Hello all,
I am a strong believer in eternal security for those who are truly saved. If a person is not truly saved, they have no reason to believe their salvation is secure, and should fear the wrath of God, as they are still under it. For those who have been saved, have placed their faith (confidence) in Christ and the sufficiency of his perfect sacrifice on their behalf, they have eternal security.
As a young Christian, I was involved in an organization that taught a works oriented theology. I didn't accept the scriptures involving the security God gives us as a Christian until 12 years later. However, I was a Christian during those years..I was living in spiritual poverty though. I didn't understand the full riches of God's love and grace during those years.
I saw how fear of losing one's salvation was used by church organizations to exert their power and authority over the believer. Particularly, I saw it used most hypocritically in terms of giving. The particular church organization I'm speaking of required its members to tithe, and the threat of losing salvation was used like a club to enforce this amongst the membership. As a result, I would never attend a church that claims salvation can be lost. As a side note, have you noticed that no cult would agree with the doctrine of eternal security? Of course not.. it removes their power over their membership.
As a result, I would not attend a church that taught against eternal security. I wouldn't want to bring seekers to a church that taught such dismal theology. It wouldn't be a healthy place for them to grow up in the Lord. And, chances are, such crappy churches aren't going to be focused on Jesus Christ anyways.
One reason for my concern for those who deny eternal security relates to the motivation behind works.
Eternal security adherents do good works in gratitude and love toward the Savior who has saved them from eternal punishment. These works are a free will offering to the God who saved them, in gratitude for this salvation.
I believe that those who deny eternal security perform good works motivated by fear, and not in love. They are motivated by the fear of losing their salvation. How pleasing can our works be to God if the motivation is one of fear that we will lose their salvation without them? What parent would be pleased by a son or daughter who obeys them due to the fear of punishment, instead of being obedient because they love the parent? What husband would be happy knowing that his wife only shows affection for him due to the fact that he provides materially for her?
Similarly, if we are not secure in our salvation, how can we really ever truly perform any work or act of worship in love and without the taint of insincerity and fear? If someone is holding a .45 to my head and I obey him, is there any chance it's out of love and not fear? In the minds of those who deny eternal security, God is holding a .45 to their heads just waiting for them to mess up enough so he can pull the trigger.
A second reason for concern is, how does believing that you can lose your salvation affect your happiness and joy in the Lord? Are you able to really understand His grace and be thankful for it? Do those who think they can lose their salvation tend to have a joyful nature, or are they down in the dumps and fearful as a whole? Does their heart inform their face that they should smile and be happy? I don't think so...holding this immature belief in God's grace and love doesn't lend toward a worshipful experience. It tends to create spiritual robots who worship because they have to..because they fear losing their salvation if they don't.
A third reason for concern is, who is the object of one's trust if a person thinks they can lose their eternal security? Ultimately, if one denies eternal security, their trust is in themselves. And since one's self is fallible, you can never have trust in it. If one believes in eternal security, their trust is in God, and God is worthy of our trust, and He is competent to bring us to salvation.
What I find is that those who deny eternal security fall into three separate camps.
A first camp is composed of baby Christians. They are still in their first love stage of a relationship with God. They haven't experienced enough to know what's going on. They are still studying the milk of the word and praying and studying fervently. They are gaining ground in the sin areas of their lives and feeling confident of themselves. God bless these young believers. It isn't that they deny God's role in their salvation intentionally; they just haven't fully formulated their theology yet. Some may have bad theology due to the teaching at their fellowships, and that is why they don't believe in eternal security.
A second camp is more mature in the faith, but is prideful and likes to point to their own works and accomplishments before God. They don't like the idea that God is the author and finisher of their salvation. They want maximal control and credit for their supposed spiritual accomplishments before God. Some have become deceived by teachings of sinless perfectionists into thinking that they have no sin in their lives. Some minimize the sin they do manage to acknowledge before a righteous and holy God, and think they are basically really good people. Their focus is not on Jesus and what he has done on the cross for them. There's little hope for them until God cracks their thin veneer of self righteousness and reveals to them what poor and wretched creatures they are in reality. They are fools to boast of their righteousness before God, even if they are just doing it in their own little minds. There's little hope for this group until God convinces them of their foolishness and vanity.
The third camp has more hope. They haven't received good teaching in this area. They dwell in self condemnation because their consciences aren't calloused enough to ignore their sins, like the previous group. Some of them may have even fallen away from church attendance because they know that they, of themselves, don't meet God's righteous standards. They may have considered themselves to be hopeless. My heart goes out for this group. They have hope and potential. They aren't hiding behind the veneer of self righteousness. But, they do need to understand the following, and get back into fellowship and spiritual intimacy with God through Bible study, prayer, and local fellowship.
For the first and second group, here's some points will help you to understand to make progress in your life:
1. Salvation is ALL ABOUT God's sovereignty, power and competency, and not our power. In fact, he even speaks of our glorification in a PAST TENSE due to this even though it has not yet occurred:
Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Heb 12:2 ..looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Rom 8:29-30 For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn amongst many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (note the past tense)
Rom 9:33 Behold I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in Him (Christ) will not be put to shame
Rom 10:11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame".
Phil 1:6 I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Phil 2:13 ..it is God that works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Jude 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now forever. Amen.
Acts 13:48 ..as many as were appointed to eternal life believed...
2. Salvation is ALL ABOUT the righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ, and not about our works.
Rom 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
Gal 2:16 Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
3. At conversion, God gives us eternal life. At conversion. Eternal means "without end". We aren't on spiritual probation as Christians:
John 5: 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
John 6:54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
I John 5:10 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
I John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
4. At conversion, we are baptized into Jesus Christ spiritually. We are united with Christ. God no longer sees us as separate from Him. We are "in Christ". As such, we are no longer under condemnation.
Rom 6:4-5 We were buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
II Tim 2:11-13 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.
5. At conversion, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. It is the guarantee of our eternal inheritance.
II Cor 1:21-22 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
II Cor 5:5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
Eph 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of is glory.
6. God has exhaustive foreknowledge of the future. Why would he save us, if he knew ultimately that we would be lost? Nothing we ever do will surprise God.
Is 46:9-10 for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done
Here are some other Scriptures that guarantee our security:
Rom 8:30 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Heb 13:5 ...he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
What about the verses that seem to describe true believers who fall away from salvation? As an overview, those verses fall into these broad categories generally:
- They are describing individuals who professed true faith, but didn't possess it. An example of these sorts of people are described in I John 2:19. They never really were part of the Christian body.
- They are describing individuals who never really came to a point of saving faith, but were exposed to the gospel message. An example of these individuals are the Jews of Hebrews 6 who came to a point of intellectual assent that Christ is the savior but were in danger of never progressing past this point. True faith involves three elements: knowledge of facts about Christ and his atoning sacrifice, assent that these facts are true, and placing your full confidence in Jesus Christ. These Hebrews met the first two criteria but had not yet come to a point of placing their full confidence in Jesus Christ.
- They are describing the loss of the privilege of being a witness to the world, and not salvation. An example of this is the Ephesian church of Revelation 2, which was threatened with loss of its candlestick...metaphoric of its ability to serve as a light to a dying and sinful world.
Such scriptures which seem to be indicative of losing one's salvation are covered in this free PDF document by H.A.Ironside called Eternal Security of the Believer:
http://www.wholesomewords.org/etexts/ironside/eternal.pdf
