A Bible Study on Eternal Security
Eternal
Security or “Once Saved, Always Saved” teaches that a person genuinely “saved”
or “born again” cannot lose their Salvation.
The historical term used for eternal security is “perseverance of the
saints,” which taught that those who are genuinely saved will “persevere”
to the end by the power of God.
In this article I intend to present the Biblical Evidence for this teaching. I have other booklets that I intend to publish
that deal with the various aspects (practical implication, false converts, etc.)
and the various objections (proof texts, points from Hebrews, etc.) to Eternal
Security.
The reader
may not agree with the ideas presented here, but I hope that the reader may
seek to understand this teaching before making any decisions about it. It is one thing to disagree with something
that you understand, but quite another to disagree with something that you do
not.
My concern
is that people have turned away from the Gospel and have embraced a different
one for seeking a right standing with God.
Such a Gospel will fail. Additionally,
that people aren’t truly trusting in Jesus for their salvation and instead are trusting
in a mixture of their own works and Christ’s works. This false faith is a dangerous and a damnable
one as hopefully we will see in this study.
My hope and
prayer is that God may give the reader a clearer understanding in this matter
so that he/she may truly rest upon the promise of God rather than their own
self.
I propose to
you the reader that the best evidence for eternal security comes through a
thorough understanding of what salvation is.
So, in this study we will explore five areas regarding Salvation.
These five areas are:
1) Grace and Faith—The Basis of Salvation,
2)
Understanding the Meaning of Justification,
3) The
Irreversible Nature of Regeneration,
4) The
Place of Sanctification, and
5) The Hope
of Glorification.
If these
seem a bit heavy please bear with me, I will do my best to explain these
concepts. There are other topics that
that could be brought out such as Redemption, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, Sealed,
Saving Faith, Atonement, or Propitiation, but these five may be prove
sufficient to make the point. If you
have any questions or comments about any of these points feel free to email me
at wrferguson31@hotmail.com or visit William's
Corner Blog (williamscornerblog.blogspot.com). May God open the eyes of our understanding so
that we may be able to comprehend the great depths of the love of our Lord
Jesus Christ. God bless you…Pastor Will.
The Basis
of Salvation—Grace and Faith
An Olympic
Gymnast will win a gold medal based on their performance of certain
criteria. A panel of judges will grant
them points by how well they perform the criteria and will deduct points in
areas where they performed poorly. Just
as performance is the determining factor in winning for an athlete, so we ask,
what is the determining factor or basis for a person to get to heaven
(salvation)? So what does God the Judge
look at in determining our eternal fate?
Let’s start with Ephesians 2:8-9 for the answer to this question…
For by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from
yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works so that no one can boast.
Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were
dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved…in order that
in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of His grace,
expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Eph. 2:3b-5,7
There are
two determining factors mentioned in these verses on how we acquire salvation,
the first factor is God’s Grace. God’s grace means God’s merit or beauty. The “grace” in these verses is a virtue
that God possesses. We are not saved by
our own grace or virtue (performance), but by the virtue and beauty of
God. Notice that it says that we were
“dead in transgressions”.
There was
no beauty in us but the beauty was in God’s good pleasure to show
kindness. Therefore, Salvation is based
upon God’s performance, not our performance.
Have you
ever done something good for someone just because you felt like doing it? It didn’t matter if they deserved it or
not…you just felt like doing good. When
that happens, you do it by your grace (virtue).
For example: I was in a restaurant one day and noticed
that the service was slow. The waitress
was clearly having a bad day. She was in
over her head. The restaurant was
understaffed for the amount of business they were having. In spite of her hard work, it was never
enough. The customers were impatient
with her and some let her know about it.
It took a long time for me to get my food and it was cold when it
finally came. A big part of me did not
want to give her a tip, but seeing that she was in an unfair situation I was
moved with compassion on her and left her a very sizable tip.
She did
nothing to deserve the tip, yet because of her situation love compelled me to
move. This is the way it is with
God. God is good and loving and He
overflows with a kindness that must be expressed. We have become the targets of His grace and
love.
Therefore,
when we talk about God’s grace, we are talking about His goodness instead of ours.
This love was displayed in His Son when He sent Him to die for us—God demonstrates his own love for us in
this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
The second
factor is our Faith in God’s
provision. Through Jesus’ death God paid
for the sins of every single person of the world, however, that provision isn’t
applied to a person until they have faith in that provision. They must receive this gift individually by
faith because it is not distributed automatically by default. So, I receive this gift by believing that
Jesus died on the cross as provision for my sin-debt to God.
