The Guarantee of Our Salvation

“And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.” –Ephesians 1:13,14

From the moment that God granted you the grace to believe, He placed His Spirit inside of you, marking you as His own, taking up residence within your very being.  This is not a light, fickle thing that God has done.  God has not condescended to reside within you, to place His glorious Self inside of you, only to walk away from you.  Nor let us think that we, through our failures, can kick God out, as though our life were a slapstick comedy and God the straight man who gets bumped out the door as a result of our clumsy stumbling about.

Consider that God has not merely placed His Holy Spirit within us, but that He has done so as a guarantee.  And what is He guaranteeing?  That He will gives us the inheritance He promises.  What is the inheritance?  Nothing less than God Himself, eternal life lived in the light of His glory, alongside His Son Jesus Christ.  Scripture tells us that we are joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), that God Himself is our inheritance (Psalm 16:5).  It is not a feeble reward, to be granted to those who strive hard and manage, by the end of their life, to be good enough to receive it.  No, it is an inheritance that is guaranteed to us, guaranteed at the very point of our salvation, when the Holy Spirit takes up residence within our hearts.  It is a poor guarantee indeed if it rests upon the feeble foundation of our own righteousness.  In that case it would be broken every time, in every one’s life.  But thanks be to God, it does not depend onus, but upon the faithfulness of God Himself.

Rest assured that what bears the guarantee of God Almighty will certainly come to pass.  When you believed, you became His child, were marked by Him a member of His family, and by His indwelling Spirit received the certain and sure guarantee of your salvation.  “He did this so we would praise and glorify him.” (Ephesians 1:15)  Praise indeed is due to the one who shows us such magnificent grace: rejoice and be glad, for your name is written in Heaven (Luke 10:20), and will not be blotted out.