Eternal Security ... Are you truly secure in Christ?
Have you ever experienced the assurance and security that you have been accepted as righteous in the sight of God, knowing that you will receive a Heavenly inheritance? Well, this is precisely what has been offered and promised in the gospel to all who have placed their faith in Christ’s substitutionary atoning work on their behalf.
2 Corinthians 5:21,”For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
The above scripture has been called “The Great Exchange” – God reconciled sinful man to Himself by making His sinless Son the sin bearer and dying in the sinner’s place. Jesus Christ paid the death penalty for the sinner so that God could set the sinner free and declare him righteous in His holy presence. Moreover, He did more than just forgive us our sins; He imputed the perfect righteousness of His Son to us. Justification, in the gospel sense, is God’s free forgiveness of a sinner, accepting him as righteous through the righteousness of Christ received by faith.
Galatians 3:10-13,”For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree).”
Galatians 2:21,”I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Hebrews 10:14,” For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
The sobering question now becomes, “Have you ever truly placed your trust in these paramount gospel truths? All those who have been justified are now in the process of sanctification; and all those who are presently in that process are said to be perfected (positionally) in Christ forever – that is eternally! 1 Corinthians 6:11,”And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
The anxieties of those who are trusting in their own righteousness or good works [to one degree or another] can be mainly [if not entirely] be attributed to their inadequate apprehensions [due to either ignorance or rejection] of the nature, value, and efficacy of the remedy provided for them in Christ’s atonement. Within them there exists a latent feeling that there is still something that remains to be done or suffered by themselves in the way of satisfying the justice, averting the wrath, and propitiating or appeasing the favor of their righteous Judge.
I say “to one degree or another”, because there are some who have erred to such a degree, that they have failed altogether to receive “The Great Exchange.”- they are yet dead in their sins. It simply doesn’t get any more serious than this my friends. One of the vital evidences of a person falling into this category is the absence of ever possessing the assurance that they have been accepted as righteous in God’s sight and will receive a future Heavenly inheritance.
This is certainly not to say that those in the other category [those who have actually experienced the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit] will never have doubts or fears, or will possess an unwavering assurance subsequent to their conversion. The critical distinction here is this groups’ initial knowing that their sins have been forgiven, and that they will receive their Heavenly inheritance.
Here is another very important question to ponder. “Were we simply put in a position of possibly or potentially gaining an entrance into Heaven when we believed on Jesus’ blood sacrifice at the point of our regeneration?.. or was a future entrance into Heaven actualized and realized when we experienced our new birth?” It's very plain to see that the latter is the gospel truth ... it's truly the Good News that the Creator of the universe legitimately offers to all. Also, since the eternal security of the believer was purchased by the blood of Christ shed on Calvary's cross, surely it lies at the very heart of the gospel message!
Will you be a believer tomorrow morning?
Some answer this question by saying, “Yes, of course I’ll still be a believer, “once saved , always saved”. Well, what exactly do they mean by that? There are many who claim that regardless of whether we or anyone else wakes up as a believer tomorrow morning is largely irrelevant to whether they will spend eternity with Christ. The only thing that matters is that at some point in their lives they 'asked Jesus into their hearts'.
In other words, the decisive issue has nothing whatsoever to do with whether they actually persevere in the faith by faith, but whether they ever professed to believe in the Christian religion. If they did, they're in ... if they didn’t, they're out …. even if they were to perpetually renounce their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior at some future point in time, or shamelessly live a lifestyle characterized by selfish, fleshly desires, or have never experienced the direct witness of the Holy Spirit that they will enter Heaven one day [per Romans 8:16].
This perspective merely offers a false sense of eternal security, it's indeed a counterfeit version of “OSAS”. It's one that clearly denies that the Holy Spirit will perform an inward transformational work in each and every person who places their trust in Christ's atoning work. And, because the one true perspective of the eternal security of the believer is often obscured and misrepresented by that counterfeit version, I prefer to call the eternal security of the believer by the acronym “OJAJ” [Once Justified, Always Justified] … it’s also, theologically speaking, much more clear and precise.
