The Security of Our Salvation

The ultimate and most valued gift that far surpasses any other gift we can receive is the gift of salvation. Furthermore, so awesome and amazing is that this gift that is available to anyone and everyone, and can simply be received through faith in Jesus Christ. What a precious gift, the gift of eternity in heaven with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. An eternity of such joy and happiness that far surpasses anything we could ever experience here on earth. But, how secure is this gift? Once we receive this gift, is it possible to somehow lose it? This is a very important and heavily-debated question, "How secure can we be in our salvation?" Let us investigate what the scriptures say about the security of our salvation. That is, can we lose our salvation, and, if so, in what way(s) can we potentially lose this precious gift? The potential ways for losing our salvation can be arguably grouped into three general categories or scenarios: 1) Rejection by Jesus Christ, that is, there is some point that we can potentially reach where our sin becomes so terrible that our Lord finally says, “That’s it!”, pushes us away, and takes back our gift of salvation. In essence, there is some divine line that, if crossed, will cause us to lose our salvation. 2) Satan pulls us away from the Lord, and thus our salvation, through temptation or other means. In other words, Satan lures us away from our Lord causing us to forfeit our salvation. 3) We simply weaken on our own and turn away from the Lord. We consciously make the decision that we do not want to continue to follow the Lord and choose to go back into the world. By addressing the above three scenarios, we should be able to determine if one can truly lose their eternal gift salvation. Let us look at the first category: Rejection by Jesus Christ. Is there a point where our Lord will push us away and take back our gift of salvation? Some people will tell you that there are certain sins that will cause us to lose our salvation. Others will say that our “good deeds” must outweigh our sins; otherwise, we will be rejected by our Lord when we die. But what does the Bible say about this? In the book of John, Jesus says to His disciples, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (NIV, John 6:37) In the literal Greek, the language in which the New Testament was originally written, Jesus actually uses a double negative, which can be translated, “No, not never.” In other words, He is saying “whoever comes to me I will never, no not ever, drive them away.” In this verse, our Lord is telling us that He will never push us away from Himself because of our sin, no matter how bad the sin. There has been no divine “sin line” established that, if crossed, would cause us to lose our salvation. There is also not a specified number of sins and/or a type of sin that would cause us to lose this precious gift of salvation. One fact that we must realize is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for all our sins, not just the “not so bad” sins. All our sins, past, present and future, were paid for on the Cross (One must remember that at the time when Jesus Christ died on the Cross, our sins were ALL yet future). When Jesus Christ, just before He died on the Cross, said the words, “It is finished”, He was saying that all the work required for salvation had been completed. Nothing more was required. All of our sins were paid for in full on the Cross. To say that there is a sin, or a quantity of sin, that could cause us to lose our salvation, is to say that the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross was insufficient which is definitely not true. Another comforting piece of information is that nothing we ever do surprises Him since He already has knowledge of our entire lives (cf. Psalm 139:16). We can find comfort in our relationship with the Lord in that he will never reject us. Now we have comfort that our Lord will not push us away, but what about category two above where Satan, by some means, pulls us away from the Lord? Is this something we must fear? Jesus, in the book of John, says to his disciples, “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. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” Both Jesus Christ and God the Father have their divine hands securely wrapped around us, and have laid down the gauntlet challenge to anyone or anything to try and take us from them. How secure we should feel resting in the hands of Jesus Christ and God. No power in heaven or on earth can take us from these divine hands. We can rest in the knowledge that our gift of salvation is securely held in the hands of the Son and the Father. Through the scriptures we now know that Jesus will not push us away and that nothing can pull us away from our Lord, but what about our final category above where we grow weak in our faith and just decide to walk away from the Lord. Is this scarily possible? We read in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, “He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NKJ, I Corinthians 1:8) How awesome a promise is this, in that we do not need to depend on our own strength to keep our salvation, but that the Lord Himself will give us the strength to endure and retain our gift. He will keep us strong throughout our whole life to the end. What we must realize is that all the work required for our salvation has been completed by Jesus Christ on the Cross. He died on the cross for all our sins thus providing the free gift of salvation (cf. Romans 5:18, I Corinthians 15:4), and, once the gift is accepted, He provides the strength to retain the gift throughout our lives. In Paul’s letter to Phillipi, he says to them, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (NIV, Phillipians 1:6) When did Jesus begin His work in us? He began His work the second we accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. We are to have confidence in the fact that Christ will work in us and keep us through all life’s trials until we pass from this world into heaven to be with Him forever. Do we have security in salvation? We most assuredly do. We have discussed each of the ways that we can possibly lose our salvation, and have seen how the