The Holy Spirit’s indwelling work of regeneration is a guarantee of our eternal security. Our destiny is certain! Another facet of the Spirit’s work in our lives that provides confidence in our eternal destiny is the Spirit’s Baptism. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit, we are placed into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body…” When we come to faith in Christ, the scriptures teach us that we are baptized into the Holy Spirit. We are vitally joined to the Messiah. We become members of His body. It is absurd to think a part of Christ’s body could ever possibly fall off of His Body.
Jesus promised us in John 14:16 to send a comforter, another helper, who would abide with us “forever.” Earlier, Jesus said of those who believed in Him, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29). A believer cannot be snatched out of the Father’s hand because the believer, through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, is part of Jesus’ body. He is the hand, or the foot, or the eye, etc. We can resist the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and that always elicits doubts and fears. Surrendering to the Spirit brings peace, assurance, and joy. Appropriating the truth of our security in Christ is submitting to the presence of the Holy Spirit.
One of the primary names of the Holy Spirit is our “Comforter.” His work in guaranteeing our destiny in a sin-soaked world is true comfort. Again quoting Arnold Fruchtenbaum’s Messianic Bible Study, “Eternal security means that once a person has undergone the real experience of salvation, has undergone a true regenerational experience, that person cannot lose his salvation, either by committing a specific sin or by ceasing to believe. That which keeps the believer safe and secure is the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of God on his behalf, not his own works. That is the basic meaning of eternal security.” We need to let the Holy Spirit have His way in our lives! Let Him be what He is: our comforter. The most controversial part of Fruchtenbaum’s quote is the part that suggests a born-again individual who once professes genuine faith in Jesus cannot lose the salvation that Jesus promises even if he stops believing. I don’t know if one can actually do that. I’ve heard people profess to have stopped believing, but only God knows their hearts. Further, Paul talks about each of us being a part of the body, and if one part, say the toe, says it’s no longer part of the body, Paul says that this assertion does not make it any less a part of the body. I have heard it preached that we cannot lose our salvation like a set of car keys, but we can turn our backs on it or walk away from it, and thereby one’s salvation is gone. I find comfort not in my strength to hold on to God but in God’s strength to hold on to me, regardless of my feelings and statements. There is only true comfort in this if it’s on God, not on us!