What does the Bible say about eternal security? If you are once saved are you always saved? Are there conditions to keeping your salvation just as there are conditions for you receiving it? This story illustrates in secular terms the principles involved in receiving and keeping your salvation.
One day a generous Trillionaire named Rich Godd decided to give one billion dollars as a free gift to every person living in the poorest city in the land. He saw that Wretched was a town that was sinfully poor and most in need of his free gift. He was going to give the gift to every person in the town, but then realized some individuals may not want it. He didn't want to force people to accept his gift if they didn't want it. Instead of just giving one billion dollars to every person in Wretched he came up with a plan that would give each person the choice to accept his free gift.
Mr. Godd took out an ad in the local newspaper, the Good News Daily. He explained his plan of offering one billion dollars to everyone in Wretched. They didn't have to work for it. They didn't have to earn it. It was absolutely free if they would agree to two simple conditions to receive it.
First they would need to remove the filthy rags they had been wearing, allow his son to wash them clean, then put on a righteous looking new white coat his son would give them. Second they would need to wear the new white coat 24 hours a day until the special day when Mr. Godd would give them their one billion dollars. If they took it off, or lost it, or misplaced it, it would not be replaced and they would lose their one billion dollars. He promised to call the residents to his home some time in the future and give the one billion dollars to everyone who agreed to these two conditions and he promised never to take it back no matter what they did.
A number of the Wretched residents agreed to the conditions and got a new white coat from Mr. Godd's son, and it was as righteous as promised . Even though they had never seen Mr. Godd they believed he was real. They had faith that Mr. Godd would do as he promised and ultimately give them his free gift. They genuinely promised from their heart to protect the new white coat and never take it off.
Many years went by with some of the hottest weather ever seen in Wretched. Some of the people who had initially accepted the new white coat with genuine sincerity and conviction now grew tired of wearing it. Sure it was valuable but there were other things to consider, like their comfort, given the extremely hot weather. They began to think after all this time Mr. Godd was never going to give them the ultimate free gift.
Sometimes when things got too hot in their lives they just took off the righteous white coat. A few then misplaced it. When some of them took the coat off, for a variety of reasons, a thief would steal it. Others just got careless and lost the coat. Over the years a large number of Wretched residents who had sincerely accepted the new white coat from Mr. Godd's son with much appreciation took off their coats by their own choices and actions. They just could not endure wearing that righteous coat all the time. It was just too hard. They grew weary of it and just could not endure it. Soon their coats were gone forever yet most of them didn't even care.
Many more years passed. The weather had been so nice but then without warning everything changed. A terrible blizzard began that lasted 7 days. It was the greatest storm in history. Temperatures were 60 degrees below zero, the wind was howling like a hurricane, and the blowing snow was taller than the trees. Mr. Godd knew it was the end so decided to save them by calling them home to his incredible mansion that his son had prepared for them. He got on the radio and called them all home to be with him and told them the way to get there. He knew they would be safe in his glorious mansion.
The Wretched residents who had gotten their new white coat from Mr. Godd's son many years ago went home to be with Mr. Godd. It was a short trip to Mr. Godd's mansion and they were warm and comfortable in their white coat. It helped them get through the great storm so they could get to the mansion that had been prepared for them.
The people were tired after they arrived from their long journey so they slept for awhile. Later, when they heard Mr Godd's voice they awoke from their rest and rose up to be with him. They saw Mr. Godd and his son standing there surrounded by what seemed like a paradise of trillions of dollars of pure gold. Mr. Godd then addressed the handful of people who had been faithful in wearing the white coat until the end.
"My friends, because you believed in me even though you had never seen me, because you had faith that I would do what I said, because you did what I asked and removed the filthy rags you had been wearing, let my son wash you, and put on the new white coat he gave you, because you recognized the value of your white coat and never took it off, I now give each of you my free gift of one billion dollars. You didn't earn it. You didn't have to work for it. You simply believed, had faith in me, and agreed to do as I asked. In spite of all the heat you encountered in your life you faithfully endured, keeping your white coat on the whole time. Well done....the billion dollars is yours forever."
Unfortunately for many of the Wretched residents, they had no warm white coat to wear when the end came. They were trapped in the great storm with no hope of being saved. When Mr. Godd called them home they knew they were in devilish trouble. Without that white coat they had no chance of being saved. They tried to go to Mr. Godd's glorious mansion but were condemned to death by their own choices and actions earlier in life. They never made it to the mansion. They all died.
