Brother SavedbyMercy,
You bring up some points. I must confess I have never studied the doctrine of eternal justification, though I have heard of it and am aware some such as John Gill wrote on it. I found a site online that has both pro and con articles on the doctrine. I like to study both sides of a position from scripture before taking a possible dogmatic side on an issue. I will study further. In case your interested, the site is here
http://www.theopedia.com/Eternal_justification Some of the external links to the pro and con articles on the site do not work, but I have found if you Google the title and author's names it often pulls them up.
Don Fortner had some good points that are compelling in support of eternal justification that I just read tonight.
I pasted the meat of it below. The article I quote from below is here
http://www.donfortner.com/sermon_notes/45_romans/rom 03v24 Four Facts About Justification 0533.htm
"A. In the mind and purpose of God, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8; Isa. 53).
Because God our Father looked upon Christ as one already sacrificed for us before the world was, all the blessings of grace were given to us in him (Eph. 1:3-7; 2 Tim. 1:9).
· Election
· Adoption
· Acceptance
· Redemption
· Forgiveness
· Justification
Thomas Goodwin wrote - “We may say of all spiritual blessings in Christ what is said of Christ himself, that ‘his goings forth are from everlasting.’ In Christ we are blessed with all spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3). As we are blessed with all others, so with this also, that we were justified then in Christ.”
B. There are two facts which compel us to look upon justification as an eternal act of God.
1. Had it not been for the fact that God looked upon his elect as being righteous and justified in Christ from eternity, he would have destroyed our race as soon as Adam sinned. God spares the wicked for the sake of the righteous. (Illustration: Lot and the men of Sodom.)
2. The Old Testament saints were justified by Christ, just as we are today. And their justification was just as full, complete, and perfect as ours (Heb. 9:15, 22; Rom. 3:25). Every true believer is eternally justified in the purpose of God."
