use the expression " final perseverance." Unblamable^ i. e. not arraigned or accused. He is unblamable against whom no accusation can be brought. In this sense it is said " a bishop must be blameless," Titus 1, 6. Y. God will confirm his people so that when the day of judgment comes, which is the day of our Lord Jesus, i. e. the day of his second advent, they shall stand before him blameless, not chargeable with apostasy or any other sin. They are to be * holy and without blame.' Compare 1 Thess. 5, 23. When we remember on the one hand how great is our guilt, and on the other, how great is our danger from without and from within, we feel that nothing but the righteousness of Christ and the power of God can secure our being preserved and presented blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus.
9. God (is) faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
God is faithful^ one in whom we may confide ; one who will fulfil all his promises. The apostle's confidence in the steadfastness and final perseverance of believers was founded neither on the strength of their purpose to persevere, nor on any assumption that the principle of religion in their hearts was indestructible, but simply on the fidelity of God. If God has promised to give certain persons to his Son as his inheri- tance, to deliver them from sin and condemnation and to make them partakers of eternal life, it is certain he will not allow them to perish. This is plain enough, but how did the apos- tle know that those to whom he wrote were included in the number of those given to Christ, and that the fidelity of God was pledged to their salvation? It was because they were called. Whom he calls, them he also justifies ; and whom he justifies them he also glorifies, Rom. 8, 30. The call intended is the efiectual call of the Holy Spirit, by which the soul is re- newed and translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. The only evidence of election is therefore vocation, and the only evidence of vocation, is holiness of heart and life, for we are called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Compare again Rom. 8, 29, where believers are said to be " predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son." To this they are effectually called. They are made like Christ. Fellowship includes union and communion. The original word (KotvcDvta) signifies paiticipa-