(ThyBlackMan.com) I am going to clear this up right now, regardless of what you have heard and regardless of what you want to believe. I find that most people who believe you can lose your salvation
(1) do not overstand the difference between religion and relationship,
(2) do not overstand what your salvation is based on,
(3) want to proof text by taking one scripture and trying to support what they want to believe or what they think should happen,
(4) have not done an exhaustive or thorough study,
(5) do not overstand what happens to a person once he or she receives eternal life (salvation),
(6) are only repeating what they have heard or been taught in error
and
(7) just do not want to believe that God is that good, God is that forgiving and the blood of Christ is that strong. These are 7 of the key reasons that people believe in error that you can lose your salvation, in effect believing that eternal life is not always eternal.
If eternal life is a trap door, a revolving door, a deception or a clever play on words, then God is a liar, a trickster or a deceiver. Of course He is none of the above and the scriptures neither contradict God nor each other. Those who think you can lose eternal life have been misled.
Let’s walk through this by the numbers. But before we do, let’s get rid of the phrase “once saved, always saved”. Why? Because the Bible does not say it like that and we must be careful attempting to add interpretations that put things in our own words instead of God’s Word. For these reasons I will not use that phrase or cliché’ to describe eternal life in Christ.
Number 1 – Eternal life, by its very definition, is ETERNAL – not temporary. If you have eternal life temporarily only until you mess up, you never had eternal life at all. And you need to know that He who redeems you can also keep and preserve you until the end (1 Cor. 1:8-9, Philippians 1:6).
Number 2 – You don’t have the power to break the seal of the Holy Spirit. You are not nearly that powerful, especially all alone without God backing you up. And He won’t back you up to break His own seal put in place to protect your eternal life. If He did that would mean the Father and the Holy Spirit would be divided and the Bible is clear that a house divided against itself cannot stand. The Bible says God’s children are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30).
Number 3 – You don’t have the power to resist the Lion of Judah. If a believer or son strays away the Lion of Judah is coming after him. He will leave the 99 to come after the one (Matt. 18:12, Luke 15:4). Think about what happens when a lion goes after anything – an aggressive, intensive, focused “do or die” pursuit. So if you think any tiny human can resist coming back into the fold when the Lion of all lions comes after you, then you are sadly mistaken. Actually all God has to do for most believers is slightly remove his hedge of protection, let satan bite you in the butt and you will come running back. Fact.
Number 4 – You can’t name one person in scripture under the New Covenant who lost eternal life. And to say even Judas did is an assumption tied to a much deeper and more complex study. There are no cases under the New Covenant in scripture where anybody had eternal life temporarily, especially since the judgment has not happened yet. And even the prodigal son returned, didn’t he?
Number 5 – Salvation is based on relationship, not religion. Entrance into the family and subsequently the Kingdom requires that you are adopted by God and the blood of Christ covers your sins. The books of Romans and Galatians boldly declare that a born-again believer is now a child of God, no longer a servant, not a sinner. Thus when believers sin, we are sons acting like sinners – but we are not sinners. That happens often as we shed the remnants of the old creation we once were. That also happens as we continue to dwell in both an imperfect body and a world of temptation. But as we grow in spiritual maturity and wisdom, that should happen less and less. This process is called “sanctification” whereby we become more and more holy. Not to be confused with salvation.
Number 6 – There is only one unpardonable sin and one means ONE. I recommend studying the following scriptures: Mark 3:28-29, Matt 12:31-32 and Luke 12:10. If God does not add to the list, you cannot either because we are neither to add to the Word of God nor take away from it. If you do, you risk bringing a curse upon yourself. You therefore cannot say unpardonable sins include suicide, murder, lying, theft, incest etc. Why not? Because God does not. And as deplorable as these sins are, YOU CANNOT MAKE THEM UNPARDONABLE just because you think they should be.