Believing
means that I trust in God’s provision and surrender my worry to Him. I have peace and I rest in the fact that
Jesus died in my place so that I won’t have to go to hell. I thank God and trust the shed blood of Jesus
for the forgiveness of all my sin(s).
Consider
the testimony of the great preacher George Whitfield.
Believing that he had to go out and find a strategy for uniting his
soul with God and forming Christ within himself by his own efforts, Whitefield
began an agonizing months-long search for this state of holiness. His quest began with the idea of healthy self-discipline
but quickly led him to a series of increasingly severe acts of self-denial.
(After some time) He was sick and mostly confined to bed for seven
weeks. During this time he attempted to
continue his reading and prayer but was forced to stop abusing his body. Shortly after Easter, in a state of utter
exhaustion and nearly complete spiritual despair, Whitefield cast himself upon
the mercy of God, and “a full assurance of faith broke in upon my disconsolate
soul!” (Fish, 32-34)
Whitfield
struggled to live up to the demands of the 10 commandments and his conscience. He would go on long bouts of fasting and
prayer in order to gain acceptance with God.
His soul was greatly troubled until he finally trusted God with his
salvation through the works of Jesus.
There was a great deal of peace that came upon his heart.
The
testimony of Martin Luther is similar in that he “served” God and yet was in
agony until he learned that the bible requires faith in Jesus Christ and in Him
alone for salvation. When Luther placed
his fears of his own salvation upon Jesus he had great peace about his
soul. This was what motivated him in his
ministry that sparked the great Protestant Reformation.
All those
who are truly saved come to a place in their life where they wrestle in great
fear about their salvation and seek God until He gives them peace. There are those who made a “decision” for
Jesus but not resulting from true saving faith.
They are going through the motions
and hoping that it is enough. There is
no salvation without conversion and there is absolutely no conversion without
real saving faith. Please do not trust
in your efforts toward salvation. You
may go to church, read the bible, pray, do good things; but if you are relying
on those things you need to repent and turn from self and trust in Christ. There are many “Christians” today that are
trying to settle their peace with God apart from absolute faith and trust in
Jesus Christ.
Consider
what the scripture says about Abraham’s faith.
If, in fact, Abraham was justified
by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was
credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:2-3) Observe what Romans 4:16
says, “Therefore, the promise comes by FAITH,
so that it may be by grace”. According
to these verses, faith requires a promise to believe and that promise to us is
the perfect work of atonement that Christ has completed in his death, burial and
resurrection (God’s beauty, performance—grace).
These
verses emphasize that our works or virtue is not the basis of how we get saved—"not by works so that no one can boast.” We are saved through faith alone in the
finished work of Christ on the cross.
There is nothing that we can add to it.
Therefore, if works was not
the basis for how I got saved, then how can works be the basis for how I lose
it? God doesn’t look at my works
for approval with Him, but He looks at my faith in His works toward me.
The
scriptures specifically say in at least four different places that “the just
shall live by faith.” If there is no
faith…there is no salvation. Let the
reader take heed and examine whether they are truly trusting in Christ or in themselves
for approval with God.
But what
about “Faith without Works” in the passage of James 2:17,20? Even
so, faith, if it has no works is dead, being alone...But will you know, O vain
man, that faith without works is dead?
I will deal with this in greater detail in another section but for now I
will make the point that these verses do not nullify the idea of “saving faith,”
but rather enhances it.
James
distinguishes between the person who says
they have faith and the one who displays
a genuine faith. He uses the example of
Abraham offering his son on the altar.
Abraham’s obedience showed that he trusted God. By
faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac…accounting that God was able
to raise him up, even from the dead. (Hebrews 11:17,19) Abraham wasn’t afraid to obey God because he
had faith in God’s promise. His action was
showing that he was resting in God’s promise and so, he obeyed. It was Abraham’s faith that was being tested,
not His obedience. It is almost as if
God was saying to Abraham, “Do you really trust me? Will you put me first and let me worry about
fulfilling my promises?”
With regard
to Salvation if we truly believe the promise of Salvation we will rest, “For anyone who
enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter
that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience”
Hebrews 4:10-11. If I am obeying
Christ’s commands out of fear of being judged, I am not obeying out of faith (I
John 4:17-18).
