Biblical Support for the Security of the Believer

(“Once Saved, Always Saved”)

I. Scriptures that Guarantee Security “in Christ.”

John 5:24 – Jesus says that the believer has passed (past tense) from death to life – will not come into judgment – has everlasting life. The life given is not “everlasting” if it can be lost again.

John 6:37 – Jesus said that those who come to him will never be “cast out”. We are the Father’s gift to the Son. The Father is not going to take the gift back.

John 10:27, 28 – His sheep will never (under any circumstance) perish (be lost) Vs. 29 states that no one can pluck them out of the Father’s hand.

John 17:15, 24 – Jesus’s prayers are always answered. He prays that we will be kept from the evil one (the Devil) and that those whom the Father gives Him will be with Him in eternity.

Paul’s Epistles

Romans 8:38, 39 – Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Neither time, space or matter or all creation).

1 Cor. 1:29-31 – To avoid boasting, God has put us “in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 12:13) by baptism into His death. In effect, we have already died for our sins by the death of another and according to 1 Corinthians 1:30 He has already become our sanctification and redemption. This is because God sees us “in Him” (Read Gal. 2:20).

Gal. 2:20 – We have already died (been crucified) with Christ. To die (or be lost again) would be “double jeopardy.” We died for all our sins by His death.

Eph. 1:13 – We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. This is the pledge of our inheritance until our bodies are redeemed. We are God’s possession. Nothing can break this seal.

Eph. 4:30 – We are sealed even if we grieve the Holy Spirit who sealed us (2 Cor. 1:22).

Phil. 1:6 – The good work that God has begun in us, He will perfect (finish). (He doesn’t start the foundation of a house without eventually putting on the roof.)

Col. 3:3, 4 – We, as believers, have already died for our sins (all of them) by the death of Christ. Our life now is “hidden with Christ in God.” How can we be lost again?

2 Tim. 1:12 – He is able to keep us, having committed ourselves to Him.

Heb. 7:25 – He is able to save forever those who come to Him because is praying for them.

Peter’s Epistles

1 Pet. 1:5 – We are kept (protected) by His power for a salvation (of the body) to be revealed in the last time.

John and Jude

1 John 2:19 – those who are not saved (but look like they are saved) go out from us, because they are not really of us.

Jude 1 – We have been called and we are kept for Jesus Christ (by God).

II. Biblical Truth that Defines Salvation.

The Biblical doctrine of Justification by faith precludes any concept of works (self effort). Romans 3:24-25 states that justification (being declared righteous by God…resulting in salvation) is a “gift”. In verse 25 it says that Christ’s blood satisfied the holiness of God’s anger against our sins (propitiated means God is satisfied). 1 John 2:2 – He (Christ) is the propitiation (satisfaction of God’s Holiness and Justice) for our sins – all of them (They were all future when He died). We do nothing to get our salvation (but believe) and by the same token there is nothing we can do to lose it.
Romans 4:4-5 says “Now to the one who works his wage is not credited as a favor (grace), but is what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies (saves by declaring righteous) the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness”. To feel that we have to “hang on” to be saved is just another way of teaching salvation by works.
Roman’s 5:1-9 – This Scripture passage tells us that already having been justified (declared righteous) by faith we now have peace with God. It goes on to say that we stand in the grace of God (and we rejoice in the hope of His coming).
Vs.9 tells us that “we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
Justification by God is a once for all time finished gift.
The possibility of a real believer losing their salvation would put them under the Law of God again. Galatians 3:23-25 tells us that before we were saved we were under the law. That the law “was our schoolmaster to bring us Christ” but now that faith has come we are not under the schoolmaster. “Christ is the end of the law to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). Eph 2:8-9 tells us that salvation is a gift. One does not work for a gift. “Not of works lest any man should boast.” Romans 8:1-4 tells us that the law was weak through the flesh. We could not keep the law, so God sent His son and with His death “condemned sin in the flesh.”
To believe that a truly saved person can lose his or her salvation is to mix up justification with sanctification. Justification is instantaneous. It happens the moment we believe in the cross of Christ.
Sanctification is a process for which we begin to develop holiness in our lives. This is accomplished in all who are saved, (justified) by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit living in them.
Romans 8:4 tells us that righteousness is (after we are saved) produced in us by “walking in the Spirit”. Through the Holy Spirit we are to put to death the deeds (sins) of the body (Rom. 8:13).
This is the “normal spiritual life.” But though it began with free justification, the normal spiritual life has nothing to do with producing justification. Justification is the work of Christ. Sanctification (walking in the spirit) is the work of the Holy Spirit after we are saved.

III. Biblical Examples:

Those Who Appeared to be Saved as Opposed to Those Who Really Were.

It should be noted that nobody in Scripture that was truly saved ever lost their salvation. Also, the Bible describes nobody that was ever “born again” more than once.

