The Security of the Believers - Romans 8

There are some simple truths in God’s word that can not be denied. One of the most important truths is that GOD IS OMNIPOTENT, which simply means that His power is innate; that is, God was not born; He has always been; and there has never been any limitation to the power of God. In Genesis 18:14, the Hebrew language asks the question “Is there anything too hard for the Lord? And the language is so constructed that it means to imply—“Of course not, nothing is too hard for the Lord to do.” Therefore, God has the power to save man from sin and He also has the power to keep him saved. Ask yourself the simple question. Has God ever lost anything that he loved and wanted to keep? He loves you and if you have given your life to Him—He wants to keep it.

All Southern Baptist would like the world to know why we believe in “The security of the believer,” and much of the proof is found in the 8^th chapter of Romans, which we study today. By reading Article II of “The Baptist Faith and Message” you will find that we believe that the triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This means that he is three persons in one; each one has His own personal attributes, but there is no division of nature, essence or being; in other words, God is one in essence [His fundamental nature] but He is three in personality.

God is OMINIPRESENT; He has always been everywhere. He remained in Heaven while His Son came to earth and lived approximately thirty-three years during which time Jesus Christ [The Son] completed the plan of salvation for man-kind; and after this work was completed Jesus sent The Holy Spirit [third person of the God head] to earth to utilize his plan to save the lost by convicting and leading people to Christ. Our study today is dealing with the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of all people on earth.

Article II of Baptist Faith further states that The Holy Spirit is the third person in the God Head. He deals with each of us individually and in different ways. He inspired special authors to write the Bible and through its illumination He enables us to understand the truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer in the Body of Christ. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption, The Holy Spirit is not one/third of God; neither is He a third God, but he is God, present and active in your life and mine. In order to get the full picture you MUST READ: His Presence in Romans 8:1-11; His Guidance 12-17; His Prayer Life 18-27; and we will expound more on His Assurance found in 8:28-39.

Let me be very frank and to the point. The doctrine of security of the believer does not apply to an unsaved person. Only after you have accepted Christ as your Savior [been born again of the Spirit] are you secure in Christ. As kindly as I know how—allow me to warn you—that if you are still willingly living a sinful life, and enjoying it, you need to re-examine your re-birth experience. If you did not realize that you were a sinner, lost without hope; and if you did not find new hope in The Lord Jesus Christ, believe in Him, trust Him, and repent of your sins, and invite Him to come into your life and save you, and promise to live for Him and through Him—you are not saved! But if you are saved verses 9 through 11 applies to you. Read it.

You are saved now, therefore the outward person that we all can see, touch and talk to is in the flesh, but your soul is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. Without the Spirit, you do not belong to God. It is not unusual for the best of us to wonder sometimes if we are really a Christian but we must realize that this is the work of Satin. Some are waiting for a “feeling” to know…and you will never have a feeling that gives complete assurance. How can you know? Believe God. Trust. Faith. You will know The Spirit has come only because Jesus promised he would send His Spirit to us. When he starts working in you, you will know without a doubt that Jesus is the Christ; God’s Son and that eternal life can be obtained only through Him [1: John 6:5]. You will begin to willingly act as The Lord directs you to act [8:5]; your mind will be set on what the Spirit desires of you.

One of the greatest works of the Spirit is his help with our prayer life. Some Christians are so old and ill and this and other family conditions have brought about so many problems that we do not know what or how to pray for the right things. Verses 26-27 are two of my most comforting verses in the bible. I try to think of all my blessings and thank him for the ones I remember and then call on the Holy Spirit to name the rest that I have forgotten. I usually have a special need that is hurting, or that is causing a special concern and I pray for Gods intervention; but what I believe to be even more important is that I ask the Holy Spirit to really decide what my greatest needs are and ask God to provide only what is most important. Do you sometimes have problems wording your prayers? If so, why don’t you place this problem in the hands of the Holy Spirit? He will help you Pray. Ask Him to complete a perfect prayer; one that God can and will honor. Be sure to end each prayer in the Name of Jesus Christ. The Bible directs us to always pray in the name of Christ.

Romans 8:28 is one of [if not] the greatest verses in the Bible. First, you must love God and must have been called by the Holy Spirit to fulfill the purpose that God has for your life. If you meet this condition—then you can be absolutely sure that God will work through all of the things that take place in your life here on earth [good things or terrible experiences] and that He will make the end result something good for you. You may have doubts; you may not always understand; but in God’s time He will work things out for your good. You simply must exercise your faith; you must truly believe that God is faithful, truthful and completely just and will do what he has promised to do for you!!!!

Those who are called are the ones [every one] that the Holy Spirit convinces and enables to receive Christ as their savior and Lord. After their conversion, everyone now has a new mind set and a new perspective on life. They do not trust in self, power, position, money, but in God only. In 1 John we find that God’s ultimate goal for us is to make us more like Christ. As we become more like Christ we can discover our true selves and God’s chosen purpose for us. How can we discover and know that we are in his will? We can learn this by studying His Word and examining the life that he lived as a man on earth [with temptations and trials just as we have] and emulating his life through our lives. When we do good works we prove that our faith is strong. God predestined that we do good works; it was not an after-thought with Him, however we do these works to prove we are saved and not in order to be saved.

Christ loved us and saved us and so we are more than conquerors through him who loved us [v-37]. Paul then says that because we have won the battle [become more than conquerors] we can be sure that we have won our battle against Satin. He said; “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” [v-38]. Christ is in us and we are in Christ—He holds us in his hands—an no one can pluck us out of his hand [John 10:28].