In fact,
works that results from fear show that I do
not have faith. What if someone gave
you a promise that they were going to pay all your real estate taxes this
year? How would you evidence your faith
in that promise? Doubt would cause you
to go to the courthouse and check to see if it is getting paid. Doubt would cause you to put the amount in
the bank “just in case” they didn’t pay.
If you believe what they say, you would rejoice and not worry (rest)
about it.
Your
rejoicing and resting would be the “works” that James is talking about (Romans
5:2). Again, I will deal with this in
much greater depth and detail. In that section
I will show that there is a type of work that shows we have faith and a
work that shows that we don’t have faith.
We need to
make certain therefore, that our works show that we believe rather than doubt
the promise of God. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into
His rest any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us the gospel was preached, as well
as to them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with
faith in them that heard it (Hebrews 4:1-2).
Consider,
again, if works is not the basis for receiving salvation but “saving faith,”
how can works be the basis for losing salvation? What about your trust? “Do you fully trust in His grace this hour? Are you truly washed in the Blood of the
Lamb?”
The Meaning
of Justification
In understanding Justification it will
become clear how God accepts the ungodly.
Therefore being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)
“Justification”
is the act of “making right” something that is wrong. A great way to illustrate “Justification” can
be found in the way they use to set the type for the printing press and the way
it is done on our computers today.
Left justification is where the type
set to the left side of the page. All of
the characters are spaced just right so that there is a straight line that goes
down along the left side of the page.
Right justification is where the type is set to the right side of the page. All of the characters are spaced just right
so that there is a straight line that goes down along the right side of the
page.
Full justification is where the type is set to both sides of the page. All of the characters are spaced just right
so that there are straight lines running along both sides of the page.
In the days
of the printing press they would use what is called “linotype machines” that
would set the type like this. The
machine would use little wedges that would go between the characters so that
there was the proper spacing in each line.
This process is called “justifying the text.”
The meaning
of justification is that Jesus fills in what is lacking (which we lack 100%) in
our own righteousness to cause us to
meet the righteous standard of God. Romans
5:1 stresses that this comes by faith.
In order
for a person to get to Heaven, he must
be perfect as God is perfect. No one
meets this standard but Jesus. When God “justifies”
a person he causes them to meet that righteous standard through His Son. Notice what 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 has to say.
To wit (that) God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. Now then we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in
Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For he has made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us who knew no sin;
that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him.
There are a
couple of concepts out of this passage that are important to notice. The first concept is reconciliation. “Reconcile” means to settle a quarrel, to
make compatible or to bring into harmony.
God works to bring compatibility and harmony between His creation and
Himself. Before we come to Christ, we
are considered enemies of God, and yet Jesus died for us. “For
if, when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we
shall be saved by His life.” (Rom.
The second
term is “impute.” It means “to attribute
to another” or “to ascribe (good or evil) to a person as coming from
another.” In this passage sin was imputed
to Christ while righteousness was imputed to the believer. Notice that even though Jesus did not sin…He
became sin. My sin was “imputed” to Christ, so His righteousness was “imputed”
(given) to me. He stood condemned because
of my sin, while I stand acquitted because of His work. As the judgment of God was poured out on
Jesus as a sinner so likewise the blessing of God is poured out on me as a
son. So thus, this passage provides how
God caused us to meet His righteous requirements through Jesus.
With
justification, God no longer deals with us as sinners, but as sons. “Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new”
(2 Corinthians 5:17). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because
through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the
law of sin and death for what the law was powerless to do in that it was
weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in
order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us,
who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
(Romans 8:1-4). All of this is ours
through what Jesus did.
How are we
justified? It is by faith. Consider what Paul wrote in Philippians 3:9 “and be found in Him (Jesus), not having
my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through faith
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” If I have been made righteous by what Christ
has done then I cannot lose it. I would
have to “unimpute” His righteousness
off of myself as well as take my
curse off of Him. I would have to pay a
penalty that was already paid. This
clearly cannot happen. The scripture
speaks to those who have “saving faith” in Christ are saved as if it is a done
deal…and it is (note Colossians 3:1-3).
Therefore, our salvation is built upon the solid foundation of Christ’s
righteousness and atonement and not upon the shaky foundation of
self-righteousness. We can take refuge
in it if we will only believe.
