What we are going to do is to take into consideration some scriptures which do teach the eternal security of the believer. We will see that from the overwhelmingly large proof, eternal security, is INDEED BIBLICAL.
1) “As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalms 103:12)
Here we have the psalmist of Israel, David, clearly explaining the point beautifully. David was saying that as the east and the west can never meet in one point, but be for ever at the same distance from each other, likewise our sins and their decreed punishment, i.e., second death (lake of fire) are removed to an eternal distance by His MERCY, in other words, God forgives our sins infinitely, and how? ONLY through the BLOOD SACRIFICE of the LORD Jesus.
Nothing we do could ever reconcile us back to God, thus God in His great love took it upon Himself to reconcile us back to Him. What a precious Saviour! Therefore in view of the context, God’s mercy and pardoning grace as it relates to salvation is in view. How did God accomplish this task which we could not? He did it by the sacrifice of the LORD Jesus Christ. The blood sacrifice of Christ is all sufficient to pay for your sins and mine, and having paid for your sins, all that is required is your trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins, and for salvation, and you can rest assured that your sins will not be imputed to you but the righteousness of Christ instead (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 4:6-8). ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
2) “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, AND SHALL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)
Here our blessed LORD tells us that whosoever hears His word and believes on Him that sent Christ, i.e., the Father, has everlasting life. Thus, whosoever hears the Gospel of our Lord Jesus and trusts Christ for forgiveness and salvation has everlasting life. To trust Christ amounts to trusting the Father, and to place faith in Christ is to place faith in the Father as well. Now, not only does the believer have everlasting life, but he WILL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION. So here we discover that ALL born again Christian believers WILL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION (John 3:18; Romans 8:1). The condemnation in view, is eternal damnation, i.e., hell fire. This clearly teaches eternal security. ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
3) “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I SHOULD LOSE NOTHING, but should raise it up again at the last day.” (John 6:39)
Plainly said, Christ will not lose any of the believers, it is the will of God, that our Lord should lose none, and he WILL NOT lose any. ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
4) “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT.” (John 6:37)
If any man wants to be saved, he can be saved, because God wants to save him very much, and if he chooses to accept Christ as Saviour, then he will under no circumstance be denied the free gift of eternal life, and not only so, but when he gets saved, he will REMAIN saved. ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
5) “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and NOT DIE. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall LIVE FOREVER: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:50-51)
Now here Jesus was distinguishing between the physical bread that God provided in the wilderness and the true Bread of life, who is Christ Jesus. “To eat the bread that comes down from heaven” is simply a Biblical declaration of "BELIEVING IN CHRIST", i.e., trusting Christ for forgiveness and salvation. If it is therefore so, and we know that he that eats the bread from heaven will not die, then we can safely conclude that he that trusts Christ, and relies upon Him for salvation WILL NOT and CANNOT die, i.e., suffer eternal punishment in the lake of fire. If the believer CANNOT die, then this is a clear assertion of eternal security.
Christ also says that whosoever eats that bread from heaven “WILL LIVE FOREVER“. If “eating the bread from heaven” means “BELIEVING ON CHRIST“, then those that believe on Christ, WILL LIVE FOREVER.
I DON’T SEE, “he that eateth the bread AND WORKETH will live forever”, neither do I see, “he that eateth the bread AND IS BAPTIZED will live forever”, neither do I see, “he that eateth the bread AND LIVES RIGHTEOUSLY will live forever.” I simply see, “… if any man eat of this bread (BELIEVE ON CHRIST), he shall live for ever:…”. So we clearly see that EVERY believer will LIVE FOREVER and every believer WILL NOT DIE. If you do trust Christ to save you, and you end up going to hell because you sinned, that sounds like believers DO DIE. But beloved, you know that if you are a believer, you will not die the 2nd death. Your works have NOTHING to do with salvation, ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
6) “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath ETERNAL LIFE; and I WILL RAISE HIM UP AT THE LAST DAY.” (John 6:54)
Firstly, this passage is NOT endorsing the Catholic doctrine of “Transubstantiation“, that is UNBIBLICAL. Our Lord simply meant here that to “eat His’ flesh and drink His blood” is the same as ” TO BELIEVE ON CHRIST FOR SALVATION“, it is a metaphorical statement, and it is NOT literal. Our Lord was linking salvation to His atoning death and blood sacrifice, and this does explain the cause of why we can be saved, because of Christ’s atoning death and blood sacrifice.