Scriptures refute each of these possibilities. But we actually did not even have to research these potential circumstances individually for the scriptures actually provide us with some verses that provide us with irrefutable security. In Peter’s first epistle we read, “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” (NKJ, I Peter 1:23) When we accept the gift of salvation, we are “born again” spiritually. As Paul states in his second epistle to the Corinthians, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” The new creation we become in Christ is incorruptible, that is, it cannot erode or lose its value. Our gift of salvation cannot be corrupted and lost. More to this point of the incorruptibility, we read in Peter’s first epistle, “to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (NKJ, I Peter 1:4-5) What awesome qualities the gift of salvation possesses based on this verse: it cannot be corrupted, it cannot be defiled, and it will never fade away. This verse also reiterates what we have already discussed, the fact that we are “kept by the power of God” and not our own power. God has taken on the responsibility Himself of making sure that we do not lose our salvation. This fact is further established when Jesus Christ says, “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” Jesus says that the Father’s will is that He should “lose nothing.” Once we are His, that is, once we have faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior, and accept His free gift of salvation, we cannot lose Him or our salvation. Now a very common argument, or I should say observation, used to argue the point that one can lose their salvation is that there have been apparent Christians who came to a point in their lives where they rejected Christ and went back into the world. Furthermore, these apparent Christians never did come back to Christ, but died in the rejection of Him. Some would say that here are examples of people who actually did lose their salvation. However, the Bible tells us otherwise. In John’s first epistle he writes, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” (NKJ, I John 2:19) In this verse John tells us that the mere fact that someone leaves the church and does not return bears witness that they were never saved, that is, they never had the gift of salvation in the first place. Just because you stand in a garage does not mean that you are a car, and, likewise, just because someone comes inside a church and participates for a while does not mean that they are a Christian. There will be many people who will come to church through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, or even just out of curiosity. They may stay awhile, participate in activities, and even appear to grow spiritually. But these may be only external actions without a true born again conversion of the heart. Most often they will eventually drift back into the world. When this happens, it appears that these people have rejected Christ and have lost their salvation, when, in actuality they were never saved in the first place. In determining the validity of a proposed doctrine, one excellent test is to see how the doctrine lines up with other scriptures. Is the doctrine consistent with other scriptures, or does it contradict other scriptures? Since the Bible has one ultimate author, God (cf. II Timothy 3:16, II Peter 1:20-21), we know that all scripture is consistent with each other. We will find that when reviewing the scriptures there are various areas where the doctrine of lose of salvation will be contradictory to those scriptures in addition to the ones already discussed previously. One example of such a contradiction is the “Armor of God” discussed in the book of Ephesians verses 6:10-20. In this passage, we are introduced to six pieces of spiritual armor to be used by us, the saints, in battling the spiritual forces of evil. Each piece is symbolic of a specific type of spiritual protection available to us for spiritual battle. As the passage states, we are to always go into battle with all our armor on as protection. One piece of this armor is the “helmet of salvation.” This piece of armor is protection for our heads, or more literally our minds. Its purpose is to protect us during battle from our enemy’s assault on our minds. These assaults will be an attempt by the enemy to make us feel insecure in our position with the Lord in various ways, one of which being the security of our salvation. In reference to this spiritual helmet, Paul writes in his first epistle to the church of Thessalonica, “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and [as] a helmet the hope of salvation” (NKJ: II Thessalonians 5:8). This spiritual helmet is meant as protection to our minds with the knowledge that our salvation cannot be lost. We are meant to go into spiritual battle, or for that matter through our daily lives, with confidence derived from our relationship with the Lord, which is symbolized by this “helmet of salvation”. The implication is that we are to go into spiritual battle secure in our salvation knowing that Satan cannot take this from us, though he will try to attack our minds and make us feel insecure about our salvation. Now if we can actually lose our salvation in battle, then unfortunately there must be a hole in our helmets. For if in battle we can lose our salvation, then our helmet of salvation is not adequate protection. For this would mean that Satan could legitimately intimidate us with thoughts of the potentiality of losing our salvation. Therefore, believing one can lose their salvation equates to eliminating one of the six pieces of the armor of God. Furthermore, who would want to go into battle against Satan knowing that there would be a possibility of losing their salvation? In all truthfulness, if I stand to potentially lose my salvation because of my evangelizing efforts, that is, spiritual warfare, then you can count me out of the battle right now. There is no way I would risk losing the ultimate precious gift of salvation. Obviously, there is a contradiction between the Armor of God and being able to lose one’s salvation in that it produces an “Achilles heal” for Satan to use against us during spiritual battle. Thus, as in our previous discussions, we would again come to the conclusion that the possibility of losing one’s salvation is not supported by, and is contradictory to, Scripture. Up to this point, we have presented a strong case for the security of our salvation. However, in reading the scriptures, we may come across various verses that seem to indicate that we potentially can lose our salvation. In fact, there are some people who will point to these verses as proof text that our salvation is not secure. When encountering these verses, the first thing to remember is that there is one true author of the Bible, God (cf. II Timothy 3:16, II Peter 1:20-21), and His Word will not contradict itself. What we will generally find when we encounter a verse or passage that appears to indicate that it is possible for a person to lose their salvation is that the verse has various interpretations, or is what I refer to as a “gray” verse. “Gray” verses are those verses, when taken by themselves, can have different interpretations depending on the perspective of the reader as opposed to what may be called “black and white” verses which have one logical interpretation. However, most often the interpretation of these “gray” verses can be properly determined when they are harmonized with the rest of the Bible. The proper interpretation can generally be determined when those interpretations that contradict other scriptures are eliminated. I believe that you will find that the doctrine of eternal insecurity is based on these “gray” verses; whereas, as we have seen in the previous discussions, the doctrine of eternal security is built on solid “black and white” foundational scriptures. One example of a “gray” passage that is commonly used by those who hold the view that one can lose their salvation is 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.” (NKJ: Hebrews 6:4-6) At first glance, one might see this passage as referring to a Christian that has fallen away from the faith; however, upon closer scrutiny one can come away with a much different interpretation. One interpretation, to which I personally hold, is that this passage is referring to a person who is “checking out” Christianity, but does not have a saving belief in Jesus Christ. You will not that they are being described as: - “enlightened” – This is referring to an intellectual knowledge of God’s truths. Simply having a knowledge of God’s Word is not synonymous with being saved. Many of those people who had heard the words of Jesus during His ministry, here on earth, were “enlightened” concerning the things of God, but did not come to a saving belief in our Savior. Regarding mere knowledge of Jesus Christ, versus a saving belief and faith in Jesus Christ, James writes in his epistle, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble!” (NKJ: James 2:19) What James is saying here is that if mere knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ and the gift of salvation would allow one to enter heaven, then that would mean that the demons would be able to receive salvation and enter into heaven. For the demons actually have a far greater intellectual knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ than we do, yet they are obviously not saved. - “tasted the heavenly gift” – Tasting refers to a sampling as one would taste a sample from a bottle of wine before accepting the bottle. True Christians are referred to in the Scriptures as “drinking” (cf. John 4:13-14) and “eating” (John 6:48-51) of Christ, the “indescribable gift” (II Corinthians 9:15), not just nibbling. These people to which are being referred are not fully accepting the heavenly gift, but are merely just sampling before making a decision. - “partakers of the Holy Spirit” – Quite possibly referring to sharing the experience of the Holy Spirit, that is, seeing His workings in the lives of individuals, by associating with true believers. - “have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” – Same argument as in 2) above with reference to a sampling contrasted with a true conversion experience. The above is just a quick synopsis of a much more detailed argument, but, as you can see, there is definitely a strong case for this verse not being supporting text for the doctrine of “loss of salvation.” Not to mention our previous discussion on I John 2:19 referring to those people who appeared to leave the faith, but had actually never come to a true conversion to Christianity in the first place. In addition, there are other interpretations for this passage laid out by notable scholars that are also contrary to the “loss of salvation” interpretation. This is just one example of the types of verses used in support of the “loss of salvation” doctrine that when viewed independent of the rest of the Bible are open to various interpretations based upon the belief structure of the interpreter. As mentioned before, the interpretation process for biblical verses must always involve a harmonization with the rest of the Bible. Without such harmonization, the interpretation process becomes meaningless. Conclusion The Holy Scriptures are very clear when it comes to our eternal security. Once we have accepted the free gift of salvation, then we can stand firm in the security of this gift in that there is no possible way to lose our precious eternal gift. To me, this one doctrine is so important for all to understand. For with this knowledge, one can journey through life with joy and confidence in the Lord. No matter what trial or tribulation comes our way, we can look to our eternal future and find joy in any circumstance. Whereas, without this knowledge, our journey through life would be one of worry and doubt, always wondering about the status of our eternal future. How sad to be robbed of the joy that God intended for us to have. My heart aches every time I talk to a Christian who does not feel secure in his or her salvation. In fact, if God were to tell me that for the remainder of my life I could only share one message with other Christians, and that I could choose that message, then I would, without hesitation, give Him my answer, “Eternal Security.” “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 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.” (NKJ: Romans 8:37-39)