Last Friday evening, because of work schedules and folks busy working on the renovation of our new church building - I was asked to lead an impromptu Bible study for the rest of us. The group was mostly youth, young adults, with a few of we more mature young folks. The subject I chose for us to explore in our dialogue that evening was the Christian believer's promise of Eternal Security.
This is a subject which is frequently discussed on religion forums and was chewed to death in my old stomping grounds, the TimesDaily Religion Forum. There are many like me who firmly believe that the Bible teaches that a believer cannot lose his/her salvation, i.e., we have eternal security in Christ. Another name for that belief is "Once Saved, Always Saved" which is often shortened to OSAS. I cannot begin to tell you how often I have had the epithet thrown at me, "Oh, you are one of those OSAS nuts! You believe all you have to do is say you believe and you are saved, all your sins are forgiven - and then you can go live like hell!"
Yes, I am one of those nuts who believe that a promise from Jesus Christ is firmly set in concrete and will never be broken. No, I do not believe that a true believer, a person who has 'by grace through faith in Jesus Christ' been given salvation, eternal life (Ephesians 2:8-9) - will continue to live a carnal, secular life. We are assured in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." That means that the old carnal, secular world loving person who once was Bill Gray is no longer living there. He has been replaced by a new being, a new creation in Christ - and the old self has been laid to rest.
Does that mean that Bill Graydoes not sin, will never sin again? Absolutely not! If that were true, I would be perfect as He is perfect and would not need a Savior. But, oh boy, do I ever need a Savior? I needed him badly before I was saved - and I need His presence in my life today, daily, every moment.
The big difference is that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He paid the sin penalty debt owed to God - for all people. We read in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world (the world, i.e., all the people of the world, no one excluded) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting (eternal) life."
Do you see the key point in that Scripture promise? He died for the whole world, "paid in full" the sin debt for the whole world. But the gating factor we find in the phrase: "whoever believes in Him." That is the definition of faith, trust in His power to save us. So, even though Christ died to pay the full price for our sin debt to God - a person has to believe and receive that free gift of forgiveness and eternal life. If you do not receive His gift - you do not have it - and you are still a lost soul wandering in the secular world.
Then Romans 8:1 tells us, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This Scripture verse assures the believer that the moment we believe, trust in and put our faith in Jesus Christ - we will never again be condemned to the wrath of God.
In our Bible study last Friday, I was thrilled when I asked the question, "If someone asks you to give Biblical proof to support your belief that Jesus Christ has promised and has given you eternal life - how would you answer?"
And one of our young men, Herbert, answered right away, "I would offer John 10:29." I told him, "Yes, that is exactly where I would go - for in that Scripture passage Jesus absolutely promises us that NO ONE can snatch the believer out of His hands nor out of the hands of the Father."
Then I asked Herbert to read that Scripture passage:
There are two key phrases in this Scripture passage: Eternal Life and No One!
When I asked Kaitlin the meaning of Eternal Life, without hesitating she replied, "Life that never ends." Praise God that the youth and young adults in our Christian fellowship are well taught. Her answer was right on the button. Jesus Christ gives eternal life to the believer - and eternal means "never ending." There is only one definition for salvation, i.e., life which is never ending. That means that the believer will have never ending life in the presence of God. That, my Friend, no matter how we dissect it - is Eternal Security.
The other key phrase is "No One!" Regardless of whether we look at this phrase in English or Greek, it means the same.
The English phrase"no one will snatch them" in Greek is "oudeis dynamai harpazo" and according to Strong's Concordance of the Bible it means:
So we have: "oudeis dynamai harpazo" or "no one will be able to seize, carry off, or snatch us away." And that means that we are secure in the hands of Jesus Christ. NO ONE means NO ONE, not even the believer himself can snatch us out of His hands.
Our Arminian brethren will tell us that, "No one can snatch us out of His hands, but we can walk away from Him."
Once again I will say, "NO ONE means NO ONE, not even the believer himself can snatch us out of His hands."
And the otherepithet often thrown at us is, "If you believe in 'Once Saved, Always Saved' - you must be a Calvinist!"
No, my Friend, I could never be a Calvinist - for I could never accept the Calvinist teaching of Predestination - nor of their Limited Atonement, the teaching that Christ died only to save those people pre-selected by God before the Creation, i.e., the Elect. I could never accept their interpretation of John 3:16, that the word "world" means only the pre-selected Elect - when Jesus Christ said "whoever believes has eternal life."
Our Calvinist brethren want to limit the grace of God by saying that He only wants to save some of the people He created in His image, the Elect (a teaching which is denied by 2 Peter 3:9). And, our Arminian brethren want to limit God's power, His sufficiency, His ability to hold on to those He has saved. The latter, our Arminian brethren, walk though life always looking over their shoulders, always afraid that some small or unknown sin will take away their salvation.