Now, Christ tells us that whosoever trusts in Him for salvation, will indeed be saved, he has eternal life, AND, the same person who has this eternal life, received by faith, because of the blood sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, WILL BE RAISED AT THE LAST DAY. The mere fact that the believer WILL, i.e., WILL AND MUST, be raised up at the last day, clearly teaches eternal security. The “last day” here, refers to the resurrection of believers. This will occur at the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
7) “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall NEVER PERISH, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29)
This is one of the clearest claims of eternal security. Our Lord flatly denies the false doctrine of conditional security. He says that His sheep shall NEVER PERISH, the ultimate security of the born again Christian believer rests is the hands of the Good Shepherd, i.e., the Lord Jesus. The construction of the Greek clause “they shall never perish” (ou me apolontai eis ton aiona) stresses the impossibility strongly, in other words, our Lord placed great emphasis on the truth that His sheep will in no wise, and under no circumstance, perish. ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED.
8) “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall NEVER DIE. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26)
Verse 25 is basically saying that whosoever believes in Jesus, though he may die physically, he shall NOT die the second death. Verse 26 is my area of focus, and it says basically, that everyone currently alive, if they place their faith in Christ, will NEVER die, i.e., never suffer eternal separation from God. So the person trusting Christ, will NEVER DIE. ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
9) “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may ABIDE WITH YOU FOR EVER;” (John 14:16)
The “Comforter” here in view, is the blessed Spirit of God, NOT Mary Baker Eddy, as she blasphemously claimed to be. What our blessed Lord spoke of here was an abiding relationship in which the Spirit of God remained with believers for the rest of their lives.
Remember the Word of God says in Romans 8:9, ” But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, IF SO BE THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELL IN YOU. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, HE IS NONE OF HIS.” In other words, Paul was telling these believers that they were saved, ONLY if they had the indwelling Holy Spirit. Everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ in the age in which we live, i.e., the Gospel dispensation age, possesses the indwelling Holy Spirit ( Ephesians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 12:13).
Jesus indicated that the blessed Holy Spirit remains with us and indwells us forever when He said, ” …that He (The Holy Spirit) may abide with you FOR EVER ;” If this is then the case, that the indwelling of the Spirit is PERMANENT, then the advocates of conditional security are also telling you that the Holy Spirit can enter into hell, because if the indwelling is permanent, and you can lose your salvation, then the man with the indwelling Spirit ends up in hell, and if they want to say that the Holy Spirit will leave you when that happens, then that contradicts Scripture, because Christ said that the Spirit will abide with the Christian FOR EVER. This is clearly absurd, because Scripture teaches the eternal security of the believer. ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
10) “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the SONS OF GOD, [even] to them that BELIEVE on his name:” (John 1:12)
This tells us that to those who received, i.e., BELIEVED, on the Lord Jesus, to them He gave “power”, i.e., the authority or the right to become a child of God. To “believe in His name“ means to accept the revelation of who Jesus is that God has given, and consequently, place your faith in Him for forgiveness and salvation. If conditional security is true, then those who have become the children of God by faith in Christ can be cast into hell if they backslide into sin. This is flawed in so many ways. If conditional security is true, then after you are born again, it is possible to be “unborn again”, but NOWHERE does the Bible tell us to be born again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. The advocates of conditional security are way out in left field doctrinally, i.e., they need to straighten up their beliefs, because they are holding damnable positions, which will cause inevitable and ultimate ruin. ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
11) “[There is] therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are in Christ Jesus,…” (Romans 8:1)
Here we clearly see that there
can be NO condemnation for the Christian, only the Christian is “in Christ
Jesus”. The condemnation in view, is separation from God in the lake of fire
for all eternity, and we will not experience this because of what Christ did
for us on the cross. What a Saviour! ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
12) “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to
the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called,
them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
(Romans 8:29-30)
“Foreknowledge” is an ATTRIBUTE of God, but “predestination” is an ACT of
God. God has perfect knowledge concerning all things, including those who
will be saved, because THEY CHOSE to believe in Christ for forgiveness and
salvation. “Foreknowledge” refers to the fact that God knew beforehand, who
would trust in Christ, i.e., God knows the future and He knows those who
will accept Christ as Saviour. Because God knows who shall be saved, He has
“predestinated” certain blessings for those who will accept Christ as
Saviour.
