Eternal Security is tied to the character of the One who gave the promise of Eternal Life. I rest in the fact that the security of my salvation is not based on my performance, but rather the work of the Holy Spirit in me.
“And 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.”
Philippians 1:6
“…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:13
The Promises
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 10:28-30
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
John 14:16
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever–“
The Redeemed
Titus 3:3-7
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
Verse 7 goes back to the promise of Eternal Life to anyone who truly believes in Jesus as their Savior.
The Guarantee
2 Corinthians 1:21-22
“Now it is God who establishes both us and you in Christ. He anointed us, 22 placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come.”
Ephesians 1:14
“The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our inheritance, which is applied toward our redemption as God’s own people, resulting in the honor of God’s glory.”
2 Corinthians 5:5
“And God has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come.“
The Trustworthiness of the Promiser
Hebrews 6:13-20
“When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
16 People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
Hebrews 10:14-23
“For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.“
God cannot lie and He is faithful. We hope for the Eternal Life that Jesus said He gives to those who believe in Him as we go back to John 10:28-30,
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
Not even our own “momentary” fall from grace can take us from the Father’s hand, granted that the moment the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and works at restoring us, we respond and confess our sins to God. We cooperate in His sanctifying work by repenting- changing our mind and resolve not to deliberately live a lifestyle that we know is against God’s standard of righteousness.
Our Assurance
1 John 3:24
“The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”
Romans 8:16
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
What is expected from the Redeemed
2 Peter 2:16
“Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.”
John 8:31-32
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
1 John 2:24-25
“As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.”
To Those Who Fall Away
Matthew 7:21
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 15:13
“Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.”
Those who claim to belong to Christ who are not rooted in the Word of God are the ones who fall away and go after doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1-4) and “deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition” (Colossians 2:8). They profess Jesus but they deny the authority of His Written Word.
1 John 2:19-20
“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. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.”
Those who will and end up apostatizing do not have the seal of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised. They were close to salvation, even partook in the ministry and had an appearance of being saved (Matthew 13:24-30). A great example of this was Judas Iscariot. He was at one time in Jesus’ inner circle but he eventually betrayed Jesus and was never truly saved.
Can you lose your salvation? If you trust that God will deliver His promise, your salvation is secure. If God is faithful to an “obstinate people” (Isaiah 65:2), it is consistent with His character to be faithful to a Christian who backslides. Do not listen to the adversary’s whispers. If you have truly given your life to Christ, He will complete what He started in you.
Excellent post
Thank you.
Caeli, you rightly took the time to explain our confidence in Him Who saved us and our obedience in love to Him. This needs to be carefully done. For His children, questions that come from what we see – professing Christians who depart – the Lord’s parables about the sower and also the wheat and tares give light to us about these things. Yes, the enemy is cruel and accuses and unsettles us. Praise God that we have an Advocate!
Lord bless you, sis!
Thank you for taking the time to read Maria. Someone contacted me on WP on “Once saved always saved” and suggested to make a post on it and so I did. This is far from being comprehensive but simply grabbed from the Bible (sans commentary) and wrote what came to me at the time.
Thank you for bringing up the Parable of the Sower. Verse 21 in that explains why people who have the “appearance” of being saved fall away which perfectly ties to 1 John 2:19. I might amend the post and add that.
And truly, the Advocate plays a very important role in ensuring that we endure and persevere in the faith. It is God dwelling in us! Left to ourselves, we would be pigs wallowing in the mud!
Caeli, maybe over time there will be even more things you’ll want to say or refine a little in this post. It is such an important subject. (You could even do a permanent page.) The Lord absolutely wants us to have assurance – it is knowledge of Him. Always I find you on the narrow way.
Most certainly. Eternal Security is a very important topic since it is a belief that when you truly think about it challenges the integrity of God and His ability to be true to His promise. I deem myself inadequate to even be doing this but since I got a request, I did a quick post which reflected what was convincing for me as I personally delved into Scripture. I believe that it is imperative for one to be able to explain why they believe what they believe without having to take on someone else’s study. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I just find it is much easier to explain why I hold to a certain stance apart from someone else’s interpretation, and employing the faculty of reasoning that God gives to every individual.
My view on this could easily already be in accordance and in agreement with any Church father and should a person arrive there and oblivious of their views (which for the most part, I am and by choice since I don’t want to take on any bias, and may no one see this to be arrogance), it is proof that people, especially Christians can’t credit it to those men, but to the Holy Spirit whom Jesus said will bring the redeemed to “know truth” (John 16:13) whereby causing people to arrive at the same conclusion.
Any seeming contradiction that one may find coming from verses cannot be pinned on the Scripture itself having contradictions since if the apostles plainly preached Jesus’ teachings, how can they be true to the message if what they preach goes against the promise Jesus Himself made?
I can’t find a verse of having to be saved “repeatedly” if one gets unsaved the moment they fall into sin. Either they have truly given their lives to Christ or they didn’t and the fact that people who supposedly “got saved” and can stay in a prolonged state of sin without any shred of remorse is to me proof that they never had the Holy Spirit to begin with, devoid of the Spirit that compels one to get right with God.
