The doctrine of eternal security is
not an attempt to promote ungodliness or encourage an unfruitful life for there
is this matter of chastisement from God for unholy living. If chastisement is
absent in a believer’s life, he or she is illegitimate (Deut 8:5; Heb 12:8-11).
I appreciate in others a desire to be holy, but getting into the flesh and tampering
with biblical truth for whatever reason is spiritually unwise and unholy! Again,
we should avoid fellowshipping with those who practice the works of darkness (2
Cor 6:14; Eph 5:11). Whenever the Scripture is being contorted and twisted out
of context, you can be sure there is a devil behind it!
Let me express the absurd position of those
who advocate a believer can lose his or her salvation. If you happened to have read
my “Helpless” series, you will quickly recognize where I am going with this. I
think we can apply it to the eternal and temporal security debate. There are three truths that are often overlooked that show that salvation is only by the grace of God alone: (1) A man cannot decide to seek salvation apart from God (cf. Jn 6:44). (2) Man cannot save himself no matter how hard he labors to do so (Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5), and (3) A regenerated
man cannot live for God in his own strength (cf. Jn 15:5), which begs the question of how can a
believer do anything to retain salvation if he is powerless to live the life in
his own strength?
What resonates in my mind is the vital
need of abiding in the vine as a believer, not for salvation but for enablement
to do God’s bidding in the power of the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18), “For without Me
you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). The disciples were going to need the Holy
Spirit when Jesus ascended to the Father. He would not leave them without
support from on High. What makes us any less in need of that assistance today?
It is the realization that we simply cannot live this life of Christ without
Christ that drives us to seek His help and support, knowing full well that we
can do all things only through Him who is strengthening us (Php 4:13). This
truth eludes those who believe that salvation is by effort. We can’t hold on to
what we are powerless to keep.
This exposes the feeble position of
challenging the truth of eternal security in the first place because it attacks
the axiom that we simply cannot do anything for God apart from God, never
could, never will. Salvation is not our workmanship; we are “His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph 2:10). Good works are evidence of
salvation (Jas 2:12-26). Our salvation is not of us; our living for God is not
of us, and hell cannot be avoided without Someone greater than ourselves
intervening on our behalf.
So to accuse someone of losing their salvation
(provided they were genuinely born again), you would have to charge God for failure on His part to keep the believer saved since a believer is powerless in his or her own strength to keep themselves saved apart from God. If nothing can
separate a believer from the love of God, no “created thing” (which includes
us) can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom
8:38-39; Jn 10:28-30)!
It is very disappointing to see the
deception taking place among temporal security proponents, and the unnecessary
pressure it creates for those deceived by this false teaching. This kind of
teaching trashes the love of God by impugning His love for us and the power He
has at His command to keep us in His grip that some puny-minded humans are so arrogant
and foolish in attempting to undermine the Almighty? The temporal security doctrine
is a sham and simply a control mechanism for flock management.
Let me offer seven quick observations to
clarify what’s been said or alluded to so far.
1.
Any believer who thinks he
or she can live in sin and do as they please are mistaken and will be chastened
if truly a child of God.
2.
There is a difference between
thinking you are saved and knowing you are saved.
3.
No one stumbles into
heaven by mistake or accident. The idea that people can be mistaken about
salvation and still go to heaven has not one shred of evidence from the Bible
to support such a spurious claim.
4.
Any religious group that
teaches a regenerated believer can lose his salvation is teaching a false
gospel and being subject to the curse in Gal 1:8-9 regardless of the degree of
sincerity, friendliness, morality, or ethical behavior. They are sincerely dead wrong. You don’t warp the teaching of Scripture to produce good out of
people; it’s akin to committing sin in order to do good! God forbid!
5.
There is biblical evidence
to show that there are people who thought they were saved and on their way to
heaven but ended up in hell instead (Mt 7:22-23; 25:41-46).
6.
There is also biblical
evidence to suggest that more people are going to hell than heaven (cf. Mt
7:13-14). Universal salvation is untenable.
7.
Passages that are cited as
proof texts to convince a believer can lose his or her salvation is out of
context with the teaching of Scripture. A person cannot lose what they never
had. Eternal security is clearly taught in the New Testament (cf. Rom 8:1).
If I was in the temporal security camp,
I would argue that our biggest challenge would be that we may have lost our
salvation long before we realized it given the propensities of our sinful nature. How
would we know what sin disqualified us from redemption? Does God send out an
alert that we just lost our salvation? How would we know that we were in need
of salvation again? The worst-case scenario would be to realize it after we died. Making
matters worse, if the Hebrews passage is going to be employed as a proof-text that
we can lose our salvation, then it is really bad news if you lose your
salvation because of sin for even if you knew beforehand, “…it is impossible … to renew them again
unto repentance…” (Heb 6:4-6)!
The employment of Heb 6:4-6 to prove a
believer can lose his or her salvation simply is a misinterpretation; for there
is nothing in Hebrews 6 that indicates that these people were ever saved by a
definitive act of faith. They were truly apostates (cf. Heb 6:6b, 8).
Backsliding is not being an apostate. Apostates have rejoined the forces of
darkness against the Person and work of Christ. It is unfortunate for some
conservative religions to utilize controversial passages to promote their
agenda of flock control and ignore the host of verses that support the doctrine
of eternal security.
Some Christians are truly troubled
when reading passages like Hebrews 6. They fear losing their salvation or
any hope of restoration from sin because their spiritual leadership is interpreting
it out of context. Just because a believer has drifted off the center of God’s
will is no proof of apostasy. Such a believer having concerns actually provides
proof that he or she is not an apostate for apostates could care less.
Apostates repudiate Christ. So I am of
the opinion that the sin of apostasy does not apply to a genuine born again
believer (cf. Heb 6:7, 9-10). Those who are truly apostatized from Christ never
return to Him. We can expect an ever-increasing swell of apostasy in the future
as the dark spirit of anti-Christ metastasizes (2 Thes 2:3; 1 Tim 4:1).
For me personally, I am banking on the
authority and integrity of God’s Word that says I am eternally secure in Christ
(cf. Jn 3:18, 36; 5:24; Rom 5:9; 8:1; 1 Thes 5:9) rather than listen to the
smallness of foolish self-righteous men or women being a tool of the evil one
in contorting the truth of Scripture. If you ain’t got it, get it, and once you
get it, you got it! And you’ll love God for saving you and love to serve Him
the more!
The non-negotiable truth of salvation
by grace through faith, plus or minus nothing, is a far better alternative than fearing you could lose your salvation at any time. We are saved to the uttermost through what
Jesus did on the cross, not through what we are doing in addition to His
cross-work! I cannot stress enough how big a deal this really is! Eternity goes along with whatever we decide on getting to heaven: grace through faith or by merit.
If our doctrine of salvation is wrong
there are eternal consequences; the kind of never-ending outcomes that are too horrifying
to ponder but thankfully avoidable through Jesus Christ! You cannot have it
both ways: grace plus works as an insurance policy. In other words, believing
in faith alone but doing good as a backup contingency plan is not the function of biblical salvation. It is
tantamount to a Gal 1:8-9 status. If you got a few moments read the uncomplicated
process of salvation found in Act 16:27-34.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God,
Eph 2:9 not of works, lest
anyone should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them.
“For this reason 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 what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Tim 1:12). <><
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“For this reason 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 what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Tim 1:12). <><
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| End of Series |