“Predestination” in this context refers to the fact that God
has predestinated certain blessings for those who will accept Christ, one of
which is, that the believer is going to be transformed and transfigured into
the likeness of the image of Christ, and this shall occur at the rapture
when we receive our resurrected glorified bodies and the eradication of the
sin nature.
So here we find out that “predestine” means that that God
determined the destiny of the elect (Christians) before Creation (Ephesians
1:3-4), and that destiny is, specifically, conformity to Jesus Christ’s
image. God is ever at work to reproduce the moral image of Christ in them
and that which occurs now in their lives, God uses for their good, to
further that glorious goal. Therefore progressive sanctification and
ultimate glorification both seem to be in view here.
In verse 30, it
reads “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he
called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also
glorified.” Now, how are Christians called?
“So then faith [cometh]
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
Also John 6:44 reads, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me DRAW him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
But how does God draw
men?
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will DRAW all [men]
unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.” (John 12:32)
So clearly then, we are drawn by the WORD OF GOD, which testifies to
the CROSS OF CHRIST, and if ”… faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God.”, then Christ will draw men by the hearing of the Word of God,
which is the preaching of the Gospel of the everlasting God.
So the
“Called” are declared “justified”, i.e., the Christian believer is declared
righteous upon receiving Christ by faith. The righteousness in view, is the
imputed righteousness of Christ which God places on the record of every
Christian who has trusted Christ as Saviour. And the “justified” are
declared “glorified”.
In conclusion we learn that those who God knew
would accept the Gospel, were predestinated to be conformed into the
likeness of the image of Christ. Predestination is an act of God, which
means that nothing can happen to the believer contrary to what God has
predestinated for him. Therefore ALL believers are predestined to be
conformed into the likeness of the image of Christ, it MUST happen, God has
declared that it will occur, and nothing can stop what God has predestinated
for the believer from occuring. ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
13) “In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye
believed, ye were SEALED with that holy Spirit of promise,” (Ephesians
1:13)
When you trust Christ for
forgiveness and salvation, God “SEALS” you in Christ. This guaranteed the
eternal security of these believers. God seals the believer by giving him
the indwelling Holy Spirit who keeps the Christian in Christ. ONCE SAVED,
ALWAYS SAVED.
14)
“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are SEALED UNTO THE DAY
OF REDEMPTION.” (Ephesians 4:30)
Here is a good passage of
Scripture for advocates of conditional security who believe that God’s seal
can be broken. Here, it tells us, that we are SEALED how long? UNTO THE DAY OF
REDEMPTION. The day of redemption in view, is the rapture, where the
resurrection of all believers who have died in Christ shall occur, and the
final aspect of their redemption, which is their glorification and
deliverance from the presence of sin, shall occur (Phillipians 3:20-21).
ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.
CONCLUSION
Eternal life is the free gift of God, paid for in full by the precious blood of Christ. You didn’t earn your salvation with your works, and neither can you lose it by them. The denial of the eternal security is a damnable doctrine, because it is in essence the belief that you must “MAINTAIN” your salvation with your works.
I am 100% sure that anyone who believes in conditional security is UNSAVED, because they are to some effect, trusting in their works to keep them saved. Your trust should be in Christ, and in Christ ALONE. Your works have no part in your salvation.
Would you like to know which work saves?
“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the WORK of God, that ye
BELIEVE on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:29)
Ye Must Be Born Again! | You Need HIS Righteousness!
No comments:
Post a Comment