Subject:  Once you are saved you are always saved. |
Author:
TTOTLEM
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Date Posted: 09:52:42 02/23/04 Mon
Author Host/IP: adsl-155-14-144.tys.bellsouth.net/68.155.14.144
Once saved always saved is a clear teaching that is
found in the Bible. This teaching was not invented by
the Baptists, this teaching is older than the church.
Those who think they are saved now but could lose
their salvation later, have one of two problems: (1)
either they are trusting to some degree in their works
to save them, or (2) they do not understand that by
trusting Christ as their Saviour, their destiny is in
God's hands. Perhaps they have had little or no Bible
teaching and do not realize that God has determined
that all who believe will go to heaven when they die.
Or perhaps they follow false teachings about eternal
security because the admire a preacher who has been
mislead by the devil into belieiving the false view
that he can lose his salvation.
The first group, those who think leading a poor
Christian life will result in a loss of their
salvation, actually need to have the plan of salvation
made clear to them. Somewhere they have not fully
understood that Christ's death paid for ALL their sin,
that their works have NOTHING to do with their
salvation, and that only their FAITH IN CHRIST will
save them. You would answer their questions just as
you would almost any lost person's; it is a clear-cut
problem of "grace and works." You just stay with the
gospel until they see the light.
An illustration that has clarified the issue for many
with this problem deals with the definition of the
word "Saviour." What is a Saviour? Suppose you are
drowning. There you are out in the middle of the
ocean. Suppose someone were to throw you a book, Three
Easy Lessons on How to Swim. Would he be a Saviour?
No! Perhaps he could be called an "educator."
Now suppose a man got out of his boat, jumped in along
side you, and demonstrated various swimming strokes
showing you just how you ought to do it. Would he be a
Saviour? Of course not. He would merely be an
"example."
All right, what if he took you into his boat, dried
you off, fed you, took you ten miles from shore-and
then threw you out again into the ocean? Would he be a
Saviour? By all means, no! He would be as a
"deceiver," a "probation officer,'' one who starts a
heroic act and then quits right in the middle. He
certainly would not be a Saviour!
A Saviour is one who takes you safely all the way to
shore! When God says He gives you eternal life and
that He will never cast you out or lose you, He means
it because He is the true Saviour! If you do not trust
Christ to take you all the way to heaven, then you
have not trusted Him as your Saviour. Let's examine
Christ's own promise in John 6:37, "All that the
Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh
to Me I will in no wise cast out." He says those who
come to Him will not be cast out for any reason.
To bring home this truth, use an illustration from
family life. What kind of a parent would you be if,
when your child was disobedient, you kicked him out
and said, "Go to hell, I'm through with you!" Rather,
the proper parent says, "Come on in!" and the parent
has ways and means to deal with the disobedient child.
God never casts out His children! God has other ways
and means to deal with them, which we will discuss in
Chapter Three.
Some would say, "All right, God won't cast me out, but
I could get out of my own will and choice." The Lord
anticipated such doubts and answers them clearly in
John 6:39, "And this is the Father's will which hath
sent Me, that of all which he hath given Me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day." It is God's will that no saved person would ever
become lost. He says He will "lose nothing,'' and you
are at least something! You could never be saved and
lost again. God saves you forever. This is HIS will!
In witnessing you should use only as many verses as
are necessary for the person to see the truth. (Too
many verses will confuse the person.) On this point of
not losing salvation, you will usually find that John
6:37 and 6:39 are sufficient. They are certainly
clear. At times you might sense that certain cases
require additional verses, and the Scriptures abound
with clear teaching. Study the passages thoroughly so
you will know which verses will best answer the need
of the person. I Peter 1:4, 5, "To an inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time." Notice who is keeping our
salvation . . . God Himself, by His own almighty
power! And He is reserving place in heaven for us.
I Cor. 6:19, "What? Know ye not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye
have of God . . .
Note:
Some preachers teach a false doctrine which says that
after you get saved you can receive a second baptism
of the Holy Spirit. This is untrue and the words
second baptism of the Holy Spirit does not even apear
in the Bible.
Every Believer has and is sealed with the holy Spirit
and has the 100 % ability to be yielded , guided and
directed by the Holy Spirit , they do not need the
unbiblical teaching of a second baptism of the Holy
Spirit to be Holy Spirit filled.
" The Holy Spirit lives inside of every believer. John
14:16, 17 says, "And I will pray the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide
with you forever; even the Spirit of truth . . . for
He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." The Holy
Spirit is in believers forever. If a saved person
could go to hell, the Holy Spirit would have to go to
hell, too.
