God Keeps by Means of His Children
This past Wednesday we finished our church-wide fall bible study through the book of James by looking at James 5:19-20 which reads:
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
One of the realities I was struck by that we talked about Wednesday night from this passage, and actually many others, is that God keeps his children by means of his children.
My exhortation to us this morning is to take this reality seriously. Embrace the God ordained role you play in lives of your brothers and sisters.
Scripture is clear that when God saves someone from His wrath because of their sin He also promises to keep them and never let them go.
Paul writes this in Philippians 1:
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
And then again in 1 Corinthians 1:
8 [God] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And when Jude closes out his letter to the church he’s writing to he writes:
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
God has ordained that all of his children will be saved, the multitude of their sins will be covered by the blood of Jesus. And in keeping us he has ordained that we participate in each other’s perseverance.
One of the means of grace that God puts in our life is fellow brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we covenant through church membership. Who walk alongside us in our walk with Christ, encouraging us when we are discouraged, admonishing us when we are weak, pursuing us when we wander, and exhorting us when we are struggling.
One of the ways a Christians should be able to know the Lord is keeping them is by the way the church spiritually cares for them. To commit yourself to a local body of believers through church membership where you have the confidence that you will be held accountable to your profession of faith and encouraged in your walk with Christ should feed your soul the nourishment necessary to rest in the reality that God is keeping you…Because you know He cares for you enough to put spiritual brothers and sisters in your life who have agreed to run the race with you so that together we all will stand before the throne of grace and bask in our Savior’s glory.
As John Piper has one said, Eternal security is a community project.
Not because we save each other, salvation comes through faith alone in Christ alone, but a community project in the sense that we are used by God in His keeping of His children. Therefore, we should take each other with ultimate seriousness.