Number 7 – If sin takes you out of the family, none of us would go to Heaven. Every “saved” or born-again believer will still sin every month (if not every week) of his or her life – either by omission or commission. We all have sinned and fall short. Christ did not come to stop us from sinning. He came because we could not stop. We inherited Adam’s infectious “sickness” to sin and we were born into it.
Number 8 – God does not provide a formula for sins removing believers from inheritance nor sonship. So for those of you who say you can lose your eternal life, how many sins would it take? Would it take 3 big sins, 12 little sins or one sin several times over and over again? And which sins are stronger than the blood of Christ? Where does the Bible say that? Nowhere under the New Covenant.
Number 9 – God does not give any formula in the Bible for the reversal of all that happens to you once you are born again. I find that people who believe you can lose your salvation never understood what happens to you once you receive it in the first place. Therefore let’s see what happens.
What happens when you become born-again (John 3:3)? Let’s examine what happens together, not necessarily in the exact order. First the blood of Christ covers your sins, all of them except the ONE unpardonable sin. You may want to say “not future sins” but realize that all of your sins were future sins when Christ went to the cross because you weren’t even here. Second the person’s sins are forgiven (past, present and future). Third your sins are forgotten (Hebrews 8:12). Fourth you are adopted into the family of God and grafted in so you now have relationship, not religion (Romans 8:16, Galatians 4:7). You are no longer a servant nor a sinner. When you sin, you are a son (or daughter) who sins. You are no longer identified by Christ as a sinner, your sins are no longer held against you and again, they are both forgiven and forgotten. You also become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21), not a sinner.
A born-again believer continues in the faith, not to keep eternal life, but rather as the automatic fruit of who he is as a child of God. His loyalty is therefore more of fruit than works.
You are redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13) and you are not going to be “unredeemed”. The child of God has received an Advocate who is the very same Person who will judge on judgment day. The Holy Spirit comes to live/dwell inside the believer and He only dwells in new vessels, thus the analogy of old and new wine and wineskins. We are the church, the temples and tabernacles of the Holy Spirit (Ezek. 11:19). And the Holy Spirit was given to the church at Pentecost, to dwell in you once you become a part of that church (the body of believers, the body of Christ). There is even more that happens to you but (1) I don’t have room to list everything and (2) even if I did, I don’t know all the good things that happen. For a born-again child of God to lose his eternal life (salvation), everything good that God changed in the believer’s life would have to complete reverse itself. That is not going to happen!
THINK ABOUT THIS: IF SIN STOPS YOU FROM GOING TO HEAVEN, NOBODY IS GOING
The born-again believer is being spiritually rebuilt from the inside out. That is why he/she is actually becoming a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The carnal mind is replaced with a new mind, a renewed mind, a new way of thinking – the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5, 1 Cor. 2:16). He/she receives a circumcision of the heart. The old heart was despitefully wicked (Jeremiah 117:9, Ezek.11:19, Ezek 36:26). The believer receives a new Father (John 1:12), a new destination, a new name (Rev 2:17, Rev 3:12, Isaiah 62:2).
Number 10 – People who say “God won’t just let people continue to sin and go to Heaven ” do not realize that none of us ever stopped. So if you believe man-made nonsense, you reject God’s plan for eternal life, you reject Heaven and nobody else would either based on your formula. You may say “you mean to tell me I can just go out and kill 100 people and go to Heaven”? To you I would say a believer does not think such things because a child of God has a renewed mind, the mind of Christ. Nor does a born-again believer try to find loopholes to continue in willful and deliberate sin.
A child of God finds ways to reject, avoid and flee sin. We are being perfected but we are not perfect. However when we sin, unlike the unbeliever, we have an Advocate with the Father. The same Advocate who judges on judgment day. Recognize that your Attorney is also your Judge and the same person who gave His life for you. There is NO condemnation in Christ. NO means NONE. So once you understand what your Advocate does, did and will do, you will have a better understanding of your eternal life.
