God's Mercy and Grace Eternal Security of the Believer
Once a person has accepted Christ as Savior, they may wonder if it is possible to become unsaved or lose that salvation. What if they commit sin or do something very wrong? Is it possible to be saved, and then lose salvation?
There are those in both camps that will claim verses of scripture to support both sides of the debate, but both can be true. There are verses that by themselves may seem very convincing to support either view, but it is important to look at the whole word of God together for unity and also to consider the context of any particular portion of scripture that we are considering.
For one to accept that you can lose salvation then brings the question as to how much sin do you commit and don't repent of to lose salvation. How many good works are required to keep your salvation. There is no guideline for this in the Bible so you would always wonder where you stood with God. You could have no peace or assurance.
To consider the idea of losing our salvation is unscriptural. To consider a few passages that 'seem' to support that belief creates problems because it offers contradictions with other doctrines and passages throughout God's word; including salvation by faith, the sin nature of man, and why Christ went to the cross to die for our sin in the first place. According to the Scriptures true children of God are forever saved and forever eternally secure.
Some passages of scripture that support this are these:
John 10:28 'His sheep have been given eternal life—they shall never perish'
Eph. 1:3; 2:6 'They are already seated in the heavenlies in Christ'
Eph. 4:30; Rom. 8:23 'They are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption'
Col. 3:1-3 'Their eternal lives are forever hid with Christ in God'
1 Cor. 3:10-15 This passage speaks about the loss of rewards at the Judgement Seat but not lose of salvation. One would not lose rewards if they did not sin to begin with, but here you are saved as through fire, telling us that once you strip everything else away you are saved with or without rewards.
1 Thess. 1:9,10; 5:8-10 Here we see that we believers already have been (not may be) delivered from the wrath to come.
1 Pet. 1:5 Believers are kept by the power of God, through faith; not through the efforts or the works of the one who is saved.
1 John 1:7-9 Here we see that though we sin the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin
Romans 8:38-39 This passage says that nothing can separate them from the love of Christ. This includes any sin that we may do cannot separate us from Christ.
John 10:29 No Christian can be plucked out of the hand of Christ
Eph. 2:8,9 shows us that our attempts at any good deeds will never earn us a place in Heaven. Our past, present, or future sins can never be overcome or cancelled out by doing any amount of good works. If nothing but faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for our sin can save us; than nothing can cause us to lose our salvation either. We are saved by grace and not of any works that we can do. We are saved by faith alone and the fact of our work or if we sin will not remove us from Christ. If we could lose our salvation, then we are saying that the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross was not good enough by itself but there is something else needed on our behalf to secure our salvation. It should be considered that in the Book of James where passages talk about works; it is here that works are a sign of a real faith or not; absolutely nothing to do with the possibility of losing salvation.
An improper understanding of a few passages of scripture can discourage some Christians to almost give up their faith; because after they sinned they lose hope to repent again. This is because they read these verses that seem to indicate loss of salvation; without considering the context in which they were written.
John 10:28-30 “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
God's forgiveness through Christ is sufficient to cover all of our sins past, present, and future.
Proponents of the “once saved, always saved” doctrine claim that it gives Christians a license to sin. They presume that those who believe in eternal security intend to accept salvation, and then continue to willingly sin not worrying about a lose of Salvation. A truly saved believer will, because of their faith and the Holy Spirit within them, shun sin and practice good works. If because of sinful things or lack of good things you would lose your security, then your good deeds would be a part of salvation; but this is contradictory to Scripture. This would also place a burden on oneself; and one would have always be trying to do enough good to outweigh our sinful natures. To deny eternal security is to support a “faith plus works” salvation.
A Person needs to consider that God loves us so much that he gave His son to buy us back from our sin. His love overshadows everything else and nothing that we could ever do to cause this Salvation to be lost. To say that we could lose salvation is saying that we are in control of our own Salvation and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ would be of no effect.
A person who willingly, humbly, repents of sin and turns towards the cross, trusting Christ as their Savior, will be saved (Acts 16:31; John 6:37; John 14:6). That salvation is once and for all, eternal, and secure. Those who truly trust in Christ are saved once, and saved always.