Only those who faithfully endured and wore the righteous white coat until the very end received the ultimate free gift from Mr. Godd and his son.
What does this story have to do with Eternal Security and being "once saved always saved"?
Look at the symbolism in this story. Mr. Godd is God. His son represents Jesus Christ. The one billion dollar free gift is eternal life you receive from God's son by putting on His righteousness, the new white coat. Wretched is the sinful place all people live before being saved. Being "called home" is the day of your death. Awakening to the call of God's voice is the resurrection. Not everyone is willing to accept God's free gift so He allows people to make a choice. Some don't believe in God. Others think they don't need Jesus' righteousness to be saved. Some think their religion can save them. The Good News Daily is the Bible where God explains His only plan of salvation to everyone.
If you want God's free gift of eternal life, you have to agree to two simple conditions. You have to
"repent" of your sins, putting off your old sinful ways (old filthy rags) and put on the righteousness (the new white coat) of Jesus through His grace. You also have to
"believe" in your heart that Jesus died for your sins and personally accept the washing away of your sins by His shed blood. You can't earn salvation. You can't get the free gift or be saved by doing
"works", or keeping the law, or doing any good deeds but you do need to do something.
You need to agree with the conditions God set forth to receive His free gift by repenting and accepting Jesus' shed blood. If you don't agree to His conditions He will not force you to receive His free gift that saves you for eternity. If you don't repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as your personal savior God won't force you to receive His free gift.
Millions of Christians believe that if they are once saved they are always saved. This belief is predicated on the
false assumption that there are no conditions on being saved and no conditions on keeping your salvation until the day you die. They believe that if you
DO anything then God's gift isn't free. As you have seen from the above illustration there are indeed conditions set forth by God, things a person must
DO to receive His grace and salvation, none of which make it any less free.
You don't earn salvation by agreeing to these conditions and doing what God says, but you do have to agree with what God says to receive His free gift. Repenting of your sins is something you have to
DO but it is not "works". Believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior is something God requires you to
DO to be saved, but it's not "earning" your salvation. You making a choice to accept the blood of Jesus to cover your sin is something you must
DO, but it is not "legalism". Both believing and repenting are conditions a person must meet to be saved, they are things a person must do or God
WILL NOT give them His free gift of eternal life. That is a clear and undisputed Biblical fact! If you don't
DO these things you are still in your sin and the Bible says....
"The wages of sin is death", not eternal life. (Romans 6:23) If you don't meet the conditions you don't get the free gift.
Some people will stumble over this truth. Here is a very simple example to help you understand. Someone offers you a free gold watch. All you have to do is meet him on the corner and he will give it to you absolutely free. No catch. You agree and meet him on the corner. He gives you the watch and walks away. Did you earn the watch? No. Did you do any works to get the watch? No. You just walked up and he gave it to you, BUT you were required to meet his one condition of meeting him on the corner to get the watch. Does your walking to the corner make the watch any less free? No. It is still 100% free, but if you did not agree to meet the person where he said there is no way you ever would have received this free gift. Even though the watch was absolutely free you still had the responsibility to be where he told you to be to receive it.
Obeying instructions that tell you how to receive your free gift is not "works", yet millions of Christians believe that doing what God says to receive eternal life
IS works! This is not what the Bible says.
What about
AFTER you accept Jesus? Can you lose your salvation that gives you eternal life? If there are conditions to receiving it are there also conditions that must be met to keep it? Can a saved person do whatever they want and still be saved? Does a Christian have no responsibility to live as God says? Can a genuine Christian who put on the new white coat of righteousness lose his ultimate free gift if he chooses to take it off? When the trials and tribulations of life get so hot that you take off the new white coat and reject Jesus can you permanently lose your salvation?
Many churches say that God will never take away His gift of eternal life from you once you have met the conditions mentioned above. This is true! What these churches teach agrees with what the Bible says on this subject.
GOD will not take away His gift once He gives it to you. Many churches also say
YOU can never lose your salvation no matter what you do. Does the Bible agree with this? Can
YOU choose to reject God's gift by your own choices and actions. Let's begin with this scenario to see what the Bible says about this.
A Christian was witnessing to a gang member on the street one day, telling him about Jesus and His sacrifice for sinners. The gang member was convicted of his sins and accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He went to church the next Sunday, walked up the aisle, made a public profession of faith in Jesus, and was baptized. The preacher told him he was now saved and was guaranteed Heaven as his reward no matter what happened in his life. This guy was 100% sincere in giving his life to God. He prayed every day, studied his Bible, went to church faithfully, helped the poor in his neighborhood and was a model Christian in every way.