You shouldn’t think that you are inadequate because believe it or not your knowledge of scripture would most likely surpass 60% of believers. According to a poll I read only 25% of professing Christians read their Bible weekly so you are doing great.
Aww. Thank you for the encouragement. I know it is not comprehensive but nevertheless, those verses were what the Holy Spirit has brought to my memory (John 14:26).
Ephesians 1:14
“The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our inheritance, which is applied toward our redemption as God’s own people, resulting in the honor of God’s glory.”
Without the Holy Spirit, there is no salvation let alone the possibility of staying in the faith but would eventually fall away from the truth.
We see this in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve were created in perfection (without sin) but in that state couldn’t achieve true perfection because they were living sinlessly apart from the indwelling Spirit of God. God was trying to show through the first man that without God living in us we will not stand a chance.
Let us take a look more in depth: Man was brought forth without sin and God gave them (Adam & Eve) 1 command to obey, folks just 1. Satan was allowed to tempt them to see if they would obey the Word of the Lord or sin against the Lord. Even in their perfection (without sin) they couldn’t hold on to it, why? Because apart from God we can do nothing but through God who lives in us we can do all things. Getting back to Adam, Satan deceived Eve but according to the New Testament, Adam knew full well that eating the fruit was sinful in the eyes of God and in their perfect state ate the forbidden fruit anyways having that full knowledge, in Adam’s case, right after they ate it spiritual death occurred first with physical death occurring slowly.
What am I trying to say with Adam and Eve is that if one believes that we can lose our salvation then indirectly one is saying that it is up to us to hold the gift of eternal life and by what happened to Adam and Eve in their sinless state that would be impossible for us to achieve today. If it were up to us to hold to eternal life we could not do it, no one would go to heaven plus it would turn the gift of God through Christ into a work salvation because one would get into heaven because he worked hard in keeping it. Denying Jesus the glory due to Him for giving us eternal life if it’s up to us to determine if we end up in heaven.
When a true Christian sin against the Lord and falls what happens? God goes into action and brings him back. I will show you some illustrations of this truth below.
Psalms 32:3-5
3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle
from my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was drained
as in the summer’s heat. Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to You
and did not conceal my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and You took away the guilt of my sin. Selah
We see in the Psalms above that God would not leave David alone until he would repent. God put a heavy burden in his heart that even affected him physically until he would turn from his sinful way and repent to get in right standing with the Lord. That’s how the Holy Spirit works, He will burden you until you repent and get right with God.
We also see this protection for the saints in Hebrews…see below.
Hebrews 12:4-11
4 In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:
My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly
or faint when you are reproved by Him,
6 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves
and punishes every son He receives.
7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness. 11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
In verse 11 God’s discipline will not only bring back a Christian from backsliding put will strengthen his/her faith to produce fruits because they would have learned through Christ discipline a strong lesson. We see this with Peter in Luke 22:31-32 which says, 31 “Simon, Simon, look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter denied knowing Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit after the third time Peter denied the Lord was heavily convicted by the Holy Spirit and he wept and repented. Jesus prayed to the Father to keep Peter’s faith from failing meaning keeping Peter from abandoning the Lord completely. Now, the question is did Jesus only prayed for Peter and does that include all believers? The answer in found in John 17
John 17:9-12, 20
9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those You have given Me, because they are Yours. 10 Everything I have is Yours, and everything You have is Mine, and I have been glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name that You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are one. 12 While I was with them, I was protecting them by Your name that You have given Me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled.
20 I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message.
Jesus prayed for all Christians that our faith in Christ may not fail and we see through Peter what happens when our faith gets hit, we bounce back up not because we are strong but because our strength comes from the Lord.
“Man was brought forth without sin and God gave them (Adam & Eve) 1 command to obey, folks just 1. Satan was allowed to tempt them to see if they would obey the Word of the Lord or sin against the Lord. Even in their perfection (without sin) they couldn’t hold on to it, why? Because apart from God we can do nothing but through God who lives in us we can do all things.”
Amen! Even in their perfection, they could not hold onto it… Solid.
That’s how great and awesome God is that He planned from the beginning to give us His Spirit so that we may not repeat what Adam and Eve did.
Amen and thank you for this great insight!
My pleasure
Sound Biblical reasoning, Spaniardviii! A true blessing, wonderful food, Caeli!
Thank you!
Thanks for your wonderful comment.
Lord bless and keep you, brother! We know He will because of Who He is.
A very good post
I appreciate your kind remark. Thank you.
May the Lord bless you sister
Hi Caeli. After much studying and praying and asking the Lord to open my eyes ( which were closed to this subject)…God answered my prayers. I can now see clearly what i just could not before. I understand now and believe. I just thought you might like to know and wanted to thank you for all your help in the matter. May God bless you.
Jene, I am truly happy to hear this and thank you for taking the time to let me know. 🙂
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