Eph. 1:13, 14, "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye
heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation:
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest
of our inheritance until the redemption of the
purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory."
The Holy Spirit indwells every believer from the
moment he trusts Christ as his Saviour for evermore.
One important reason for this is to keep us saved and
protected until we receive our glorified body. The
term "earnest of our inheritance" is like when we make
a "down payment on a house." It is a guarantee that
the rest is coming later-now we have the new
birth-later we will have our new body.
I Cor. 12:27, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and
members in particular." The moment you are saved, you
become a member of the body of Christ. If you could
ever become unsaved, part of Christ's own body would
go to hell.
John 10:28, "And I give unto them eternal life; and
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of My hand." Notice again that Christ gives
eternal life, and they who receive this eternal life
shall never perish! When you look up the word "never"
which occurs in John 10:28 in Strong's Concordance,
you find that it comes from five different Greek words
which are spelled in English: OU, ME, EIS, HO, and
AION. The words OU and ME form a double negative
meaning "Not at all, by no means, in no case, never."
This double negative was used to state denials or
prohibitions emphatically (Dana and Mantey, A Manual
Grammar of the Greek New Testament, p. 266). The
remaining three words combine to form an idiomatic
expression meaning "forever" (The Englishman's Greek
New 'Testament, p. 276).
When you put all of these meanings together, you find
that when Christ says "never" here in this verse it
carries with it very powerful assurance-much more than
one word "never" ordinarily carries with it in our
minds. If we were to take this most emphatic way of
saying "never" in the Greek and try to bring it across
into the English, John 10:28 would read something like
this: "And I give unto them eternal life and they
shall not at all, by any means, male or female, in any
case, forever perish."
Christians are sanctified through the death of Christ
(Heb. 10:10), and Hebrews 10:14 tells us, "For by one
offering He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified." Believers are sanctified, and Christ
gives them the perfection they need to go to heaven.
The word "sanctified" means to be made "holy, pure and
blameless" (Strong's Concordance, Greek #37). God
would never send a believer to hell . . . He has made
the believer holy and blameless and has given him a
perfection which will last FOREVER.
John 5:24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
Christ says those who have everlasting life (they
already have it) shall not be condemned (promise for
the future). Since God promises believers will not be
condemned, why not take Him at His Word and realize
they will not be condemned? Believers cannot go to
hell: They have already "PASSED from death unto life"!
Philippians 3:9, "And be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith." Christ's own righteousness
is given to believers. Who would dare say Christ's
righteousness isn't good enough for heaven?!?
Colossians 2:13 and Acts 13:39 say the believer is
already justified and forgiven of all sins. So what
sin could send you to hell? In fact, when Christ died
on the cross for our sins, ALL our sins were future.
Romans 8:28-39 teaches nothing can separate believers
from God. HE justified us; nobody could charge a
single thing against us! What a Saviour we have!
I John 5:10~13 is as clear a passage as could be
written. Christ's death on the cross does not do
anything for you unless it gives you everlasting life.
If you have Christ as your Saviour, you have this
life. Anyone who doubts that God gives eternal life is
calling God a liar. Don't you think it would be very
unwise to call God a liar? Personally, I wouldn't want
to be in that category.
There is an illustration which you might find will
interest people along this subject. One evening a man
was having trouble with doubts about his salvation.
His wife came into the bedroom and found her husband
running his Bible back and forth under the bed, and
she asked him what in the world he was doing. He said
he knew Satan was in the darkest places, so he was
showing Satan I John 5:13! (And this is a good idea
when you have a doubt. Just claim the promise from the
Word of God, and Satan will have no ground to give you
doubts any more. The Word of God silences Satan.)
Since God tells me I can know I have eternal life, I
say, "Thank you!" and I know I have eternal life. I am
taking God at His Word. God said it . . . I believe it
. . . that settles it! I base my whole eternity on the
fact that God cannot lie and His Word cannot fail.
"God is not a man, that He should lie . . . hath He
said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and
shall He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19)
You will discover that when a person really
understands the plan of salvation, he rarely will have
a problem with "eternal security." It has been our
experience that the most effective way to deal with
those who still doubt their eternal life, after they
seemingly understand the gospel, is to go over one or
two verses, perhaps John 6:37 and 39, and lovingly and
firmly keep going over them until the person really
believes what God is saying.
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