Hebrews 6:17-20
When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of promise the
unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that
by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who
have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope
set before us. We have this as a sure
and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place
behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having
become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
The
Irreversible Nature of Regeneration
Regeneration
means “born again” or rebirth. This
concept points out that a person is saved not by a mere commitment, but by a
real spiritual change that has taken place.
And you hath he quickened (made alive), who were dead in your
trespasses and sins…even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ. (Ephesians 2:1,5)
According
to Ephesians 2:1,5, everyone (everyone with the exception of Adam and Eve, and
Jesus) came into this world spiritually dead.
Romans 5:12-19 reveals to us that we are dead because of Adam’s
sin. We inherited a dead spirit from our
great grandfather Adam. A person who
experiences true conversion is a person who at one moment was spiritually dead
and then the next moment is brought back to life by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus spoke
about this to Nicodemus in John 3 when He told him “Verily, verily, I say unto
you, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). A person
who is spiritually dead cannot even see the kingdom of God much less enter
it.
Jesus is
not speaking of a water baptism here, but a spiritual rebirth as he clarified this
point in verse 6 by saying “that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Being born of water refers to natural child birth. All those born in natural child birth are
born with a dead spirit which is why the Spiritual rebirth is necessary.
Nicodemus
had a lot of scriptural knowledge, but he wasn’t spiritually alive. Jesus told the woman at the well in John
When
a person is “born again” the change that takes place inside begins to show
itself. They begin to take an interest
in the things of God. In fact, they
hunger for it. They want to pray whereas
before they couldn’t stand the thought of praying. They start to notice changes in their
behavior from what they would normally do in the past. The things that would have set them off in
anger no longer do. They sense a peace in
their life. They also have an awareness of
God and His presence. Others around them
can tell that there is something different but they can’t quite identify what
it is.
What
does this have to do with Eternal Security?
A person who is born again has been changed by God. They were changed from death to life (John
4:24). For a person to lose their
salvation they would have to “unbirth” themselves or undo what God has done. It is like trying to unfry an egg. Once you fry an egg, that egg is
changed. You cannot bring it back to its
previous state.
Consider
Adam and Eve when they ate the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. The moment before they ate the fruit they had
no curse (they were innocent), but the moment after they ate…they were
changed. Their spirits died. Their condition changed and they could do
nothing of themselves to undo what they had done. They couldn’t say the next day that they
choose to lose their curse. They could
not go and do a bunch of good things to change their spiritual condition. The decision to eat the forbidden fruit
cursed them and their children after them.
So, they were unable change back to their former condition by their own
power.
In
the same way when a person is born again that person is changed. This is a change that a person has no power
to undo. Consider 1 Peter
The Place
of Sanctification
What
is Sanctification? Sanctification is the
process of becoming in experience what God has declared for me in position. In Christ I have positional holiness, meaning
that as I stand before God, He sees the righteousness of His Son and therefore
accepts me. However, my experience in
how I live day by day shows that I don’t live perfectly. There are those sins that I do which I
shouldn’t do such as lying, hating, stealing, etc; and there are those sins of
omission, the things that I should be doing such as loving, telling the truth,
worship, etc that I don’t do.
Based upon
what we shared before that a person is not made acceptable before God’s eyes,
we have a dilemma with living righteous.
If God sees Jesus’ righteousness on me no matter what I do and I can
stay saved, then why would I want to live righteous?
I believe
that this point is the major reason why people have problems affirming this
teaching of Eternal Security. Let me
pause to say that this is a valid question and good criticism. For the scripture clearly states as in Titus 2:11-12,15
that “the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that, denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this
present world…these things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority.” Here and in other passages we learn that
grace teaches and causes us to forsake sin and not embrace it.
But isn’t
this what the teaching about Eternal Security does? Why would anyone want live righteous if they
thought that they could embrace sin and at the same time stay saved? But this question brings us back to the
“works salvation” type of scenario again.
Basically; it goes like this, “If I am to stay saved it will be by
working to keep it.”
Yet the
verse in Titus tells us that it is the grace of God that teaches me to
forsake unrighteousness not the grace of
myself. If a person strives for holiness in their
life to gain God’s acceptance for salvation, he isn’t doing it out of an
understanding of the grace of God but under the obligation to keep the law
(trusting in their own performance).
Consider what Paul says to the Galatians
2:16-17,
A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of
Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the
law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by
Christ, we ourselves also are found to be sinners, is therefore Christ the
minister of sin? God forbid.
