THEOLOGY & APOLOGETICS
What does the Bible say about eternal security?
Can you lose your salvation if you don't go through the sanctification process?
By Gloria Small
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Continued from Page One
- Hebrews 5:9: The context here is Christ as a type of the priest Melchizedek. Christ is the author of our salvation, and the word "obey" in this verse means to listen to, submit to, and accept Him as the authority, choosing to conform ourselves to His authority as Christ. It does not infer that a person once saved can then be lost. Only believers can conform themselves to Christ for only believers have the indwelling Spirit of Christ.
- 2 John 1:9: Nestled in the context of 2 John 1:7-11, this is a description of the characteristics of a deceiver — an anti-Christ. It tells us that this deceiver is one who does not abide in the doctrine or teaching of the truth. This verse does not refer to believers at all.
Regardless of the additional Scriptures that have been used, when taken in context, I assure you none of them teach that a believer, once born again, can lose their salvation. That is completely contrary to the promise of God. Rather, the believer is secure, for God does not count or reckon our salvation upon our actions but as we are IN Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30). Believers are sinners saved by grace, and God's Word tells us that NOTHING in this life or the next can separate the secure believer from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35-39). To interpret Scripture out of context, pulling out texts to prove a position, makes God a liar.
It is true that once we are saved we are to go through a process of choosing to allow God to conform us to the image of Christ. However, this is a personal process, and just because a believer walks in a carnal state or remains a "babe in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1-4), it does not mean that he is not saved. Those who choose to live for themselves and not for the LORD Jesus may suffer chastisement or child training but I assure you, they will be in glory right along with the rest of the "super saints." There are some who may smell, as Old Doctor Vernon McGee has said, "Like they have been through a fire sale," but they are saved, and even in the ashes and coals of the bema seat examination (1 Corinthians 3:10-15), God will determine what reward they receive. Salvation is not a reward, it is a gift of God's grace. Rewards are based on what we believers allow Christ to do in and through us as He builds upon the foundation that He has laid in us.
Therefore, we can be sure that once a believer is born again, God never loses one of His own, and no one and nothing can pluck us out of His hand! His Word warns and admonishes us, and we are to make choices to walk in obedience and grow in faith and grace, but He never leaves or forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5).
Image Credit: Spirit-Fire; "together"; Creative Commons
Tags: Biblical-Salvation | Biblical-Truth | Eternity-Forever | False-Teaching
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Published 9-24-2014
