Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 4:1,4; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 5:24, Colossians 3:15; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 1:15), and a God who elects (Romans 8:33; 9:11, 11:5,7,28; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; Colossians 3:12; 1 Peter 1:2) is a Sovereign God. But if He lacks the power of his calling and elective prerogatives He cannot, in the final analysis , be called Sovereign and his elective purposes and His calling out a people unto Himself is meaningless. Thankfully, this is not the case.
In our Lord’s high priestly prayer in the Gospel of John, we read; “Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.” The Apostle Peter, who no doubt heard this prayer, in his first epistle, concluded that we are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I Peter 1:5). The Lord Jesus’ prayer that those who were given to Him by the Father, were to be kept by the authority and power of the name of God. It is no wonder then that Peter would state so emphatically that we are kept by the power of God, as it rests on the very authority and reputation of God Himself.
Let me give you six reasons why we can have confidence in the securing power of God in salvation.
First, the same power that raised Christ and caused Him to overcome the pull of man’s sin and its consequences of death is used on our behalf (Ephesians 1:19-20; Philippians 3:21). The death burial and resurrection of Christ was the central thesis of the preaching in the book of Acts (Acts 2:32; 4:2,33; 10:41; 17:18,32; 23:6,8; 24:15,22). The Apostle Paul in arguing for the resurrection of Christ in I Corinthians 15, clearly references to its importance soteriologically. If Christ be not risen then Christ is not risen (I Corinthians 15:13), our preaching is in vain (vs.14), our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins (vs.17) and there is no hope and all have perished (vs.18). The power of the resurrection of Christ is an overcoming power. The resurrection of Christ is the display of God’s power over the consequences of sin (death) and ultimately sin itself.
Second, nothing and no one is powerful enough to separate us from God (John 10:27-29; Romans 8:34-39). Even the “free will” of the sheep cannot, and will not, bring him to the point of perishing. We were not saved by the “will of men” (John 1:13; Romans 9:16) so that it can be said that it is not of works or the power of man that we come to Christ but rather we are drawn by God (John 6:45) and kept in His secure hand (John 10:28).
Third, it is God who causes us to stand (Romans 14:4). We are now Christ’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10) and it will be the effectual grace of God that we will glory in. There can be no boasting (Romans 3:27; Galatians 6:14). All that we are in Christ or ever hope to be, will be by the sanctifying grace of God. All admonitions to holiness in the New Testament are predicated upon our total dependence on the Spirit of God (1 Peter 1:2).
Fourth, He is able to guard our salvation as a deposit against that day ( II Timothy 1:12). Paul’s trust in Christ is his security. We have no power within ourselves.
Fifth, He is able to keep us from falling (stumbling) and present us faultless before the presence of God (Jude 24; Ephesians 3:20; Hebrews .7:25). It is the power of Christ that works within us (Ephesians 3:20) in which we stand (Hebrews 7:25), and brings Him glory not ourselves. We are kept faultless before the throne of God simply because of the imputed righteousness of Christ (Romans 4:1-11,22). So, in Christ there is no stumbling because our salvation is based on His righteousness (justification – Romans 3:24-26) not ours.
Sixth, He is powerful enough to keep His promises (Romans 4:21). He has promised to keep us and there is no power on earth than can frustrate His promise ( Romans 8:34-39).
It is no wonder that the Apostle Paul in Romans eight rhetorically asks “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). He answers that question anyway with a soaring declaration;
32He 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? 33Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”£ 37Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:32-39 ( NKJV )
– Michael Holtzinger