Eternal Security, from the Bridged Chasm Site

Eternal Security Article, from the Bridged Chasm Site

It seems to be becoming a more and more popular belief among Christians that even if you have been born again as a child of God (John 1:12-13, 3:3, 5-6, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:4-7, 1 Peter 1:3-5, 23), you can somehow become "unborn" again. Some even say that faith in Jesus alone isn't enough to save you at all, that you have to add something else like baptism or church membership.

Further still, many make the claim that even though we are saved by God's grace alone and not by works or anything else, we maintain that same salvation by what we ourselves do or don't do, and if we sin, stumble in our walk, or even turn away from the faith completely, for example, we'll be disowned by God, and the unimaginably high price He paid for us on the cross will be rendered useless.

And if Christ's death is only able to cover our sins until we mess up again, then he really died for no reason, because even after the "initial" salvation experience, no one is capable of living a perfect or even anywhere-near-perfect life, or month, or week, or day, for that matter! And if we can lose our salvation by sinning, turning away, etc., then we maintain that same salvation by opposite means (not sinning, not turning away). To believe such is to contradict the Bible and say that God's grace is insufficient (Acts 15:11, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-10, 1 Peter 1:3-5), as we will examine in the rest of this page.

Now there are many controversial doctrines in the world today that people disagree over, and in many cases I'm content to simply "agree to disagree," but with this issue there is much more at stake than winning an argument. The doctrine of eternal, unconditional security through Jesus Christ affects every aspect of a believer's life and growth..

How can you have any sense of security or assurance at all if you think that your position in God's kingdom relies on what you do or don't do rather than on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross? After all, John writes in 1 John 5:12-14, "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." Clearly, God desires for us to be assured and feel secure in His salvation. But His unconditional love isn't so unconditional if there's a condition- no matter what it is- that can separate us from it.

If there's one thing the New Testament authors (especially Paul) made a strong effort to make quite clear over and over again in their writings, it's that you're saved by the mercy of God through faith in Jesus Christ- by turning to Him and accepting salvation as a gift, which comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus, not by any "good things" you do nor any "bad things" you don't do.

If Jesus died to save us from sin, yet after we are saved we can somehow become "unsaved" again by sinning, then what did He really accomplish?

If Jesus' death (through which He willingly received the punishment meant for us) is only able to "save" us from the time we accept Him to the time we sin again, then the whole crucifixion was really nothing but a temporary solution to an eternal problem.

According to that concept the way I live my life is truly what determines my salvation, because if I sin after being saved, then I lose that salvation because I have become impure again, and God is too holy to be able to receive anything impure.

The ironic thing about that mindset, however, is that if by sinning we become unholy and thus unworthy of God, then by living right we are holy and worthy of God.

This is obviously a problem, because we know that as humans we are quite literally rotten to the core compared to our Creator and totally incapable of achieving his holiness on our own (Psalms 14:1-3, 53:1-3, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:9-31).

This is a basic principle of Christianity, and it is illustrated rather clearly throughout the Bible. For example, the famous verse Romans 3:23 bluntly states that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

So then, the belief that we can lose our salvation by sinning because once we sin we no longer deserve it anyway is a belief that makes no sense, because we could never deserve that salvation, even while living the most godly life we can live.

That's what the New Testament authors mean when they emphasize that we're saved by the grace of God and not by works (Ephesians 2:8), because no matter how hard we work, no matter how "good" we think we are, we fall short of God's holiness.

Our salvation was possible through only one way- a scapegoat, someone to take our punishment for us. And Jesus Christ, God in the form of man, was the only suitable such person, because He was the only holy one.

If He had not been completely pure, He would not have been able to take our place and set us free from the punishment, because the punishment he faced would have been His own- He would only have been receiving what He deserved. We are all hopeless apart from Jesus- there is no other way to God, or else Jesus would not have had to suffer and die.

So what does this have to do with anything?

A lot, actually. You see, it's not as if God could just magically ignore our sin; on the contrary, since He is completely just, the punishment for our sin had to be carried out. Therefore, the only way to spare us was to take the punishment out on Jesus instead of us, to let Him willingly substitute Himself for us.

In that way, our slates have been wiped completely clean from all of sin's guilt and stains once we accept it; we have been cleared of all charges, and therefore there are no more charges to make. And that is exactly the event described by the terms "saved," "born again," "forgiven," etc.- it is the point in time at which we, through faith, receive God's awesome gift of salvation, which applies that salvation to us.

This can be (and quite often has been) compared to receiving a birthday present in that, while the present already exists and is meant for you, you have the power to refuse to take it. That, and only that, is what separates a person from God- that single decision to accept or refuse the grace He gives us out of love. Some people have many chances to decide, while others have few, but the point is that sin does not send you to hell.

