Today, we are going to examine the doctrine of “ETERNAL SALVATION.” This doctrine also called “ONCE SAVED, FOREVER SAVED” emphasizes that you can never lose your salvation no matter what you do. But is it true that once you are saved, then you are saved forever? This is the question we are going to answer today in the light of the Scriptures. Here are some Scriptures some preachers use to justify this doctrine:
1. Jesus said, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand…..” (Jn. 10:28-29).
2. God will never leave thee, nor forsake thee (Heb. 13:15).
3. A righteous man shall not be utterly cast down even though he falls (Ps. 37:23-24).
4. 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 (Jn. 6:37-40).
5. Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).
If we go by the above Scriptures, we might be tempted to agree with ‘the doctrine of eternal salvation’ which says, “Once saved, forever saved.”
But the Scripture says that once you stop believing in Christ, you lose the eternal life you have (Jn. 3:36).
Jesus also warned that “only the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:13). Did you get that? The promise of eternal life is secure only for those who endure to the end. This is where the problem is – from Justification to Glorification is a long stretch.
This is where so many Born Again believers discontinue, and once you do that you lose your salvation.
After you are justified, you are bound to miss the mark one time or the other. The only remedy here is that you can quickly get back to God (1 Jn. 1:9). But if you don’t and assume to still be saved, if death strikes, you will find yourself in hell.
On this journey, temptations must show up somewhere on the way (Jam. 1:2-4, 12).
This is where Apostle Paul warns us saying: “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). It is your responsibility to say no to anything that contradicts the Word of God.
That word endure is not popular in Christian circles today because we want to be done with the salvation journey immediately we get started. But Christianity isn’t a microwave faith. It is covenant relationship with the Father that must pass through the wilderness.
Salvation is not just what Jesus did for you once. It is something He is doing in you right now. And it’s something He shall finish in you if you let Him (Phil. 1:6).
The journey is real and it leads home. If salvation is more than a moment, if sanctification and glorification are all unfolding in the life of a believer, then it makes sense that Jesus didn’t call us to make a one-time decision and move on.
Jesus called us to endure, not just to begin in faith, but to remain in Him, to abide in Him, to walk, stumble, repent, get up again, and keep going until the end. He warned the believers not only of the joy of being saved, but of the danger of not finishing the race, of starting in faith but not continuing in it – See. Jn. 8:31.
And when Jesus warned, He gave pictures, that demand reflection, and often trembling. In Matthew 13:3-8, 18-23 He told the parable of the sower: A farmer sowed seeds on four different types of soil. Only one, the good soil produces lasting fruit. The other three represent the people who receive the Word. They respond. They may even rejoice at first, but eventually the sun scorches, the thorns choke, or the soil lacks depth. And what began in excitement ends in silence.
Listen to Jesus’ own words about the rocky ground: This is the one who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy, and because he has no root in himself, he endures for a while and when tribulation and persecution arise on account of the Word, immediately he falls away (Matt. 13:20-21). Did you catch it? He endures for a while only. That is what makes it so sobering. Jesus is not warning about people who out rightly reject Him.
He is warning about those who say yes at the beginning, but don’t endure. Here is the Lesson: Starting the race is not the same as staying in it till the end.
Jesus continued this theme in John 15 where He said, “I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Gardner. Remain in Me and I will remain in you” (Jn. 15:1, 4).
But then comes the warning: If you don’t remain in Me you will be like a branch that is cut off. Such a branch is picked up and thrown into the fire (Jn. 15:6; Matt. 3:10).
That which came from the lips of Jesus is Judgment: He is not trying to frighten us into works-based religion. He’s trying to anchor us in abiding relationship. Because salvation is not a pass. It is a path.
Here is the truth: Abiding in Christ is the only way to stay alive spiritually. This is the core of intimacy with God.
To the one who successfully finishes the journey, to the one who does His will to the end, Jesus shall give power over the nations (Rev. 2:26). So, stay, abide, keep going because Jesus never promised us an easy road. But He promised that it would end in glory. If Jesus made it clear that only the one that endures to the end will be saved, then that’s it.
Near the end of his life on earth Apostle Paul said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at (on) that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
This is the language and peace of a man that ran all the way to the finish line. He just didn’t start in faith, but stayed in it.
And yet that same Paul spent much of his ministry warning other believers, not outsiders, about the danger of abandoning the faith.
In Colossians 1:23 he writes saying, “If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel.”
Here, Paul is absolutely declaring that faith must endure, not perfectly but persistently, not without stumbles, but without quitting.
The Book of Hebrews thunders the warning that it is possible to fall away, not by accident, not in weakness, but through deliberate hardened rebellion against God, a betrayal of the very grace that once seemed embraced (Heb. 6:4-6).
Such people cannot be restored. Why? Because they have just sinned. They have rejected the only solution – Jesus. These people were not outsiders who flirted with the Gospel, but insiders who walked with a community of faith, experienced the power of God and then made a conscious choice to abandon Him.
Hebrews 10:26-29 takes this further: “For if we sin willfully (deliberately keep on sinning) after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:26-29).
This is somebody who after receiving the truth, deliberately continues to commit sin (in rebellion). Someone who treats the blood of Jesus as an unholy thing. Someone who insults the Spirit of grace. These are not sins of weakness, they are sins of defiance, intentional, sustained. The judgment is terrifying. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 11:31).
No comments:
Post a Comment