Then a few months later this Christian was visited by his old gang members right after his wife had died suddenly from cancer. He was seriously depressed and angry with God. He didn't understand how God could let this happen after all he had done to change his life. One thing led to another and before you know it he was doing drugs again. He wasn't worried though. The preacher told him he was saved no matter what he did. He was guaranteed Heaven. After awhile he fell back into stealing cars. He knew he could sin and not worry about going to Hell so he wasn't concerned about his criminal activities. Can he really sin all he wants because he can't lose his salvation? Finally after killing a rival gang member he gave up on church altogether and turned his back on Jesus, rejecting His sacrifice on the cross. The next week he was shot and killed, totally unrepentant.
Almost every church says he can't lose his salvation even if he totally rejects Jesus because they believe that if he is once saved he is always saved. Is this what the Bible says......once saved always saved? Is this murdering gang member still guaranteed eternal life in the Kingdom of God even though he freely rejected the sacrifice of Jesus he had at one time freely accepted?
Some churches say someone like this gang member wasn't really saved in the first place. That may be true in some cases, but there are thousands more who truly gave their heart to the Lord and then later fell away, sinned wilfully, drew back, didn't endure, or hold fast until the end. Will they still receive their crown of life from Jesus? Will they still get their full reward of eternal life in the Kingdom of God? Are they in danger of Hell fire? What does the Bible really say about Christians losing their salvation?
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A lot of this eternal security question seems to revolve around the
"If" condition. The Bible is filled with
"IF" conditions from God for any number of things. Some day type
"if and
"then" in a Bible search engine such as blueletterbible.com and see how many times there is an if/then cause and effect to what God says. Look at how many times keeping a persons salvation is conditional
"If" they do something or
"If" they do not do something that God says.
Salvation is indeed a free gift from God, you can't earn it, but the Bible says keeping it
AFTER it is given is a conditional choice. It's
YOUR responsibility to follow God's instructions to keep it! Once God grants you grace and forgives your sins it is His desire that you receive your gift of eternal life in His Kingdom.
This is what God wants for you, but He won't force you to receive it if you change your mind. You still have "free will". God won't take your salvation from you but
you by your own choice can lose it.
Human beings are free moral beings with
"free will", choice between right and wrong, and good and evil, until the day they die. Can a true Christian choose to turn away and reject Jesus if they want to? The Bible plainly says in many verses without any interpretation that they can. You can't say they won't want to turn away if they are a spirit filled Christian because then you have taken away their "free will". There is nothing in the Bible that says Christians lose their "free will" after accepting Jesus as their savior. It actually says Spirit filled, saved Christians have the "free will" to chose to reject the grace and salvation given to them by God.
Look at what the Bible plainly says about salvation and consider if what the churches teach can really be true. If you are once saved are you always saved?
Heb 6:4-6 "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
Notice the
IF condition for these authentic Christians who were
"partakers of the Holy Ghost". "If they shall fall away" it is impossible to renew these Christians to repentance. These are real, spirit filled Christians who had repented and accepted Jesus. The Bible says they can fall away and crucify and shame Jesus. You can't fall away from something you did not have in the first place. These are real Christians who lose what they had, their salvation. The Bible says it is impossible
"to renew them again unto repentance". They have lost their salvation forever!
Heb 10:26-29 "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, ......Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"
Again notice the
IF condition.
If Christians
"sin willfully" Jesus' shed blood no longer covers their sins and they can lose their salvation. Saved Christians still have "free will". They can still choose to sin until the day they die. Again notice these are real Christians who were
"sanctified" by the blood of Jesus. They had received God's grace and forgivness. The Bible says
if you reject Jesus, His blood, and His grace, you will lose the gift of eternal life that His sacrifice had provided for you.
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Heb 10:38-39 "Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."
There's that
IF condition again. The Bible says a just person living by faith, that would be a true Christian, can
"draw back".
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Col 1:22-23 "In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, ......"
Here's yet another
IF condition. The Bible says
"If ye continue in the faith" and
"be not moved away from the hope of the gospel" then you will be presented to God
"unblameable and unreproveable". What would be the inverse of this? If you fall back into your sinful ways and DON'T
"continue in faith" you will not be presented to God as blameless. You will still be in your sin.