Take notice
of the question in the passage above “is Christ the minister of sin?” takes
place after salvation by God’s grace is explained. What does this question mean? In rephrasing this question it would
basically go something like this “Does Jesus save us so that we can sin?” It is
asking whether or not Christ helps us sin.
This
question is made in anticipation of the thoughts of the hearers. Paul is explaining salvation by grace through
faith in Jesus. If what I am hearing causes
me to ask the question of whether or not Christ is the minister of sin, it
shows that I understand correctly what is being taught. This question affirms that a proper
understanding of salvation by grace would causes us to ask “Does Jesus save us
so that we can sin” or something like it such as “if Jesus saves us like this,
why would we want to live righteous?”
If this
wasn’t the intended meaning, then it would have been restated in favor of
maintaining salvation through works, but we see that it doesn’t.
Before we
look at the following verses in Galatians let us look at a couple of other
places where similar questions are asked resulting from an understanding of
God’s grace.
Moreover, the law entered that the offence may abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound…What shall we say then? Shall we sin, that grace may abound? Rom.
Ye are not under law, but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under law, but under grace? Rom. 6:14b-15
All three
passages (the two in Romans and the one in Galatians) involve the basic
question which is “does grace free us to sin?”
All three cases have the same answer—"God Forbid”. Notice that in each case it doesn’t say, “God
forbid, you will lose your salvation!” If
it were possible to lose our salvation the opportunity to state it would
certainly be in these places.
They merely
state “God forbid” and in each case goes on to explain the reality of the union
with Him in the death, burial, and resurrection. Galatians
Grace
doesn’t free us to sin…it frees us from sin…it frees us to righteousness. Galatians
I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live: yet not I, but Christ
lives in me: and the life which I
now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up
for me.
Why would
anyone want to live righteous? The answer
is that Jesus is living inside that person giving them the motivation and the
ability to please God. This is a life of
faith that the Christ who lives inside performs that which the believer
cannot. The focus is not on self’s
ability to live righteous but in Christ’s ability to live through that
person.
What does
this have to do with eternal security?
Sanctification, or our living holy as God is holy, is not a prerequisite
to being saved, but is rather part of package of being saved.
In the New
Covenant is the Holy Spirit indwells the believer and enables them to know
God’s will and perform it. The evidence
of having received Salvation is a life being transformed into the image of
Jesus. This is a work and promise of
God to those who place their faith in Jesus.
Salvation
involves the past, the present and the future.
We have been delivered from
the penalty of sin (hell) in
our position before God in Justification, we are being delivered from the power
of sin (our daily experience) in our experience in this life through
Sanctification and we shall be
delivered from the presence
of sin (this present evil world) in Glorification at the 2nd coming
of Jesus.
The Secure Hope
of Glorification
Glorification
is described in 1 John 3:2
Beloved, now are we the sons of
God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him: for we shall see Him as He is.
At the second coming of Christ we are we shall changed and made like
Him. We shall have glory like
Jesus. There is the objection by many
that “God won’t allow sin to enter into His Heaven;” this statement is
true! He won’t!
Glorification reveals that the redeemed will be changed to sinless
perfection at the
2nd coming of Jesus. So
then, if we aren’t perfect now, (I John 1:8-10) we will be when Jesus returns. Focusing on this hope motivates believers to
live holy. That destiny brings encouragement
despite the present struggles, and the redeemed will make it by God’s promise
of glorification. “Everyone who has this
hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (I John 3:3)
Conclusion
If God
gives us a second chance, we will mess it up.
A third chance, we will mess it up.
If God were to give us unlimited chances we would be sure to mess them
up. History with the Israelites has
proven that mankind will mess up God’s gracious offers at second chances. God set salvation up so it would not hand on
the fragile thread of human abilities.
Why would God risk the blood of His own Son given the track record of
human failure? God made His investment
secure so that His bringing many sons to glory be based on solid rock.
This brings
us to the warning of this writing. The
gospel is trusting in God’s promise of redemption through the blood of His Son
Jesus. If you are living in fear and
trusting in your own works, you aren’t saved.
You might be “playing it safe” but seeking refuge in yourself is not
sufficient. It is only through faith in
Jesus that we can be safe and secure. Are
you “Hanging by a Thread or Standing on the Rock!” (Phrase used by permission from
Paul Collinson)
