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a. From the doctrine of election.
Election does not merely mean that some will be favored with
certain external privileges and may be saved, if they do their duty, but that they who belong to
the number of the elect shall finally be saved and can never fall short of perfect salvation. It is
an election unto an end, that is, unto salvation. In working it out God endows believers with
such influences of the Holy Spirit as to lead them, not only to accept Christ, but to persevere
unto the end and to be saved unto the uttermost.
b. From the doctrine of the covenant of redemption.
In the covenant of redemption God gave
His people to His Son as the reward for the latter’s obedience and suffering. This reward was
fixed from eternity and was not left contingent on any uncertain faithfulness of man. God does
not go back on His promise, and therefore it is impossible that they who are reckoned as being
in Christ, and as forming a part of His reward, can be separated from Him (Rom. 8:38,39), and
that they who have entered the covenant as a communion of life should fall out.
c. From the efficacy of the merits and intercession of Christ.
In His atoning work Christ paid the
price to purchase the sinner’s pardon and acceptance. His righteousness constitutes the perfect
ground for the justification of the sinner, and it is impossible that one who is justified by the
payment of such a perfect and efficacious price should again fall under condemnation.
Moreover, Christ makes constant intercession for those who are given Him of the Father, and
His intercessory prayer for His people is always efficacious, John 11:42; Heb. 7:25.
d. From the mystical union with Christ.
They who are united to Christ by faith become
partakers of His Spirit, and thus become one body with Him, pulsating with the life of the Spirit.
They share in the life of Christ, and because He lives they live also. It is impossible that they
should again be removed from the body, thus frustrating the divine ideal. The union is
permanent, since it originates in a permanent and unchangeable cause, the free and eternal
love of God.
e. From the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart.
Dabney correctly says: “It is a low and
unworthy estimate of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and of His work in the heart, to suppose
that He will begin the work now, and presently desert it; that the vital spark of heavenly birth is
an ignis fatuus, burning for a short season, and then expiring in utter darkness; that the spiritual
life communicated in the new birth, is a sort of spasmodic or galvanic vitality, giving the
outward appearance of life in the dead soul, and then dying.”[Syst. and Polem. Theol., p.
692.] According to Scripture the believer is already in this life in possession of salvation and
eternal life, John 3:36; 5:24; 6:54. Can we proceed on the assumption that eternal life will not
be everlasting?