It'd send us all there if Jesus hadn't died in our place, but since He did, the only thing that can keep any of us from spending eternity with God is rejecting Him, refusing to rely on Him for your salvation and thereby accept that gift, which you can learn more about here. Now that we've established what happened at the cross, we can explore the rest of the issue and develop an understanding of the believer's position in Christ.

So, When Christ died on the cross for our sins, did He and the Father have only a conditional salvation in mind, or did Christ's payment for our sins in fact encompass all of our sins, past, present, and future? In all fairness, though, from the vantage point of the cross, were not all of our sin/sins were in the future? How could there be any difference?

When you accept Jesus, you are forgiven completely (Romans 6:8-11, Titus 3:4-7, Hebrews 9:25-26, 10:10-14, 1 Peter 3:18); all of your sins are forgiven, not just the ones up until that point! To say that you can become "unsaved" again is to say that only the sins you committed before you accepted Christ were forgiven. And if that is were true, then how would you ever obtain forgiveness for the sins committed afterward?

Jesus would have to come back and die again every time you sin in order to forgive you again and again and again, as Hebrews 9:25-26 says; "Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.

Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The authors of the New Testament knew it was a one time thing (Romans 6:8-11, Titus 3:4-7, Hebrews 9:26, 10:10-14, 1 Peter 3:18).

As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, when we put our trust in Christ, we become a "new creation," that old things are destroyed and everything is made new (2 Corinthians 5:17). And over and over in the Bible, accepting Christ is referred to as being "born again" (John 1:12-13, 3:3, 3:5-6, 1 Peter 1:3-5, 23). So one way to think of it is with earthly analogies; can you ever stop being a child of your physical mother?

No, you cannot. When she gave birth to you, she was ensuring that you would be her child no matter what, even if you move away, even if you change your name. Even if at some point you've done things that didn't please her (which we all have), you're still her child, you're still a part of her family; there's nothing you can do to change it. Even if you go so far as to deny being so, you are always your mother's child, because she gave birth to you.

In the same way, once you're born of God's Spirit, you will always be His child! Like I mentioned, the Bible says that we're saved by God's grace alone, through faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-10). So it stands to reason that if His grace is enough to save us from our sin, and in fact the only thing that can, it is surely also enough to keep us saved, and likewise the only thing that can keep us saved (Galatians 3:2-3, 1 Peter 1:3-5)!!

We could never earn His salvation in the first place, regardless of any "good deeds" and/or "religious things" we've done (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:3), so how can they all of a sudden be necessary to ensure that same salvation?! In other words, if we couldn't be "good enough" to gain salvation in the first place, then there's nothing we could possibly do to be "good enough" to deserve it even after salvation.

So if God required us to maintain a certain standard in order to remain forgiven and saved, Jesus' death on the cross would be totally useless in the long run, because instead of being saved solely by God's grace we'd be saved by our deeds.

He would have submitted His Son to the utmost torture for nothing, because it is inevitable that we as humans sin and fail again and again until we die and reach total perfection with Him.

Therefore, if stumbling again after salvation could take back the purification God poured out on us completely through Jesus on the cross, then we are truly hopeless, because it is inevitable that we'll stumble again, and again and again and again, in fact.

Still, some say "But what if you lose your faith? What if you turn away from the faith completely, and thereby reject Christ? After all, you just said we're saved by faith..." Actually, no, we're not saved by faith, we're saved through faith.

The difference is that your faith does not save you, but merely opens the door for God to save you! Your faith is the means by which you accept salvation, not the reason you're saved!

The reason is that God is awesome and full of grace and mercy that truly is greater than we can understand, and He loves us more than we can even understand! He chose to offer us salvation through Jesus Christ because He loves us, not because we have such great faith (as if we did, anyway)!

But in many cases, people confuse the role faith plays in our salvation by claiming that salvation hinges on a constant or continual faith.

However, as I've already pointed out, faith is not the reason we are saved- it is simply the way we accept the gift. The continual state of our faith has no effect on our salvation (though it has plenty of effect on our relationship with God, on the way we think and act, and on our strength as believers).

Charles Stanley puts it this way, "You and I are not saved because we have enduring faith. We are saved because at a moment in time we expressed faith in our enduring Lord." (Eternal Security, p. 80)

When you accept Jesus as your Savior, you are immediately forgiven for all of your sinfulness and all of your sins. How then, can you "unaccept" it later on, in any way, when the work is already done and you've already been completely purified for all time (Hebrews 10:10, 14, 1 Peter 3:18)?! How can you bring death back upon yourself when Jesus already died your death and paid your price "once for all" (Romans 6:8-11, Hebrews 9:26, 10:10)?! There is one simple answer- you can't.

(STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION- THIS WILL BE A VERY CAREFULLY CONSTRUCTED PAGE, AS THIS AREA OF YOUR BELIEF TRULY AFFECTS EVERY OTHER ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE)