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

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

November 8, 2020November 8, 2020

Responding to the Redeemer

1st Peter 1:13-25

Introduction:

We are studying through 1^st Peter, and we have seen the security of the believers and the Joy that is their choice, and which is only possible because of their position in Christ. Given that position, that security, and the possibility of such Joy, the logical question seems to be, “What now? How should we respond to this reality?” Peter addresses that question in the last 13 verses of this chapter. He begins by listing three things the believer is to do:

How should we Respond?

1. Gird up the Loins

¹³Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

I am told that when a man of that time was called to some sort of active work, or a coming battle, he would prepare by picking up the hem of his tunic or robe or whatever sort of long garment he was wearing, and tucking it into his belt, or “girdle” as it was called, then cinching it so that it could not fall loose and trip him. I have no way to know the accuracy of that historical note, so all I can do is look at it in the context of the rest of the scriptures and see that, in every case, when people were told to “gird up their loins”, it meant to prepare themselves for coming activity, whether a fight, a trial, or a task. It was an admonition to “get ready for action.” God wants to use your life: prepare yourself so that you are usable in His hand! We see this over and over in the New Testament. We are saved to serve. We have been set free from our slavery to sin, and now we are free to go to work “with Jesus.” He asks us to join Him in His work, but working with Him requires that we are prepared to serve.

2. Be Sober

Being sober is not the opposite of being drunk: it is looking at things realistically, from God’s perspective: not frivolously, but also not overly optimistically when God has not promised a good end to circumstances. Nor are we to think pessimistically, assuming that God doesn’t care. We have been left in this world to live as lights in a dark place! If life were “all easy” for us, then we would not be seen as lights at all: we just would appear to be “privileged characters” incurring the envy and anger of all those around us. If we are complaining about life all the time, then we are not seen as a light, either: we are simply seen as whiners.

But, if we see life soberly, accepting hardship and privation as being part of life, and choosing to find our Joy in the Savior Himself, instead of only in all He provides, then the people around us can see that we have something to be desired. We have clear Hope when there seems to be no hope. We have Joy in the presence of grief. People are not blind to the work of an active faith. Serenity and peace during tumultuous times is an unusual thing, and it is seen as valuable to most people. It is a mark of stability and strength, and attracts attention to the source of that strength.

3. Hope to the End

All the believers to whom this epistle was originally written have died, obviously. Every one of every generation since then has also “hoped to the end” to see the revelation of Jesus Christ. I believe that we are very close to His return, now, but we are still told to “hope to the end.” So, we keep pressing on, doing what we were told to do, placing our faith in the faithful Creator who claims us as His children; building our lives on the foundation of our new relationship with Him.

A New Relationship

We have been born again, so we are in a new relationship with a new Father. We want to imitate our Heavenly Father, just as a toddler tries to imitate his parents.

¹⁴As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: ¹⁵But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; ¹⁶Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

God’s primary attribute is His Holiness. Even His Love is subject to His Holiness. So, we need to consider what that means, if we hope to imitate it. The word “Holy” means “set apart for a particular purpose.” It does not mean “walking around with your hands pressed together as if in prayer, and with a pious expression on your face.” The world recognizes that phony charade and rejects it, just as God does. The Pharisees specialized in that sort of behavior, and Jesus condemned it as hypocrisy and fraud. In Matthew 23:25, He said they were polishing the outside of a cup, while the inside was still filthy; “…filled with extortion and excess”.

But we are called to imitate the holiness of God, because He has created us by the new birth to be as holy as He is Himself: It means that, as His child, and His new creation, you belong to Him, and you are created for His personal service and fellowship.

Your whole life belongs to Him, which is really nothing new: He created every sub-atomic particle in every atom of every molecule in every cell in your body as well as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. That was true of us all, even when we were still in our sins! How much more, now that He has freed us from our slavery to sin, and provided us with eternal life?

We are re-born in His image, and we are created for His pleasure and service. It is our privilege to be in his service. We are in a place of honor and reward, not “forced servitude.” So He calls us to imitate Him in His holiness. Paul begged the believers to do just that In Ephesians 5:1, saying, “…be imitators of God, as dear children.”

This is part of what is involved in “girding up the loins” of our minds, in preparation for service. It means that we are to subject our wills to His, and see our lives beginning to reflect His character. It also means that we are to learn His Word. Over in 2^nd Peter 1:4, it says that by means of the “exceeding great and precious promises” in God’s Word, we are to become “partakers of the Divine nature.” The way…the only way, God promises to change us into His likeness is through the application of His Word, as we allow the Holy Spirit to use that scripture to change our hearts. (Psalm 119:9-11)

Since we are born of “His seed” as it says in 1^st John 3:9, we are “genetically predisposed” to bear His likeness. One of the first laws discernible in God’s Word is the Law of the Harvest: “Like begets like!” God made man in His image, but that image has been marred by sin. So He offered the new birth, and we are born again in His likeness, with the express intent that we are to be like Him, in character and purpose and action. Psalm 119:9 says that the way our lives can be cleansed is by the application of God’s Word. This is a key issue, because it means that His Word can change us into His likeness. (So, what was the means by which we have been born again in the first place? We will answer that question in verse 23. But for the moment, we are to remember the price that has already been paid for us.)

**How did we Get here?**

¹⁷And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: ¹⁸Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; ¹⁹But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

Since we call upon the Lord as our Father, we need to consider and remember how we became His children: the result should be a sobriety and a respect for the Holiness of God, and a dread of offending the Eternal One who loves us.

