There is a constant attack from the realms of darkness on the security that one has in Christ. Over and over again, I read of ministers and preachers arguing that salvation is not forever – that you can sin away your salvation; you can choose to give up salvation just like you chose to accept it; that eternal life is not really eternal life; it has conditions.
I have recently seen one man whom I follow say that he has changed his mind. He is now convinced that one can lose salvation after you have it. But here is the truth that we need to come to grips with: a person can be a failure as a Christian and still be saved. In our human world, children are born into a family; some are healthy and productive, while others are sick and need constant care. Some children will be a benefit to the family and society, and others will be a drain and a weight on the family and society, but they are our children. A simple DNA test will identify them with the parents and with the family; there is no denying it.
So let us look at salvation and the eternal nature of it, and later we will see that if one could lose it, it can never be regained, ever.
What is salvation?
Romans 4:1-4, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness,” that is it. Yes, we need to see that we are sinners and know that we are lost, but what is required is simple belief in what God did for us. The Thief on the cross said, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And with this, he is eternally saved.
In Galatians 3:6-9, faith in God, that is it. Salvation cannot be earned, and if one goes back to Genesis 15, God performs a ritual between two halves of an animal and performs the covenant and swears by Himself to keep the covenant He made with Abraham. Normally, this kind of ritual was performed between the two kings and was in place until one died. God will never die, and as such, this covenant is eternal.
Our Sin is removed! David, writing in Psalm 32, tells us “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,” and later, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin.”
David was an adulterer, he was a murderer, and at times, did a lot of evil and caused a lot of pain in Israel, yet he rejoiced that God forgave his sin and removed his sin. In Psalm 103:12, we are told our sins are removed as far as the “east is from the west.” In Micah 7:19, we are told our sins are “cast into the depths of the sea.” In Isaiah 43:25, God tells us that He “blots out our transgression and will not remember our sins.”
For one to become lost after one is saved, then God would have to recall our sins and uncover them from being covered. In 1 Kings 11:4, we are told that Solomon’s wives turned his heart to follow other gods. Yet still he was saved, and we will see him in Heaven when we get there. In Psalm 51, David asks God to restore the “joy of your salvation,” but God is not asked to restore salvation because David never lost it.
If Salvation were to be lost, it cannot be had again. Hebrews 6:4-6 says it is IMPOSSIBLE for those that once had the gift, if they should lose it, to get it again. Why? Paul (the writer of Hebrews, in my understanding) says that for one to regain a salvation that was lost, Jesus would have to come and be put to open shame once again. If the sins that you have committed since you were saved could ‘unsave’ you, then they would need to be covered in a fresh batch of Jesus’ blood; if not, there is no salvation to be had. Thus, once lost, always lost. We know that is not true, not possible. We are told over and over again that Jesus died once for all (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 10: 10-14, 1 John 2:2, 1 Peter 3:18, Hebrews 9:28, 1 Corinthians 15:3), and on we can go. The point is Jesus died ONCE for sins, and that is it.
If there are sins that are not covered by His blood, then we cannot be redeemed, and we cannot enter Heaven. If salvation is not eternal once it has been given by Christ, then the only people in Heaven are the Thief on the Cross, babies, those that are mentally retarded, and those that died immediately after being saved. All others committed sins once they were saved.
My goodness, the apostles, while they walked with Jesus, sinned. Peter denied Jesus; nine of the others abandoned Him. Peter took the large group, including John, away from fishing for men, to fish for fish once again in John 21, and yet they are all in Heaven. Their sins did not disqualify them from Heaven.
In Hebrews 11, the famed Hall of Faith, we see Abraham and adulterer, Samson, who chased many women. Noah became drunk after the flood and ended up involved in some kind of sexual misconduct; we are not told the extent of it. We often get on Abraham, but Sara was complicit in his sin; she encouraged him, and yet here she is. Jacob is mentioned in Hebrews 11:21-22, yet he is a trickster and a cheat. Moses hit the rock twice and could not enter the physical Promised Land, but he is there on the Mount of Transfiguration. Gideon, that great warrior, ended up building an idol after God’s great victory that was a stumbling block to Israel.
We can go on. I hope you get the point. Saved people are sinners. Peter and Paul fought over Peter’s hypocrisy (Galatians 2:11-13). There was a man in Corinth having sexual relations with his father’s wife (not his mother); he did not lose salvation, and once he repented, he was restored.
If you are truly saved, you have eternal life. That is a fact! You cannot opt out of it, you have been redeemed, and in fact, we are told that at the Judgment Seat, if one loses rewards because our life after salvation did not produce lasting fruit, yet still we are saved (1 Corinthians 3:9-15).
Insecurity about being saved is one of the ways that Satan keeps us as children in Christ. We are never sure that we are saved, and thus we stumble and are stunted. Look, we all have doubts, Thomas did, Peter did, Gideon did, the believers doubted the women that the tomb was empty, and on and on we can go. But God shows Himself to His people, and He shows up in ways that we know it could only be Him.
If you have been saved, if you have trusted in, put your faith in, and called on Jesus to save you, He did, and it is an eternal gift. You did not work to earn it, and you cannot work to lose it. You are a child of God; Jesus’ righteousness has been given to you (2 Corinthians 5:21), and God has chosen to eternally forget your sins; they are at the bottom of the sea, and they are totally covered, never to be brought up again. You are saved eternally. Now, go and live for Him with the same energy with which He died for you.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario