By Reese Currie, Compass Distributors
We were asked by a reader to comment on whether our salvation is eternally secure. The answer to this question is simply "yes". The Bible repeatedly assures us both logically and in plain English that nothing can come between us and Christ; our salvation is a gift that cannot be lost.
We must first understand what exactly salvation is. We all know that there is to be a judgment day for all mankind. Salvation is our "justification", the predeclaration by God, in advance of judgment day, that we are "just", or "righteous". The "just" shall be saved and the "unjust" will be condemned. What must we do in order to be declared just? The answer is quite simple: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
"But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe." (Romans 3:21-22a)
Paul is saying that the righteousness of God is transferred onto those who believe in Jesus Christ! Now it should be immediately noted, before we go on, that belief is not even possible unless it is preceded by repentance, the turning away from sin. Almost all denominations that acknowledge repentance mistakenly make it out to be something that follows faith. This is not what the Bible says about repentance at all.
Note this interesting wording by Jesus: "For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." (Matthew 21:32, KJV) Without repentance, belief was not possible!
This is why Jesus used this peculiar order of operations, virtually unknown in most churches today: "Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.'" (Mark 1:14-15) Not believe in the gospel and then repent, but repent and then believe.
One member of Compass Distributors was criticized for our stand on repentance, the person saying that we were preaching "salvation by works." This is not so! Repentance does not give us salvation, belief results in salvation; but as the Bible clearly points out, it is not even possible to believe unless you have repented first. Have you not noticed the common denominator amongst those skeptical of Christianity is the desire not to repent? Do not be confused: You must repent in order to believe.
Let's return to Romans 3:22b-24, where Paul continues, "For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus..." So Paul has added that, by believing in Jesus, we have enabled ourselves to be justified freely.
Paul reiterates this point, that justification is a free gift, later in the same letter. "Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life." (Romans 5:18) (The first man's offense was the sin of Adam; the righteous act was Jesus' giving up His life for us on the cross.)
This justification is a "free gift", completely apart from good works. Paul finishes his thought in Romans 3:28: "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law."
The salvation of Jesus is not a club that we join or drop out of. God chooses us for salvation based on a foreknowledge of our own free will. I realize that sounds odd, but it is supported by the Bible.
"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."(Romans 8:29-30)
What did God foreknow about us before predestining us to be justified? Simple: God foreknew who would repent and believe in His Son, and He called these people to repentance. When did this predestination take place? It can be demonstrated from the Bible that this took place during the foundation of the world!
Those who have been saved have their names written in the Book of Life of the Lamb. Revelation 17:8 speaks of the unsaved when it says of the last times, "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."
What does it mean to be written in this marvelous Book of Life? Jesus states in Revelation 3:5, "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels."
Consider, now, in light of all the information I have given you about salvation, this question: How could it even be possible for someone to lose his salvation?
First, God would have to be proven wrong in His foreknowledge about us. That is impossible. God foreknew who would repent and believe, and He predestined those people to salvation. He could not possibly have been wrong in His foreknowledge, and therefore will not take our salvation away.
But what if God was right in His foreknowledge and decided to change the rules and take away our salvation anyway? This is not possible, it is contrary to God's stated nature. Malachi 3:6 says, "For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob." God does not change His plans, and your life "plan", if you are a saved person, has been written in the Book of Life since the foundation of the world!
Second, we have demonstrated that salvation is a free gift. How could you possibly lose a "free" gift? By your works? Your justification was by faith alone; your works did not purchase your salvation, so your works cannot cost you your salvation. If this was not true, and the gift was not "free", God would be a liar, and God is incapable of lying. Titus 1:2 says this directly as part of an introduction of a letter from Paul to Titus, "in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,"
Third, there is no authority in heaven or earth that can overturn a decision God has made. A lot of evangelists say we have to "make a decision for Christ". In reality, God made a decision for us, based on His foreknowledge, at the beginning of time, of whether or not we would repent and believe. Now that this decision has been made, "Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns?" (Romans 8:33-34a) To make us "unjust", someone would have to undo God's work of justifying us, and that is impossible. If our own works justified us, perhaps it would be possible for us to lose salvation, but the Bible is quite clear that God justifies us, and we do not justify ourselves; therefore there is no authority great enough to undo the work of God, and our salvation cannot be lost.
Recently, a former evangelical preacher (Charles Templeton) wrote a book exhorting his atheist views. It seems unreasonable to think that a person like this will continue to be "saved". The question here becomes, was this person ever saved in the first place? By extension, the question becomes, did this person truly repent and believe, because this is what is necessary to actually be saved.
In this instance, I read an interview done with this "fallen evangelist" and found that he never did believe many fundamental points in Christianity, like the the virgin birth of Jesus, His deity, or His resurrection and the atoning nature of His death. He really only believed in the way of living Jesus preached. During his ministry, he purposefully stopped preaching the points he did not believe in.
The belief that leads to salvation is not a belief in only the most believable things in Scripture, nor is it a "one-time belief". It is to be convinced, beyond all shadow of a doubt, for all time, that the Gospel message is true. Read how Paul explained this:
"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time." (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
Note in particular 1 Corinthians 15:2: "by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain." To believe in vain is never to have truly believed at all; to never have actually been saved.
It is these people who are being referred to by Hebrews 6:4-6: "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."
Some religions teach that you can be saved, then lost, then saved again, lost again, saved again, et cetera. This is not what the Bible teaches. This loss of enlightenment, this loss of "belief", is the really the loss of a belief that was "in vain"; remember, if you truly believe, you are saved, but if you don't truly believe, you are not saved, according to 1 Corinthians 15:2.
There are other religions that teach that men are predestined for salvation or damnation without any regard given by God to their own free will choices, and that Jesus' atonement was not for everyone, but only for those few chosen ones. This is also not what the Bible teaches. 2 Peter 3:9 disproves this in one verse: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." If you repent and believe (come to repentance), you do not perish. If you were predestined regardless of this act of free will, your repentance would have no effect on whether you would perish, and that is contrary to the entire gospel message.
If you are never truly saved, you are truly lost, but if you are truly saved, you are never lost. Jesus spoke these words: "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand." (John 10:28-29)
The only conclusion that can be reached about the eternal security of salvation is the same conclusion Paul came to in his epistles. "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)
Is Salvation Eternally Secure? Copyright © 1997 by Compass Distributors
All Scripture quotations marked KJV taken from The King James Version of the Holy Bible.
All other Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.