We were not bought out of our slavery to sin by a “cash payment” of any sort, nor were we freed from the Law of Sin and Death by a price that we could pay. This is especially important in the case of these Jewish believers: they had lived their whole lives attempting to please God by works of the Law, as their ancestors had taught them. They (like most humans) were convinced that they could live in such a way as to please God. But they could not pay the sin-debt that stood as a testimony against them. That One Blood Sacrifice approved by God and delivered by Jesus is the only price that could redeem them and us. The Greek word, here, for “redeemed,” is “elutrothete” which is a form of the infinitive verb “lutroō,” meaning “to purchase with the intent to set free.” There are three words translated “redeem” in the New Testament:

“agorazo,” meaning “to purchase in the marketplace”…the “agora.”
“exagorazo,” meaning “to purchase out of the marketplace”…not to be sold again. And,
“lutroō,” meaning “purchased for the purpose of setting free.”

All of these words, combined, tell the story of our redemption.

We were enslaved to sin. Jesus went to that marketplace of sin, to purchase us with His own blood. That is where he bought us, because that is where we were!
He purchased us out of that marketplace, never to be returned there. We belong to Him eternally. And, best of all,
He purchased us with the purpose of setting us free. He was not just trying to increase his household staff, nor the number of workers in his field. We were set free by that purchase. We are free to serve Him, but also free to choose not to serve, in which case we suffer loss, though we still are saved.

Remember, we were all pretty much living pointless lives, serving our own desires, in activities that had zero eternal value, regardless of how they may have seemed to us. He has given us a new purpose in life. Now we can live in such a way as to be to His eternal glory! We can work with Him in a task that has eternal value and which will earn us eternal reward!

²⁰Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

This is an important concept and it is very easy to just “pass over” and not notice it. It says here that He was “foreordained” (or “appointed before the time”)…when? Before the foundation of the world! Before Genesis 1:1 (!) Ponder on that for a while! So, when it says, “In the beginning…” He was already there and was already “Plan A” for our salvation!

Compare this verse to Revelation 13:8, and see what it means: in that passage, He was “the Lamb Slain, from the foundation of the world.” But here it says, from “before the foundation of the world!” Jesus was always “Plan A” and there is no “Plan B.” Before He created the world, God ordained that Jesus was to be the sacrifice for the fallen Human Race…the “as-yet non-existent, un-created, un-tested, and not-yet-in-danger, Human Race.” God provided for us before He created us. What wisdom and care! We can see in Ephesians 3:8-11 that God had an eternal plan. And, He laid the foundation for His plan before He laid the foundations of the earth!

Where do we Stand? And, What should we Do?

²¹Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. ²²Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

It is interesting that he is not “commending them” simply for “believing in God:” these were Jews, who already believed in the God of Israel. And James points out that “belief in God” is not necessarily even meritorious: he said, “The demons also believe, and tremble!” But something has changed in them, in Acts 2-7: they met God personally, by faith, in the person of Jesus their Messiah. Now they believe in God through Jesus. The result is an unfeigned (genuine) love of the brethren. Agape love is the fruit of their lives because they believe through Jesus. They received the Holy Spirit when they believed, and He changed their hearts and their desires, just as He has changed our hearts and desires. Each has a new nature, because they have been born again, same as we have. And along with them, we are commanded to fervently love one another with that Agape Love. Finally, he reminds us of the means by which we were born again:

²³Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Take special note of what Peter says, here: He says that you were “Born Again:” by what means? By the Word of God! It had nothing to do with works! It had everything to do with your having heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and having believed that message, placing your trust in the promise, and thus in God who gave it.

So, this also correlates with verse 3 where he says that we have been “begotten again.” The “seed” of natural birth is corruptible. The “seed of God,” in this case, is incorruptible, as it is the Word of God.

This is an important concept, because we sometimes are given to think that our own “persuasive speech” is the key to drawing a lost soul to Christ. But Jesus said, in John 12:32, “If I be lifted up…I will draw all men to myself!” He is the one who draws souls, like bits of iron to a magnet. We are to lift up Jesus, not try to dazzle unbelievers with our convincing arguments: The door to the truth is the will, not the intellect! We are to preach the Cross and Jesus Christ: not try to “convince” people by philosophy or moralizing, or any other sort of Human reasoning. Paul echoes this idea, in 1^st Corinthians 1:17, saying that he was sent “…not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; not with wisdom of words, lest the preaching of the Cross be made of none effect.” We actually reduce the effectiveness of the Gospel through our “human effort.” Peter concludes this passage with a clear comparison between the flesh and all its “human wisdom” versus the Word of God and His eternal Wisdom. He says,

²⁴For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: ²⁵But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Let’s bear in mind that God’s Word has eternal value. Everything we can do on our own is destined to decay and failure. What God chooses to do through us, by His indwelling Spirit, by His perfect Word, not only has eternal value, and will bear eternal fruit, but it will also pay eternal rewards or “dividends.” God gives us the will to serve, and He does the work through us, but then He rewards us for the work as if we had done it ourselves. What Amazing Grace!

Lord Jesus, free us from our addiction to self. Teach us to subject ourselves willingly to Your will, to Your Holy Spirit, and the teachings of Your Word. Continue to remake us into your likeness, and let us shine in this dark world as reflections of your Light.