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2 Tim 2:12 "If we endure, (GK: hypomenō) We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us." (NKJV)
The
IF condition is everywhere in Scripture. The Bible says if you endure, ("suffer" in the KJV is an incorrect translation of hypomenō), you shall reign. If you deny Him, He will deny you which means you won't reign with Him. This has to be talking about saved individuals. No one else will reign with Jesus in His Kingdom.
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1 Cor 15:2 ".....by which also you are saved, if you hold fast (GK: katechō) that word which I preached to you....." (NKJV)
Another
IF condition. Plainly referring to individuals who are being saved, they are told they will be saved only
"if" they
"hold fast" to the Gospel that Paul preached to them. Most versions of the Bible better translate katechō as some form of "hold fast" or "hold firmly".
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2 Peter 2:20-21
"For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them."
This is a powerful
IF condition. If after knowing the way of righteousness through Jesus as your Lord and Savior you again fall back and get entangled in the sinful
"pollutions of the world" the Bible says it would have been better that you had not known Jesus in the first place. Your
"latter end is worse" now then before you knew Jesus. Can these who know righteousness through Jesus be anything but authentic Christians? The Bible says they can be
"entangled" and
"overcome" by the world. Real Christians can fall away and lose the knowledge of the Lord that saves them.
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Do any of these many Scriptures sound like "once saved always saved"? We are repeatedly warned to look to ourselves and hold fast because we can lose what God has given us
IF we do not do what He says. There are other verses in Scripture that add to this line of Biblical truth.
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James 1:12 "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."
Rev 2:10 "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
Real Christians are tempted! Real Christians must be faithful and endure all temptation to receive the crown of eternal life. Your salvation will be tried and tested but you are required to endure the temptation to receive your crown. If you don't endure, why would Jesus still reward you? If you no longer love Jesus why would you still receive eternal life? If you are again entangled in the sinful ways of the world and reject the sacrifice of Jesus why would you be in the Kingdom of God? The salvation of some Christians will be tried with severe tribulation. You must be faithful until your very death to receive the crown of life.
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Rev 3:11 "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."
The Bible says your crown can be taken by men. It doesn't say how, it just says it can. Do you believe what the Bible says? If someone takes your crown of life you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Only those who are saved and are given the gift of eternal life will be there. You must hold fast until the end so you don't lose your salvation by someone taking your crown of life from you.
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2 John 1:8 "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward."
The Bible says men can not only take your reward, but that you can lose your reward. How? You can lose your full reward in the Kingdom of god if you do not examine yourself daily to be sure you are doing what God says. Consider all the "
IF" conditions and be sure they don't apply to you. Stay close to God in constant prayer and Bible study.
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Philip 1:6 "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (NKJV)
Here Paul is expressing an optimistic assurance to the disciples. He just says he is confident of them enduring until the end. Many people say this verse says you are guaranteed unconditional salvation. It doesn't. It's not a promise. It's not a guarantee. It's a not a statement of fact.
Say you have a neighbor boy named Scott, 10 years old, and a great gymnast. His dad, Steve, began working with Scott when he was very young. You expect Steve to continue working with Scott right up to the Olympics. You believe he has the potential to win a medal. You could say this to Scott.
"Scott, I'm "
confident of this very thing, that" Steve "
who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of" the Olympics.
Does your confidence guarantee Scott a medal? Is it a promise that he will be in the Olympics? No! You are simply expressing a confident assurance that Steve will continue working with Scott right up to the Olympics where you believe he will win a medal. It's nothing more than a pep talk just like Paul did. Paul is simply giving an assurance to the disciples. He just says he is confident of them enduring until the return of Jesus. Many will argue that this verse says you are guaranteed unconditional salvation. You now know that it doesn't.
"He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ"..... "
IF"......
If you don't sin wilfully.
If you don't fall away.
If you don't draw back.
If you endure.
If you hold fast.
If you look to yourselves.
If you escape the pollutions of the world and don't again become entangled therein....
THEN you can be
"confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."
"Once saved always saved" is not supported by what the Bible says. The multiple Scriptures all point to a process of salvation that requires Christians to meet conditions to keep from losing what God gives them. You are being warned to hold fast and not fall back into your old sinful ways so you will receive your crown of life and a full reward in the Kingdom of God. Many churches teach that you are saved no matter what you do after you accept Jesus as your Savior. You have the choice to believe a false teaching about being saved that leads Christians into spiritual complacency and apathy, or you can believe the truth!
This is what the Bible says!
