Eternal Security

The phrase "Taste and see that the Lord is good" is from Psalm 34:8 in the Bible. It encourages people to experience God's goodness firsthand and trust in Him. Trusting in God is considered a blessed feeling.

Once you experience God's goodness firsthand you never go back. This verse shows us God’s constant care for His people. He is The Good Shepherd that goes after that one lost lamb.

 
you never go back

God has given us free will.

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.


(Heb. 3:12-13 NKJ)

And beware of people telling you don't have to beware anymore.
 
God has given us free will.

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.


(Heb. 3:12-13 NKJ)

And beware of people telling you don't have to beware anymore.
Hebrews 3:12-13 serves as a serious warning against unbelief, which can lead to a departure from the living God for a time. The passage urges us to exhort one another daily to avoid the deceitfulness of sin. The death and resurrection of Jesus was enough to pay for all sin, past, present, and future. He will not ley us fail to reach our real home once we believe in Him. He's just that good.
 
Hebrews 3:12-13 serves as a serious warning against unbelief, which can lead to a departure from the living God for a time. The passage urges us to exhort one another daily to avoid the deceitfulness of sin. The death and resurrection of Jesus was enough to pay for all sin, past, present, and future. He will not ley us fail to reach our real home once we believe in Him. He's just that good.
The New Testament contains several warning passages. Some are clearly warnings about the dangers of false teachings and false teachers. Others alert believers to the reality of trials or warn of end-times events. Yet there are several passages that warn Christians about their own behavior, and some seem to imply a loss of salvation for the disobedient. In light of the doctrine of eternal security, how are these warning passages to be understood?

Some New Testament warning passages are aimed at those who are part of the visible church but who do not truly know Christ. Such are the warnings in the epistle to the Hebrews. The author of Hebrews directs some of his statements to mere professors who are not actually saved (see Hebrews 6:4–6 and Hebrews 10:26). The target audience of these passages is unbelievers who are associated with the church and have been exposed to God’s redemptive truth—perhaps they’ve even made a profession of faith—but they have not exercised genuine saving faith. If they continue to reject Christ, they will be lost forever.

Other warning passages teach (by implication) the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints; that is, those who are truly born again will not deny the gospel or forsake Christ. First Corinthians 15:1–2 is one such passage: “I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” Paul’s proviso “If you hold firmly to the word” is simply his way of saying that everyone who has truly believed in Christ will hold on to the end. Those who are false professors of the faith, who are Christians in name only, will eventually be swayed from the gospel through the attacks of the unbelieving world (see 1 Timothy 1:19–20).

Paul’s statement “Otherwise, you have believed in vain” in 1 Corinthians 15:2 can be understood in one of two ways. First, it could be that Paul is speaking rhetorically, putting forward a hypothetical statement concerning the truth of the gospel. The message he preached would save them—unless the message was false. The New Living Translation brings out this meaning: “Unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.” In the rest of the chapter, Paul emphasizes the fact of the resurrection and the reliability of his message. Second, Paul could be contrasting true belief, which results in salvation, with mere intellectual assent or an emotional reaction, which is worthless to save a soul. In this case, Paul is warning professing Christians not to be like the stony ground or the thorny ground in Jesus’ parable (see Matthew 13:1–23).

Jesus gave a warning to false professors in Matthew 7:21–23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Even many religious people who claim to serve God do not truly know the Lord. The matter of salvation is of utmost importance, and many New Testament warning passages are meant to cause professed believers to examine themselves to ensure they truly have put their faith in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 13:5).

Other New Testament passages warn believers against various sins. These warnings do not relate to salvation but to God’s work of sanctification in the lives of believers. Believers have been set free from slavery to sin and are cautioned to stand firm in that freedom (Galatians 5:1; Philippians 2:12–13). The book of Revelation contains several warnings regarding sinful behavior in the seven churches. In those churches, the sins of theological compromise, immorality, apathy, and pride had to be dealt with.

Scripture teaches that we can know we are saved: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), and God will finish the work He began in us (Philippians 1:6). Believers are called to live in holiness, and false professors of faith are called to repent and trust in Christ for salvation. The need for believers to avoid sin and the need for false converts to stop pretending necessitate the warning passages of Scripture.
From Got?
 
Some people argue that the believer must maintain his faith in order to maintain his salvation. They understand John 3:16 to read, “That whoever keeps on believing in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” The implication is that “whoever does not keep on believing will not have eternal life” or “will lose eternal life.”

My opinion is you may doubt your salvation at some point and go back to the way you lived before becoming a believer in Christ. But when you get feed up feeding swine and and living in the filth and muck, Jesus will carry you back to the sheep fold.

So you faith maybe put to the test and you may fall short, but it's not over till it's over. Just heed the warning, it's a lot easier.
 
As real warnings in light of which eternal security is garbage.

God is not deceiving his people by fake warnings.
Nothing in the nature of God forces Him to take back the gift of eternal life when a Christian sins. We who hold to the doctrine of eternal security are often accused of having a deficient grasp of God’s holiness. In actuality, however, the opposite is true.

The doctrine of eternal security is supported by the belief that God is so infinitely holy and good that there is nothing—not one thing—we can do to attain or maintain our salvation. Salvation in every facet is by grace. It is a gift from start to finish. God’s holiness is so far out of our league that even the best of our good deeds carries no weight in matters of salvation.
 
Nothing in the nature of God forces Him to take back the gift of eternal life when a Christian sins. We who hold to the doctrine of eternal security are often accused of having a deficient grasp of God’s holiness. In actuality, however, the opposite is true.

The doctrine of eternal security is supported by the belief that God is so infinitely holy and good that there is nothing—not one thing—we can do to attain or maintain our salvation. Salvation in every facet is by grace. It is a gift from start to finish. God’s holiness is so far out of our league that even the best of our good deeds carries no weight in matters of salvation.
God is so good to us. We always have the power within us to choose how we think about our circumstances and our lives overall, despite what’s going on. As believers we are all equipped to have hope when things seem hopeless, enabled to embrace joy when situations seem joyless, and empowered by the Holy Spirit within us to overcome the life-robbing habit of negative thinking.
 
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:4–9

This is unmistakably a promise, not a wish, not a let’s-hope-it-all-turns-out-okay sort of affirmation. Paul says that Jesus Christ “will” sustain you—not might sustain you, not may sustain you, not he’ll-give-it-his-best-shot-but-who-knows-if-he-can-pull-it-off sort of expectation.

The sustaining is something Jesus does. He will “sustain” you. When you feel weak and don’t think you can hold on for another second, when you are convinced that eternal doom awaits you around the corner, when you fear that God has had it up to his eyeballs with your failures and faults, recall that Christ promises to sustain his people.

God guarantees that all who embrace the gospel will stand guiltless before God.
 
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