Number 11 – Taking a scripture by itself to try and prove a point (such as Hebrews 6:4) instead of doing an exhaustive study will not give you the full understanding of eternal life. It is much more complex than a scripture or two in one chapter of one book. When you make this mistake in Theology it is called “proof texting”. You must look at the consistency and totality of scripture on a given subject.
John 10:28-29 King James Version (KJV) states WHO controls your eternal life once you choose.
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Number 12 – For those of you who think God should not allow people into Heaven who sin, you would not or could not go. Be careful that you do not “condemn” yourself. Secondly, your opinion or preference on the matter does not decide how God handless salvation. Nor does it override the consistency of scripture regarding eternal life. So be careful that your own beliefs, formulas and definitions do not cause you to face a backlash of your own judgment.
Number 13 – God did not give man power over something as important as eternal life – only the choice and faith to select it. John 10:28-30 points out that NO ONE can snatch you out of His hand, no one including you. Your works (good or bad) do not control eternal life, God does. You cannot “un-make” yourself a child of God by what you do. Relationship cannot be lost like that any more than your son can stop being your son just because he acts up, acts out or rejects you.
Overstand the power of the sacrifice made by the Messiah. It is the acceptance of what Christ has done that makes you a son, not the works you have done. You are saved by grace trough faith and NOT by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Thus you did not put yourself in the family by your works and you cannot remove yourself by your works or lack thereof (see Romans 3:28). Works are not the determining factor. Not your works anyway. This is your blessed assurance that God is in control, not you.
Nothing and no human being is powerful enough to separate you from your life in Christ – especially not you. Therefore you need to be persuaded in your own mind by the full evidence and proof of scripture. We are further reassured of this yet again in Romans 8 which states:
Romans 8:38-39 King James Version (KJV)
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Number 14 – Those who you might want to say have fallen away are those who God says were never His by choice in the first place. And real choices are followed by the proof of real loyalty and real dedication. The Bible teaches the wheat and the tares have grown up together (Matthew 13:30) so you need to know that profession (Romans 1:22) is not the same as confession by faith verified by works. The Bible teaches that God separates the sheep from the goats.
The Bible teaches that the dog has returned back to his vomit. But notice that the dog, even if he acted different, was still always a dog. Thus he returned to his old ways because he was never transformed. He was not a dog who became a sheep then changed back into a dog. A child of God has been transformed (Romans 12:2). Simply put, an unbeliever is not a believer who has fallen away. An unbeliever is an unbeliever who acted like a believer yet never believed unto salvation. This is often true no matter how much a person attends “church”, prays or gives. There are even pastors who are unbelievers.
In 1 John 2:19 (KJV) it states: 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
In Matthew 7:22-23 (KJV) note that God says “I NEVER KNEW YOU”. Furthermore so much for good works determining that you go to Heaven. They don’t. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
So what about those who make errors and do the wrong thing but don’t know it? What about those who have never seen, heard no read the scriptures? James 4:17 addresses such cases. It tells us that sin is attributed to those who know something is wrong but chose to do it anyway. I would also say that every person has a basic sense of right and wrong, good and bad – as inherited from Adam and Eve.
Number 15 – Born-again believers are predestined. God knew who would come, who would stay and who would pretend. He drew you to Him (John 6:44) and then predestined you even before you made the choice (Romans 8:29). All this time you just thought it was all about a tiny human making the choice and having the ability to put yourself in the kingdom or take yourself out. Wrong. If you thought that, you gave yourself too much power and authority that you never had.
Number 16 – The Messiah is able to preserve your eternal life and present you blameless (Jude 24). The life of the child of God is hidden with Christ (Colossians 3:3). What then when we sin? First we have an Advocate. Second our sins are forgiven. Third our sins are forgotten. Fourth our sins are covered by the blood of Christ. Fifth we lose favor, we lose fellowship and we have to reap what we sow ON EARTH until we repent. Thus there are consequences but not consequences that cancel our eternal life.