Both of these erroneous teachings, or theologies, occur because these brethren want to build their theologies upon a few selected, cherry picked Scripture verses/passages - or upon the teaching of men. Our theology MUST be built upon the full 66 books of Scripture, alone.
These questions I have asked my Calvinist and Arminian brethren:
So far, no one has answered either question.
We believers are the promised Bride of Christ - indwelled and sealed by the Holy Spirit of God the very moment we believe and receive Him as Lord and Savior (Ephesians 1:13). We have committed ourselves to Him, to following Him. Will we sin? Unfortunately, yes, for we are all still weak, frail humans with an innate sin nature.
But, praise God, we are "forgiven sinners" - we are "forgiven sinners" who cannot go back into the world and live an active sin lifestyle. For we have the Holy Spirit of God living within us, who has sealed us in Christ. The Holy Spirit living within us will teach us, guide us, and convict us when we do sin. We are promised in:
As Christian believers, we are "forgiven sinners." But we cannot live an active sin lifestyle and be Christian believers.
If a person does choose to turn his/her back and ignore Christ when He knocks (Revelation 3:20) and live an active sin lifestyle - it is obvious that person has never been indwelled by the Holy Spirit and has never made an eternal commitment to Jesus Christ.
In summary, Jesus Christ tells us that He gives us eternal life:
Eternal, as pointed out earlier, has only one meaning: never ending! If the life that Christ gives us is never ending - that has to mean that no one can snatch us away AND that we cannot just decide to walk away. We have a bilateral commitment with Christ - a commitment from us and a commitment from Jesus Christ - that we, the believer, will spend "eternity" - never ending eternity - in the presence of God.
And, that my Friends, most certainly IS Eternal Security!
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
This is a subject which is frequently discussed on religion forums and was chewed to death in my old stomping grounds, the TimesDaily Religion Forum. There are many like me who firmly believe that the Bible teaches that a believer cannot lose his/her salvation, i.e., we have eternal security in Christ. Another name for that belief is "Once Saved, Always Saved" which is often shortened to OSAS. I cannot begin to tell you how often I have had the epithet thrown at me, "Oh, you are one of those OSAS nuts! You believe all you have to do is say you believe and you are saved, all your sins are forgiven - and then you can go live like hell!"
Yes, I am one of those nuts who believe that a promise from Jesus Christ is firmly set in concrete and will never be broken. No, I do not believe that a true believer, a person who has 'by grace through faith in Jesus Christ' been given salvation, eternal life (Ephesians 2:8-9) - will continue to live a carnal, secular life. We are assured in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." That means that the old carnal, secular world loving person who once was Bill Gray is no longer living there. He has been replaced by a new being, a new creation in Christ - and the old self has been laid to rest.
Does that mean that Bill Graydoes not sin, will never sin again? Absolutely not! If that were true, I would be perfect as He is perfect and would not need a Savior. But, oh boy, do I ever need a Savior? I needed him badly before I was saved - and I need His presence in my life today, daily, every moment.
The big difference is that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He paid the sin penalty debt owed to God - for all people. We read in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world (the world, i.e., all the people of the world, no one excluded) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting (eternal) life."
Do you see the key point in that Scripture promise? He died for the whole world, "paid in full" the sin debt for the whole world. But the gating factor we find in the phrase: "whoever believes in Him." That is the definition of faith, trust in His power to save us. So, even though Christ died to pay the full price for our sin debt to God - a person has to believe and receive that free gift of forgiveness and eternal life. If you do not receive His gift - you do not have it - and you are still a lost soul wandering in the secular world.
Ephesians 1:13, "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."
Then Romans 8:1 tells us, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This Scripture verse assures the believer that the moment we believe, trust in and put our faith in Jesus Christ - we will never again be condemned to the wrath of God.
In our Bible study last Friday, I was thrilled when I asked the question, "If someone asks you to give Biblical proof to support your belief that Jesus Christ has promised and has given you eternal life - how would you answer?"
And one of our young men, Herbert, answered right away, "I would offer John 10:29." I told him, "Yes, that is exactly where I would go - for in that Scripture passage Jesus absolutely promises us that NO ONE can snatch the believer out of His hands nor out of the hands of the Father."
Then I asked Herbert to read that Scripture passage:
John 10:24, "The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, 'How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.'
John 10:25-27, "Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;'
John 10:28-30, 'and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.'"
There are two key phrases in this Scripture passage: Eternal Life and No One!
When I asked Kaitlin the meaning of Eternal Life, without hesitating she replied, "Life that never ends." Praise God that the youth and young adults in our Christian fellowship are well taught. Her answer was right on the button. Jesus Christ gives eternal life to the believer - and eternal means "never ending." There is only one definition for salvation, i.e., life which is never ending. That means that the believer will have never ending life in the presence of God. That, my Friend, no matter how we dissect it - is Eternal Security.