Others [of the Arminian variety] insist that there’s simply no guarantee that anyone will wake up as a believer tomorrow morning. Most will, but some likely won’t. Before tomorrow they may very well cross 'the line of no return'. They may sin so grievously and 'miss the cut', resulting in their cutting off from the saving grace of God; or, that they very well may abandon Jesus by failing to continue trusting in Christ's atoning work to save them. Therefore, according to their mindset, they may very well wake up tomorrow morning discovering that God has likewise abandoned them [although by that time they won’t care].
The scriptural evidence sides with neither position. All those who were genuinely regenerated by the Holy Spirit in the past [whether days or decades ago] will most assuredly wake up tomorrow morning being believers, yet being fully justified in the eyes of God; the God in whom they have placed their trust, will preserve them in their faith. They will never renounce Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they will never shamelessly or permanently return to a lifestyle dedicated to selfish ambitions and the sinful indulgences of their flesh.
(1) We must persevere in faith to enter heaven (2 Tim. 2:12; Heb.3:14;10:26). Not to persevere is to perish.
(2) God will preserve us in our faith even though at times we may doubt and wander from the path of righteousness. But He will always remain true to his promise by ensuring that none of His children will fall so far as to finally and forever fail. God will preserve us, we will in fact persevere, we will endure in the faith by faith.
Jude 1:1-2,”Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:”
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24,” Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.”
If you know that you are in fact a child of God [Romans 8:16], then you can rest knowing that you will persevere. As Dr. Kenneth Keathley said, “perseverance should be viewed more as a promise than a requirement.” The necessary conditions/requirements/fruits/works mentioned throughout scripture will be manifested and produced in all true believers by the Holy Spirit. They will exist as the inevitable by-product of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit and the new nature/heart miraculously delivered at the new birth (John 3:3-8; Titus 3:5).
Many have greatly underestimated, and failed to grasp the magnitude of the renewing, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, and His radical transformational effect upon the believer’s nature.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21,”Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
What is the condition of renewal? ‘If any man be in Christ’-how distinctly that implies something more than human in Paul’s conception of Christ. It implies personal union with Him, so that He is the very element or atmosphere in which we live. And that union is brought about by faith in Him.
How does such a state of union with Christ make a man a new creation? It gives a new aim and center for our lives. Then we live not unto ourselves; then everything is different and looks so, for the center is shifted. That union introduces a constant reference to Him and contemplation of His death for us, it leads to self-abnegation.
It puts all life under the influence of a new love. ‘The love of Christ constraineth.’ As is a man’s love, so is his life. The mightiest devolution is to excite a new love, by which old loves and tastes are expelled. ‘A new affection’ has ‘expulsive power,’ as the new sap rising in the springtime pushes off the lingering withered leaves. So union with Him meets the difficulty arising from inclination still hankering after evil. The new love gives a new and mighty motive for obedience.
That union breaks the terrible chain that binds us to the past. ‘All died.’ The past is broken as much as if we were dead. It is broken by the great act of forgiveness. Sin holds men by making them feel as if what has been must be-an awful entail of evil. In Christ we die to our former self.
That union brings a new divine power to work in us. ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’ It sets us in a new world which yet is the old. All things are changed if we are changed. They are the same old things, but seen in a new light, used for new purposes, disclosing new relations and powers. Earth becomes a school and discipline for heaven. The world is different to a blind man when cured, or to a deaf one,-there are new sights for the one, new sounds for the other. All this is true in the measure in which we live in union with Christ.
Ezekiel 36:26-28,”And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
This wonderful promise to the nation of Israel was cut at Calvary, and the wonderful promise to give His people a new heart and put a new spirit within is fulfilled in the life of (all) who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of their soul and the Mediator for their sins. < What Does Ezekiel 36:26 Mean? >
Hebrews 8:10,”For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
< Heb 8:10 Cross References (34 Verses) >
Romans 8:30,”Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
All those who have genuinely been justified through a new birth experience will be glorified [they will receive a Heavenly inheritance].
John 10:26-28,”But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
Note that Jesus said His [genuine] sheep follow Him ... rather than some will and some won’t follow Him, ... or that some will start following Him, but some will not continue following Him.