In Hebrews 6:4-8 there is a description of a type of person who, upon a casual reading, seems to have fallen away from the Lord and, as we might suppose, has therefore lost their salvation.
It should be noted in this passage that if indeed they did lose their salvation, they can’t get it back. It says “for it is impossible, if they should fall away, to renew them again unto repentance”. They would “put the Lord to open shame.”
The person described was once “enlightened” and tasted of the heavenly gift” and “made a partaker of the Holy Spirit, tasted of the good word of God and the Powers of the world to come.”
It would certainly seem (on the surface) that they had been a Christian but lost their salvation.
But let us stop and think for a moment. Have we not known people that were in the church, seemed to take part in everything others did and yet eventually left and acted as though they were never saved?
This is what John tells us in 1 John 2:19. He says that they (in this case many antichrists) “went out from us, but they were not (really) of us”. They had to leave to prove to us that they were not “of us.”
The Hebrews 6 passage aptly describes the traitor, Judas Iscariot. He looked and acted so much like all the other apostles that on the night of the last supper, after Jesus had announced that one of them would betray him, each disciple asked Jesus, “Is it I”?
Matt 26:22 – “and began every one of them to say to him, “Lord, is it I”?
This description fits Judas, who, though he had walked with the Lord Jesus three years and had partaken of the “heavenly gift.” was not really one “of them.” In fact, Jesus had said, “Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil”? (John 6:30) Judas even cast out demons! (Mark 3:14, 15; Mark 6:12; Luke 9:1)
The person described in Hebrews 6:4-8, though heavily involved in “Christian Things” and having had the advantages of even the Spirit, was never really saved, any more than Judas was.
Peter, on the other hand, appeared not to be a believer, when he denied the Lord at a crucial time (John 18:15-27). Christians don’t always act like Christians. Nevertheless, Peter was saved. Jesus had said that Satan had desired Peter, but he had prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail (Luke 22:31, 32).
Our confusion about the idea of people losing their salvation comes from our limited knowledge of who truly is saved, and who is pretending, like Judas Iscariot.
The parable of the wheat and the tares (weeds) in Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43 shows us how the authentic and the false can easily be confused. The tares looked so much like the real wheat that the angels were prohibited from plucking up the tares, lest they inadvertently pull up the real wheat also (vs 29). The wheat was a picture of real believers. The tares were not.
Another example of the false among the true is in 2 Peter 2. (The false teachers.)
It should be noted that these “false teachers” that shall come (and have come) were not really saved. The Greek word for them being “bought” (agorasanto) used here indicates that though the price was paid for them, they remained on the “slave block.” They are not saved. They ignored the price paid for them, and taught false doctrine in the church.
In the end of the chapter, we have those that “have escaped the pollution of the world” turning back to it (2nd Peter 2:20-22). The characteristic of them is they are not called “sheep,” (who turned back into dogs or pigs:) They are called “dogs” and “sows,” both regarded by the Jews as unclean animals. There had never been a true conversion. They were never saved. And, as described in this chapter, the enemy has always used evil people infiltering the church, to corrupt it.

IV. Other Scriptures Seeming to Suggest that Once Saved, You Could Be Lost:

Matthew 24:13 “He that endureth until the end, the same shall be saved.”.

The question becomes “saved from what?” Those who remain faithful to the Lord until the end of that Terrible Tribulation Time, described in the context, will be physically delivered to enter the millennial kingdom in their physical bodies. The passage is not talking about personal salvation from sin.

There will be those who are not killed during the “Great Tribulation” and do believe in Christ.

These are those who will still have their physical bodies so that they can produce the children described in Isaiah 11:6, 8; 65:20.

1st Corinthians 10:12 “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

Again, the context of the verse is very important. The context of this passage indicates a tendency of Christians going back into their old practices of sin, just like many in ancient Israel did in the desert. Obviously Christians “fall”, but this does not mean that they are lost again or that God is even through with them. I can fall. You can fall. But our salvation doesn’t depend on us. He has already bought us (Philippians 1:6.)

In Galatians 5:4 we have the expression “fallen from grace”

Again, we must not read into the word “fallen” the idea of being “lost” in regard to salvation. The writer to the Galatians (Paul) was showing that when they, as a group, were including circumcision as part of salvation, they had fallen away from the doctrine of Grace. Remember that Grace excludes any human ritual or work.

In John 15:6 the passage is talking about “fruit bearing”. Those that remain in Christ will bear “much fruit”. The word in the Greek is meiné, meaning “remain.” The idea of remaining in Christ has to do with the behavior of the person in regard to fruit bearing.
(Compare 1^st John 1:7… “walking in the Light,” with Him.)

It is not the same as the believer being placed into (baptized into) the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. (1st Corinthians 12:13). That is his position, brought about by Christ (or the Holy Spirit) when he was saved. The “remaining in Christ” in John 15:1-8 is his action: his subsequent behavior, if he is to produce fruit.

Notice in verse 6 that if he does not abide (remain) in this way, he is thrown into the fire by men, not angels, as in Matthew 13:41, 42. The believer who is not fruitful, who does not “remain with” (walking with) Christ is cast aside by men, “and trodden under foot.”

(Matthew 5:13). Paul spoke of such people as “castaways” (put on the shelf). Not useful to God. Again, this passage is not talking about salvation, but service: how to produce fruit for the Lord.

V. Eternal Security:

The relationship that exists between us and God is a personal relationship. Throughout the Bible the Heavenly father is always coaching us on how to live, because He deeply loves us.

This love is to be returned by us and so we find many scriptures that try to show us the unhappy consequences of not returning His love. We need Him.

Like any good parent (and God is the best), He does not want us to languish in insecurity. How can we love a parent if we are never sure whether that our relationship with them is secure and settled? A believer in that doubtful condition is unsettled, fearful and insecure.

This is certainly not His will, as we have tried to show by His precious Word.

Remember that the “Helmet of Salvation,” described in Ephesians 6:17, is designed to protect your head…your mind…your thoughts.

In 1^st John 5:11-13, God says that He wants you to know that you have Eternal Life. If you ignore this truth, and/or deny that you can know you are eternally secure in Christ, by His completed work, alone, then you simply cannot “wear” the Helmet of Salvation: Your thoughts will be “fair game” for the enemy, continually suggesting that God is going to reject you.

Richard Banham

Do You Know How to be Sure That You are Secure in Christ?