Question:
Dear Greg,
Thank
you for taking my question. I hope
you can help me with this disagreement between my partner and myself.
I am an Independent Baptist by faith.
I believe that once you are saved you cannot lose your salvation.
I have read a lot of information on the subject of once saved always
saved and also on the other side of losing your salvation.
My partner has a Pentecostal Holiness background.
He believes you can lose your salvation.
I know this is a tough question but I was hoping you could help clear up
some of our differences. We are
truck drivers making runs from
I
have started a study, on my own, not to prove him wrong, but to know the truth.
Thanks again for taking my question.
I am looking forward to your answer.
In
God,
Kenny
Answer: Dear Kenny,
It’s
great to respond to truck drivers—you guys have a difficult job on the roads
of our nation. We appreciate what
you do. Stay safe out there!
PTM
would agree with your perspective more than your partner’s, but the two of you
should be aware that this is an in-house debate among Christians and that
Christians may differ on this topic as it is not a foundational core doctrine.
We may differ without dividing, without one of us thinking that one party
is “superior” and the other “inferior”.
You
ask about what is popularly called “once saved always saved” by those who do
not believe in what is called “eternal security”—or more classically
called “the perseverance of the saints”.
I
assume both of you agree that the Bible clearly teaches that nothing we can do
or ever do earns our salvation. Salvation
is by and through grace.
We
are given salvation because of God’s love, not because of something we do that
qualifies us for God’s love or causes him to “change his mind” about us.
We don’t receive salvation as payment for work or effort that we
expend.
Salvation is eternal life. Eternal life is just that—eternal life. If it were conditional life, then God would tell us that he saves us and will give us eternal life “in the end”—as long as we remain diligent, faithful, obedient—as long as we “perform at a certain level.” But there is nothing in the Bible about conditional life. Lots about eternal life
Of
course, simply thinking or claiming that we have eternal life does not
necessarily mean that God has given us eternal life.
As the old joke goes, we can go out and sit in the chicken coop with the
chickens, but that won’t make us a chicken. Sitting in church doesn’t make
us a Christian. Doing righteous
deeds doesn’t make us a Christian. God
alone makes us a Christian.
Those
who have been given the Holy Spirit, in whom God the Holy Spirit dwells, are
Christians, and humans cannot accurately discern someone else’s Christianity.
Not
everyone who says, “Lord, Lord” (Matthew 7:22) will be saved.
The Bible says (1 John 2:19) that some went out from the church because
they were never in the church to begin with.
Romans 8 tells us that only those who have been given the Holy Spirit are
his.
It
is therefore possible for some that seem to have been Christians to do some very
un-Christian things—over a long period of time.
Not simply the occasional stumble, but a habitual lifestyle.
They could well be the kind of people 1 John 2:19 is talking
about—those who seemed to be, and thought they were, Christian—but never
were.
Some
people believe that it is possible for Christians who have been initially saved
to “go on to perfection”—and that now, in this life, they attain to
perfectionism. But the Bible says no
such thing. The Bible says that the
ability to hold firm, to overcome, to be “more than conquerors” (Romans 8),
to continue in the faith, etc. is not a humanly derived ability.
Our steadfastness is given to us because Jesus lives his resurrected life
in us (see Galatians 2).
We
do sin after we are saved—and after we are given the gift of eternal life (see
Romans 7 for Paul’s experience and personal testimony).
So, if maintaining the salvation given to us by grace depended on us and
our perfection, we would all lose our salvation.
Some might say, “well, of course we all sin.
But there are levels of sin and after you really screw up big time, then
you lose your salvation.” Well,
some might say this, but the Bible doesn’t.
The Bible doesn’t even hint that when some level of sin is reached God
pulls the rug of salvation out from under us.
When
we sin after conversion we do not impact our relationship with God because God
is holy and does not co-exist with sin. He
does not love us and save us because of what we have done, because of what we
are doing or because of what we will do—he loves and saves us because of what
Jesus has done, is doing and will do.
Of
course there are biblical passages that can be interpreted to say that
maintaining our eternal salvation is up to us—but those are interpretations.
It should also be noted that such teaching almost always leads to
legalism—about specific rules, traditions and prescriptions about what one
must do or not do to remain within God’s good graces.
God
loves us just as much now as he ever has or ever will.
What we do, apart from accepting his offer of salvation by grace through
faith, apart from accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior—what we do is
inconsequential to our salvation. God
does not need our help to save us. That’s a major reason why the gospel is
good news. If he needs our help we
are all (if we are honest about our true condition) in big trouble!
In
Christ,
Greg Albrecht