After Perry’s message on this topic yesterday, we have already seen some emails that disagree with our belief in eternal security. This is an issue that is highly debated among believers. Because there are so many questions about this subject, I thought it would be worthwhile to do a series of posts on this topic.
The good news is that no matter where you stand on this issue, whether you believe you can lose your salvation or not, does not affect your salvation. What I mean by that is, your salvation is only dependent upon accepting Jesus as God and trusting in him completely for forgiveness of your sin. Your salvation isn’t dependent upon whether or not you think it is possible to lose your salvation.
At NewSpring we teach and believe “once saved, always saved.” We do not believe that there is anything a person can do to earn his/her salvation and therefore believe that there is nothing they can do to maintian it or lose it either. Salvation is a free gift from God. Even the faith we have to believe is given to us by the father (Eph. 2:8-9). And once you have crossed over from death to life and truly entered into a relationship with Christ scripture is clear that nothing can separate us from Him.
There are people on both sides of this argument that use scripture to try and back up their position. I have heard some people say that because of this that there is a contradiction in Scripture. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I read this quote once and never forgot it. “There can be no contradiction in the inspired Word of God, only in our uninspired misunderstanding.” I will deal with some of the verses that supposedly support the view that you can lose your salvation later. But I want to start with the ones that clearly state that you can’t.
John 10:27-28 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
Jesus tells us that he gives eternal life to believers. He clearly and authoritatively states that believers shall never perish. There is no exception clause in this verse. There is no statement such as, “they shall never perish if they remain faithful.” There is only the clear truth that they shall never perish. This inability to perish is a result of Jesus giving salvation.
In Verse 28, Jesus says that no one shall snatch them out of his hand. Which is another statement from Jesus that those who are saved will never become “unsaved.” But, can we snatch ourselves out of Jesus’ hand? No we can’t because the term “no one” includes the person who is saved. Therefore, you cannot do anything to snatch yourself out of Christ’s hand.
Romans 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
I love the word “he” in this verse. If he predestined, called, and justified, then he has glorified us also. That means that what he started he has finished. It is his work not ours.
Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing separates us. Not what’s happening in the present or what may happen in the future. If we are his, then we will not be separated from him.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
Those that leave the faith never belonged to it in the first place. They were posers. If you belong (have truly become a believer), it will last, and will show in your life.
Jude v. 24-25 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy-to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages now and forevermore! Amen.
He is the only one able to keep us from falling. We are not good enough to sustain our salvation. God does the work in us and sustains us and brings us into his presence.
More on this tomorrow…
(a few thoughts of the above information was taken from several articles on http://www.carm.org)
It is a very good website if you want more detail on this subject.
JakeBeaty.com 