Assurance of Salvation: Understanding Election and Grace

And so now we're going to turn our attention to how can we actually gain a true and sound basis for our assurance of salvation? And I think the first place that we have to look, again, is at theology. Again, in our day and age, people tend to downplay the importance of theology, but when we remember, when we examine Peter's charge that we be diligent in making our election and our calling sure, in order that we might grow and produce the fruit of our sanctification, we see there in his thinking the close relationship that exists between election and assurance. [00:35:55]

Those who hold the view of election that we call a prescient view, or a foreknowledge view of election, are those who believe that God elects to salvation those people whom He knows from eternity from His perspective of foreknowledge. He looks down the corridor of time, and He knows in advance who will respond positively to the offer of the Gospel and who will not, and on the basis of His prior knowledge of what people do in response to the Gospel, He makes His decree or decision of election. [00:01:47]

But as I understand the Scripture, election is unto salvation, so that if you are elect, you are saved and if you are saved, that's the clearest sign that you are numbered among the elect. Now, let's state it another way. None of those who are saved are not elect, and none of those who are elect fail to be saved. Salvation flows out of election, so if I want to be sure of my salvation, the first thing I need to know is, am I numbered among the elect? [00:03:10]

Now, this idea that Jesus expresses in this prayer is that the Father gives the gifts of people of the redeemed to the Son and all that the Father gives to the Son, Jesus says earlier in John's gospel, "come to me," and all that come to Him are kept by Him. And so this refers back to the elect, who are the ones whom the Father gives to the Son, and the elect that the Father gives to the Son are preserved by the Son. [00:06:17]

And so we hear in this chapter Jesus' appeal to the Father that those who have been given to Him may be kept. Now, when we look further at this whole relationship between election and salvation, we need to be concerned with what we call in theology the ordo salutis. It's just a fancy way of describing what we say in English, the order of salvation. And when we talk about the order of salvation, we're talking about a sequence of things or actions or events that take place, that are the discreet aspects of all that's involved in our salvation. [00:07:22]

Now, what we mean by logical priority is this: that since our justification depends upon and rests upon faith, faith is the prerequisite, the necessary condition that has to be present for justification to take place, so faith is logically necessary for justification. It precedes justification, not in time, but in terms of logical necessity. So when we're talking about the order of salvation, keep in mind that what we have in view here are distinctions with respect to prerequisites to logical necessity. [00:09:34]

In Romans chapter 8, we have one of the most famous and beloved verses in all of the New Testament. In verse 28, we read, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Now, let me just pause for a second and say, notice that this promise that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are described here as the ones who are the called according to His purpose. [00:10:34]

So that's a special kind of calling; the Bible speaks about the call of the Gospel that goes out to everybody -- what we call the outer call or the external call, and not everybody that hears the Gospel with their ears, not everybody who hears the outer call is saved -- but we also speak of the inner call, the call of God in the person, in the heart, that is a work of God, the Holy Spirit, which call is effectual. [00:11:25]

All of the elect receive this inner call, all of the elect receive the purposive call of God, and all who receive this inner call of God are numbered among the elect, and I think that becomes very clear in the verses that follow from this. Let's look at it, "For whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." Now, we're talking -- Paul's talking here about the purposes of God with respect to salvation, and he begins by mentioning God's foreknowledge, and those whom He foreknew, He predestined to what? [00:12:14]

Now, there is an order here that is a logical order that is followed, and it's very important to our understanding of assurance of salvation to grasp what is going on here in this order of salvation. It starts with foreknowledge. Now, the reason why that prescient view of election that I mentioned earlier is so popular is because people come to this text and they say, "Wow! The first step is foreknowledge. Ha, ha. Therefore that means that election or predestination is based upon something that God knows about people in advance. [00:14:30]

Now again, God's foreknowledge, in general, includes all people, not just the elect, but here He's speaking about that foreknowledge that He has of His elect. Because all whom He foreknows, in the sense that He foreknows them here, are predestined, and all who are predestined, what? Are called. Now the critical point is this, don't miss this: all who are called are justified. So if all who are called are justified, this can't possibly refer to the external call; it has to refer to the internal call because all who receive this particular call receive justification, just as all who are justified are glorified. [00:15:16]

In this brief summary, what Paul is focusing on is the work of the Holy Spirit that he describes in terms of quickening, which means being made alive, which we understand in theological categories to refer to our rebirth, to our regeneration, that which Jesus told Nicodemus was a prerequisite for anyone's even seeing the kingdom, let alone entering the kingdom of God. And that is tied to this internal calling, and so my basic question as I seek assurance, is this: Am I a regenerate person? [00:18:25]