Compiled by
NiteOwlDave
Once a person has accepted Christ as
Savior, he may wonder if it is possible to lose that salvation. What if he
commits a sin? What if he commits a lot of sins? What if it’s something very,
very wrong? Is it possible to be saved, and then lose that salvation?
The idea that once saved means always
saved (OSAS), or eternal security, is a hot potato issue with some – perhaps
many - Bible believers.
Are we saved forever and go to Heaven upon death when we understand we are lost, reach out to Christ, and believe and confess the following?
1. That we are born a lost sinner headed
for eternal Hell.
2.
That Jesus Christ is the Son of God who voluntarily died and paid our total sin
debt with His blood on the cross and rose again from the dead.
3. That
by choosing to believe that and confessing this to God in a private prayer we
are saved, which is the same as being born again.
Or, must we “hang on” to God’s salvation
for fear we will lose it. Can we walk away from God? Will He walk away from us?
There are several reasons why a believer
in Christ can be confident he is eternally secure when he receives Christ as
his personal Savior. First and foremost is the teaching and understanding of
the Scriptures.
As do other gospel writers, the Apostle
John speaks of the eternal-life issue. We read in John 3:15-18,
“The Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved
the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall
not perish but have eternal life.
“For God did not
send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through
him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe
stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one
and only Son.”
In John 10:28-30, he records this
promise of Jesus:
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
This solidly declares that the
forgiveness of God through Christ is sufficient to cover all of our sins --
past, present, and future.
The Logical Evidence
Eternal security is consistent with
everything else the Bible teaches about mankind and God. The idea of losing our
salvation creates monumental problems with other doctrines, including salvation
by faith, the sin nature of man, and the purpose of Christ’s sacrifice.
Thinking that we can live a perfect,
sinless life after our salvation is not only unscriptural, but arrogant, says
James 2:10. There is no scriptural yardstick given to tell us how many or what
kind of sins are enough to void our salvation.
Without
eternal security, the Bible would describe a situation where Christianity is a
perpetual game of Russian Roulette; a life in which condemnation and salvation
would alternate every time we sin and confess, and we would never know if we’re
saved or not. It would be a frightening life.
Many scripture passages show that our
attempts at good deeds will never earn us a place in Heaven. We cannot make up
for our past, present, or future sins by doing good works.
James 2:18 says a believer in Christ
will automatically choose to shun sin, and practice good works. If eternity
security is not true, by necessity we are saved both by our faith and our works
which is not biblical. We are saved by faith alone.
The doctrine of eternal security goes
hand-in-hand with the doctrine of saved by faith alone. To deny eternal
security is to endorse a faith-plus-works salvation system.
We sin after we are saved but,
thankfully, God has always provided a way for us to be forgiven for our
shortcomings. If we lost our salvation every time we sinned, none of us would
be saved for more than a few minutes at a time. If we could lose our salvation,
it would be lost forever because Christ only died once.
Critics
of OSAS point to this passage
Some suggest we can lose our salvation
because they misinterpret passages like Hebrews 6:4-6 which states,
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”
On the surface, this passage appears to
speak against OSAS. Many theologians say this is one of the Bible’s most
difficult passages to interpret. We are told there are two ways of looking at
these verses:
First
interpretation
One interpretation holds that this
passage is written not about Christians but about unbelievers who are convinced
of the basic truths of the gospel but who have not placed their faith in Jesus
Christ as Savior. They are intellectually persuaded, but spiritually
uncommitted.
According to this interpretation, the
phrase “once enlightened” refers to some level of instruction in biblical
truth. However, understanding the words of scripture is not the same as being
regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
For example, John 1:9 describes Jesus,
the “true Light,” giving light “to every man”; but this cannot mean the light
of salvation, because not every man is saved. Through God’s sovereign power,
every man has enough light to be held responsible.
This light either leads to the complete
acceptance of Jesus Christ or produces condemnation in those who reject such
light. The people described in Hebrews 6:4-6 are likely of the latter group --
unbelievers who have been exposed to God’s redemptive truth and perhaps have
made a profession of faith, but have not exercised genuine saving faith.
This interpretation also sees the phrase
“tasted the heavenly gift” as referring to a momentary experience, akin to
Jesus’ “tasting” death (Hebrews 2:9).
This brief experience with the heavenly
gift is not seen as equivalent to salvation; rather, it is likened to the
second and third soils in Jesus’ parable (Matthew 13:3-23), which describes
people who receive the truth of the gospel but are not truly saved.
Finally, this interpretation sees the “falling away” (Hebrews 6:6) as a reference to those who have tasted the truth
but, not having come all the way to faith, fall away from even the revelation
they have been given.
The tasting of truth is not enough to
keep us from falling away from it. We must come all the way to Christ in
complete repentance and faith; otherwise, we in effect re-crucify Christ and
treat Him contemptuously.
Those who sin against Christ in such a
way have no hope of restoration or forgiveness because they reject Him with
full knowledge and conscious experience.
They have concluded that Jesus should
have been crucified, and they stand with His enemies. It is impossible to renew
such to repentance.
Second
interpretation
The other interpretation holds that this
passage is written about Christians and that the phrases “partakers of the Holy
Ghost,” “enlightened,” and “tasted of the heavenly gift” are all descriptions
of true believers.
According to this interpretation, the key
word in the passage is if verse 6. The writer of Hebrews is setting up a
hypothetical statement: “IF a Christian were to fall away . . .”
The point being made is that IF a
Christian could fall away, it would be impossible to renew their salvation. That’s
because Christ died once for sin (Hebrews 9:28), and if His sacrifice is
insufficient, then there’s no hope at all.
The passage, therefore, presents an
argument based on a false premise -- that a true Christian can fall away, and
follows it to its senseless conclusion that Jesus would have to be sacrificed
again and again.
The absurdity of the conclusion points
up the impossibility of the original assumption. This reasoning is called
reductio ad absurdum, in which a premise is disproved by showing that it
logically leads to an absurdity.
Both
of these interpretations support the security of the believer in Christ. The
first interpretation presents unbelievers rejecting Christ and thereby losing
their chance of salvation; the second interpretation presents the very idea of
believers losing salvation as impossible.
Many scriptures make it abundantly clear
that salvation is eternal (John 10:27-29; Romans 8:35, 38-39; Philippians 1:6;
1 Peter 1:4-5), and Hebrews 6:4-6 confirms that doctrine.
According to this passage, if a person
could do something that cost them their salvation, it would be impossible for
them to be re-redeemed.
License to sin?
Critics of the once saved always saved
doctrine claim that it gives Christians a license to sin. They presume that
those who believe in eternal security intend to accept salvation, and then
continue to willingly sin.
This doesn’t fly, because anyone who has
been truly saved is a new creature, has the conviction of the Holy Spirit (John
14:26; 1 Thessalonians 4:8), and now wants to live for Christ.
Clear
and simple, someone who chooses to continue to blatantly live in sin has not
truly accepted Christ.
(1 John 2:19; 1 John 3:6; James 1:26).
But a person who willingly, humbly,
repents of sin and turns towards the cross, trusting Christ as their Savior,
will be saved. That salvation is once and for all, eternal, and secure. Those
who truly trust in Christ are saved once, and saved always.
