Eternal Security or Once Saved
By Dr. Bryan Gentry
I want to explain Scripturally why a truly saved person cannot lose their salvation. First of all, we often expect people who say they are saved to live like they are saved, but many of those people will be in hell because they never really trusted Christ. I was one of those that prayed a prayer when I was 8 years old and grew up believing I was saved, but it was not until about 20 years later that I trusted Jesus as my Saviour.
When we take our eyes off of Christ and look at people and how they live, that causes us to doubt whether they really got saved, not lost their salvation. Salvation is an unconditional gift (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). Ephesians 4:30 says, "And grieve not the the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." To lose your salvation, you must believe that the Holy Spirit leaves a saved person BEFORE the day of redemption. Ephesians 1:13 says that when we get saved we "are sealed with that holy Spirit of promise." So for a saved person to lose their salvation, God would have to break His seal and His promise.
To say that someone can mess up and lose their salvation is insinuating the salvation is conditional. That would not be a gift. No one gets more upset than the Lord when someone claims to be His and lives like the devil. If they are His, the Bible states in Hebrews 12:6-7 that, "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth". He chastens His children, not the devil's kids. That brings us to another point, when we are born physically, we are the devil's kids, but when we are born again we become a child of God (John 1:12; Romans 8:16-17; Galatians 3:26). We can no more be unborn again, than we can be unborn physically.
The Bible says to be saved you must believe in Jesus.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:18 "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
John 3:36 "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
John 20:31 "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." (John 6:29; 7:39; 9:35-38; 10:25; 17:20; Acts 8:12; 16:1, 30-31; Romans 4:24; Philippians 1:29; 1 Timothy 1:16; 1 John 3:23; 5:1-5, 10-13)
In Genesis 15:6 we see that Abraham "believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness."
Romans 3:22 states, "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"
For someone to say you have to keep yourself saved by good works contradicts Isaiah 64:6 which says, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Nothing we can do can help us get saved or help keep us saved.
Paul knew he could not go to hell no matter what he did, which is why the Holy Ghost had him write in Philippians 1:21, " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." He also wrote under inspiration of the Holy Ghost in 2 Timothy 1:12, "For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Paul was persuaded that he could not go to hell, not because of what he did or did not do, but because of the One he had committed his soul to. He also stated that he was persuaded in Romans 8:38-39. Romans 8:9 says, "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."
For anyone to say that a saved person can lose or has lost their salvation is adding to the Word of God (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Pro. 30:6; Rev. 22:18-19). Genesis 1:31 says, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." To say that God's Salvation plan can be undone by mortal humans is to say that God made something that was inadequate. God knew we were going to mess up, so He made a fool-proof salvation that even man or the devil cannot undo. That is why it is called 'Eternal Life' 26 times in Scripture, 'Everlasting Life' 11 times in Scripture, and 'Life Eternal' 4 times.
Everlasting Life or Eternal Life, make no mistake, it is God's Gift to those that trust Christ (John 4:10; Acts 2:38; 10:45; 11:17; Romans 5:15 - 18; 6:23; 2 Cor. 9:15; Eph. 2:8-9). Psalm 97:10 says, "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked." Psalm 145:20 tells us, "The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
Hebrews 6:4-7 is a verse that people use to say that a saved person can lose their salvation, however, if you read it carefully it says that if someone did lose their salvation it is impossible for them to get saved again. According to that verse, I hope no one loses their salvation because they are doomed if they do.
Now let's go in another direction with this. What sins would cause someone to lose their salvation? We know that Moses was a murderer (Exodus 2:11-12), David was an adulterer and murderer (2 Samuel 11:14-17), and Paul admitted that he was a murderer (Acts 7:58-60; 22:4), so murder is not bad enough. We know King Saul is in Heaven even though he tried many times to kill David, so attempted murder is not bad enough (1 Kings 28:15-19). Even though Lot committed incest with his two daughters, we know he is in Heaven (2 Peter 2:7-8). I cannot think of any sins worse than these.
If you look at the fallacies of people who say they are saved, you should wonder about whether they really know the same Jesus we know. Don't doubt God's ability to keep people saved because 1 Peter 1:5 says "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." We can no more keep ourselves saved than we can save ourselves. It is God that does the saving and the keeping.
That is why I believe the Lord called Himself ‘the Good Shepherd’ twice, once in John 10:11 and again in John 10:14. A good shepherd does everything he can to protect his sheep, and since the Lord Jesus has all power (Mt. 28:18), He will use that power to protect and keep His sheep. The Bible says in Hebrews 7:25, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” He would not be a better than average shepherd if He did not use all His power to save those that come to God by Him.
The Lord says in John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” In other words, there is NOTHING they can do for the Lord Jesus to cast them out of His fold. And He also states in John 10:27-29, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.” To say that we can remove ourselves from His Hand is to add to the Scripture. The Word of God goes to great lengths to tell us that salvation is completely based on our complete faith in the Lord Jesus, nothing or no one else. Churches are full of people who say a prayer and believe they got saved, but they will have a very warm eternity because they never truly got saved. These are the people that we see that say they are saved and live like the devil.