Number 17 – Referencing numbers 13 and 15 of this study, God through His omniscience knew who would do what, including who would rebel, repent, pretend and who would never sincerely nor genuinely accept the sacrifice of Christ. Once you believe, repent and accept the Christ, you will know that God did not leave control over your eternal life up to you. If He had, nobody would ever make it to Heaven. If sin would remove us from the promise and the family, no human being on this Earth would receive either. Is Eternal security a license to sin? No. The child of God finds every possible way he can to do the right thing and rejects rebellion or willfully continuing in sin.
Number 18 – Once you truly choose, there is no going back. Today we have been studying the fine print of your covenant or contract if you prefer to call it that. The rules, terms and guidelines are outlined in great detail. I find that most people who want to reject the truth of eternal security are those who have never studied it thoroughly or those who never knew what eternal life is based on. I find that those who think an actual child of God has the power to reject God and stay in that state are those who really do not know the power, promises and persuasion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I find that people who reject eternal security do not overstand sonship, becoming a new creation nor Who our Advocate is and what He has accomplished. Know that “eternal” has never meant “temporary”.
You do have a choice, but once that choice is made, you are not repeatedly given the option to step in and out when you want or because you feel like it. The kingdom of God does not work that way. Which is why God’s children are SEALED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT UNTIL THE DAY OF REDEMPTION. If you try to break that seal, you are not smart enough, not strong enough and not authorized to do so.
Most pastors I have heard are miserably failing to explain the fine print in the agreement, the rules in the family that you join once you are adopted, the many other unstated decisions you make when you accept the Messiah as Lord AND Savior, the safeguards in place so you won’t screw up the opportunity and all the work the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have done for you and to you. Eternal security is eternal.
Ephesians 4:30 King James Version (KJV) states: 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
But what about if you lose your faith? You can’t because (1) God has given every person a measure of faith (Romans 12:3) and (2) faith is also a gift. Your faith can grow weak just as anything grows weak that you do not use, build or strengthen. But it will not leave and YOU cannot remove it because YOU did not obtain it. Even in the weakest point of your faith it is still there. Though maybe dormant or not very noticeable. Faith by God’s definition is not just believing. It is much more. A study on faith can easily prove this is true. But for now know that you cannot drop or eliminate what God placed in you. That is out of the realm of your authority and ability. And when your faith reaches up to meet God’s grace reaching down to you, that one time is all that is needed for you to be saved by grace through faith.
Never forget that Christ did not come to help us keep the law nor to keep you from sinning. He came because we could not keep the law and we could not stop sinning. If you try to keep the law and think your works will perfect you, yet break any part of the law of sin and death at any time, you are guilty of breaking all of it and therefore not entitled to eternal life (James 2:10). The book of Romans points out that children of God are not under that law. A child of God is under the Law of the Spirit of Life, a better covenant built upon better promises (Romans 8:2, Hebrews 8:6). A New Covenant not based on condemnation for those who are born-again. People go to Hell because they refuse to accept Christ who paid for their sin. Thus they fall under the Old Covenant which requires them to pay their own sin debt. And the wages of that sin is death so they do not receive eternal life.
Finally every month, week or day every single child of God on this planet will sin. Maybe by omission, maybe by commission or maybe by error. God knew that before you were born. And if a child of God has to worry about sinning his way out of his inheritance, the family of God and Heaven, then nobody can sleep at night. Then there is no blessed assurance. Then there is no eternal security. Then you are not sealed until the day of redemption. Then you only have ETERNAL life temporarily. Fortunately God is smarter than to trust salvation with human beings who would surely make a complete mess of it.
Let God be true and every man a liar. Listen to the TOTALITY of what the Bible says. Other belief systems have infected the truth of eternal life by complicating things with scales of good works they want to believe God uses. But they have made only it harder on themselves. Don’t do that to yourself. Believe!
Staff Writer; Trevo Craw