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

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-
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