Introduction by Kirk R. MacGregor - James Clarke and Co Ltd

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Introduction and entrust them to the Son, who will serve as their representative head; via his active and passive obedience, the Son will merit for this people all the treasures of beatitude. Therefore, it is the responsibility of Jesus to ensure that all believers ultimately obtain salvation, which proffers believers an inner peace that transcends the vicissitudes of contingency. In this light, Jesus’ prayer can be seen as his request of confirmation that when he completes the Father’s work, he and his people will receive the covenanted reward. Not merely content to verify this reward, Jesus displays supreme guardianship and compassion by adding a number of specific entreaties for the Father to prevent the flock from losing their salvation. Balserak points out that the covenant of redemption coupled with its dominical reinforcements furnish an unshakable ground for salvific assurance even amid believers’ struggles with the gravest internal sense of sinfulness. In chapter five, Stephen Voorwinde employs a close reading of Romans 8:31–39 to spell out precisely how God’s love functions as the basis and substance for the security of the believer. Framed by three forensic questions and one relational question, Paul powerfully declares that nothing, including believers themselves, will break the chain of God’s purpose for his adopted children, which extends from his foreknowledge to their glorification. Voorwinde shows the magnitude of this assertion by persuasively arguing, based on identifying the antecedent of “these things” (v. 31) with either Paul’s treatment of divine grace covering chapters 5–8 or his argument in Romans up to this point, that it forms a conclusion to his entire discussion of Christian assurance. Voorwinde then explains how the provisions and promises of God shore up the assumptions behind each rhetorical question. For instance, Voorwinde notes that “God is for” believers in three different ways: he providentially arranges the circumstances of believers’ lives; he ordains an eternal purpose for believers; and he gives believers his Son. Moreover, Voorwinde helpfully addresses several objections raised by Paul’s opponents against his gospel which still comprise pressing matters for Christian praxis. Contrary to the perceived threat of antinomianism, Voorwinde highlights Paul’s contentions that believers died to sin through participation in Christ’s death, that believers died to the law and so are no longer yoked thereto, and that believers are therefore free to be yoked to Christ and share in the power of his resurrection through the Holy Spirit. To the issue of whether the word of God had failed as a result of its rejection by those first-century Jews who did not embrace the Way, Voorwinde unfolds Paul’s joint lines of reason- SAMPLE xxiv © 2011 James Clarke and Co Ltd
Introduction ing that not all who are descended from Israel are members of Israel, for whom God’s priority in the gospel and promises in election still stand, and that the true Israel is revealed through the new way of the Spirit, the ultimate reality to which the Torah pointed. Voorwinde closes by illustrating how 8:35–39 utilize the twin foci of the death of Christ and the gift of the Spirit to draw together the threads of divine love in Romans, as God could never abdicate or refuse love to those in whom he has made such infinite investments. In chapter six, writing from a Calvinist standpoint, Verlyn D. Verbrugge assesses the impact of 2 Peter 1:8–11 on the doctrine of election through analysis of the passage’s socio-historical background, grammar, and structure. Regarding background, Verbrugge shows that Peter is addressing two distinct groups—believers and false teachers—the latter of which were once affiliated with the church but have now capitulated to worldly corruption. This breakdown is significant because it shows that Peter did not have a third “transitional” group in mind composed of persons gradually sliding out of the group of believers and into allegiance with the false teachers; for Peter, anyone who joined the false teachers thereby proved themselves to have never received the grace of God. Verbrugge cites approvingly the counterfactual insight of 1 John 2:19, which indicates that the false teachers never actually belonged to the church since, if they had, they would not have abandoned it. Placing 2 Peter 1:8–11 in its context, Verbrugge reveals that the preceding verses 1–7 display concern that believers escape sin and increasingly cultivate Christian virtues on the basis of the fact that they have received God’s allempowering gifts of faith, salvation, and the indwelling divine nature. This fact is corroborated by the use of ejpivgnwsi~ in verse 8, indicating that those charged to display the eightfold virtues of verses 5–7 possess the decisive saving knowledge of God rooted in personal conversion, which is precisely the knowledge that Peter later claims the false teachers have ignored. In verse 9’s description of the false teachers, Verbrugge maintains that the adverb pavlai (“long ago, in the past”) should not be linked with aJmartiw`n (“sins”), as though the false teachers were previously cleansed of their sins, but is a temporal indicator of when the false teachers heard, and unfortunately ignored, the message of how to receive forgiveness. Upon examination of the major Greek terms in verse 10, Verbrugge concludes that “making sure” (poiei`sqai . . . bevbaio~) of one’s elective call means neither to cause nor to fortify one’s eternal salvation, but rather to confirm SAMPLE xxv © 2011 James Clarke and Co Ltd
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Introduction by Kirk R. MacGregor - James Clarke and Co Ltd

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