The other key phrase is "No One!" Regardless of whether we look at this phrase in English or Greek, it means the same.
The English phrase"no one will snatch them" in Greek is "oudeis dynamai harpazo" and according to Strong's Concordance of the Bible it means:
a. "oudeis dynamai - No person will (1) be able, have power whether by virtue of one's own ability and resources, or of a state of mind, or through favorable circumstances, or by permission of law or custom (2) to be able to (3) to be capable, strong and powerful.
b. harpazo" - (1) to seize, carry off by force, (2) to seize on, claim for one's self eagerly, (3) to snatch out or away.
So we have: "oudeis dynamai harpazo" or "no one will be able to seize, carry off, or snatch us away." And that means that we are secure in the hands of Jesus Christ. NO ONE means NO ONE, not even the believer himself can snatch us out of His hands.
Our Arminian brethren will tell us that, "No one can snatch us out of His hands, but we can walk away from Him."
Once again I will say, "NO ONE means NO ONE, not even the believer himself can snatch us out of His hands."
And the otherepithet often thrown at us is, "If you believe in 'Once Saved, Always Saved' - you must be a Calvinist!"
No, my Friend, I could never be a Calvinist - for I could never accept the Calvinist teaching of Predestination - nor of their Limited Atonement, the teaching that Christ died only to save those people pre-selected by God before the Creation, i.e., the Elect. I could never accept their interpretation of John 3:16, that the word "world" means only the pre-selected Elect - when Jesus Christ said "whoever believes has eternal life."
Our Calvinist brethren want to limit the grace of God by saying that He only wants to save some of the people He created in His image, the Elect (a teaching which is denied by 2 Peter 3:9). And, our Arminian brethren want to limit God's power, His sufficiency, His ability to hold on to those He has saved. The latter, our Arminian brethren, walk though life always looking over their shoulders, always afraid that some small or unknown sin will take away their salvation.
Both of these erroneous teachings, or theologies, occur because these brethren want to build their theologies upon a few selected, cherry picked Scripture verses/passages - or upon the teaching of men. Our theology MUST be built upon the full 66 books of Scripture, alone.
These questions I have asked my Calvinist and Arminian brethren:
For my Calvinist brethren: "Since we are all totally depraved (the "T" in TULIP), how do you know that God has chosen YOU before the Creation to be among His Elect? You tell me, 'Because I feel it' or 'Because I am living a Christian life.' No, that is what YOU are doing - and since you tell us we all are totally depraved and can do nothing, of ourselves, to be saved - that cannot apply. How do you know that YOU were chosen among the Elect?"
For my Arminian brethren: "Which sin will cause you to lose your salvation? Is there a sin which is greater than all other sins? The Bible tells us that all sins are equally grievous to God? And Jesus Christ died to 'pay in full' our sin debt to God - for ALL sins. The only sin which is unforgivable applies only to non-believers - and that is the sin of not believing unto death. So, which sin will cause YOU to lose your salvation?'
So far, no one has answered either question.
We believers are the promised Bride of Christ - indwelled and sealed by the Holy Spirit of God the very moment we believe and receive Him as Lord and Savior (Ephesians 1:13). We have committed ourselves to Him, to following Him. Will we sin? Unfortunately, yes, for we are all still weak, frail humans with an innate sin nature.
But, praise God, we are "forgiven sinners" - we are "forgiven sinners" who cannot go back into the world and live an active sin lifestyle. For we have the Holy Spirit of God living within us, who has sealed us in Christ. The Holy Spirit living within us will teach us, guide us, and convict us when we do sin. We are promised in:
1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
As Christian believers, we are "forgiven sinners." But we cannot live an active sin lifestyle and be Christian believers.
Sin is when we, either inadvertently or on purpose, do something which is against the will and commandment of God.
Sin Lifestyle is when we chose to make that sin (homosexuality, adultery, stealing, etc.) our active, permanent way of life.
If a person does choose to turn his/her back and ignore Christ when He knocks (Revelation 3:20) and live an active sin lifestyle - it is obvious that person has never been indwelled by the Holy Spirit and has never made an eternal commitment to Jesus Christ.
In summary, Jesus Christ tells us that He gives us eternal life:
John 10:27-28, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, . . . "
Eternal, as pointed out earlier, has only one meaning: never ending! If the life that Christ gives us is never ending - that has to mean that no one can snatch us away AND that we cannot just decide to walk away. We have a bilateral commitment with Christ - a commitment from us and a commitment from Jesus Christ - that we, the believer, will spend "eternity" - never ending eternity - in the presence of God.
And, that my Friends, most certainly IS Eternal Security!
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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