Christian Living

Eternal Security

by Jon von Ernst 
08/26/23
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The concept of eternal security is often referred to as ‘once saved, always saved.’ The basic idea of this teaching is that once you are saved, once you become a Christian, then you are always saved. You, therefore, cannot lose your salvation. Your future in heaven is eternally secure. This teaching is very popular in many churches today.

Some that hold to this teaching believe that faith in Christ is intellectual assent. Their idea of faith requires no commitment, no decision of the will, no turning from sins, and no works that are part of faith in Christ. They claim that if you are convinced or persuaded that what He promised is true, then you believe in Him. They teach that turning from sins, commitment, obedience, and perseverance are not faith and thus are not conditions of eternal life.

However, according to scripture, there is much more to saving faith than intellectual assent to a historical fact. Saving faith in Christ produces dramatic change in the character and the life of the believer. It produces repentance, a turning away from darkness, sin, Satan, and self, and a turning back to God demonstrated by a life of obedience, being empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The Gospel of John tells us, “There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Him (Jesus) at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs You do unless God were with him.’

“Jesus replied, ‘I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’

‘“But how can anyone be born when he is old?’ Nicodemus asked Him. ‘Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?’

“Jesus answered, ‘I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit’” (John 3:1-6, HCSB). 

Jesus makes this simple truth so clear that anyone could understand it. Unless we are born again we cannot even see the kingdom of God. It is not enough to be born of the flesh and to have studied all of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Unless we are born again we cannot even perceive or understand the kingdom of God.

It is enough to be born of water, born of the flesh, one time. We do not need to enter our mother’s womb a second time and be born of the flesh again. This second birth that Jesus speaks of is not to be born of the flesh again.

The second birth that Jesus speaks of is referring to the need to be born of the Spirit. Our spirit must be born of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit must enter into our spirit and make it alive. When He does, we become a new creation.

Paul confirms this saying, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, HCSB). When we are born again, we receive a new power, a new source of life that we can live by. Before we were born again, we had one controlling power within us that we could live by, that was our flesh, and that flesh was in bondage to the sin that dwelt within it.

Before we were born again, our experience was exactly like that described by Paul in Romans chapter seven. “I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power. . . The desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. . .  But I practice the evil that I do not want to do” (Romans 7:14, 18-19).

When we are born again, a new powerful life, in the person of the Holy Spirit, enters into us, into our spirit. This powerful life-giving Spirit makes our spirit alive. Its power is greater than that of the sin that dwells in our flesh.

This Spirit’s powerful law of life in Christ Jesus breaks the power of sin to control us. It sets us free from the law of sin and of death. It sets us free from bondage to sin. Sin no longer has dominion over us. We are no longer under the condemnation of slavery to sin.

Paul explains this in Romans 8:1-2. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.”

This power of the law of life in Christ Jesus is stronger than the power of the law of sin and of death in our flesh. It has broken sin’s hold over us and has set us free to walk in a new way of life.

Paul describes this liberation from the power of sin in detail in Romans 6:3-7,11. “Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. 

“For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. . . Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul continues this thought saying, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 

“You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. . . But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:17-18, 22).

We now become active participants in a spiritual battle. Both sin in our flesh and the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus working in our spirit are striving to gain superiority in the life of the born-again believer. The outcome of this battle is determined by the choices we make, every moment, every day.

Paul describes this battle in his letter to the churches in Galatia. “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want” (Galatians 5:17, NIV).

Paul warns us in verses 19-21 about the seriousness of how we live. “Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.”

The deeds of the flesh are sin. If we practice sinning, if we continually sin we will not inherit God’s kingdom.

However, if we walk by the Spirit, our living will be holy and we will be pleasing to God. Paul encourages us in Galatians 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Paul reminds us, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can’t please God” (Romans 8:6-8).

Paul makes an astounding declaration in verse nine, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.” (Romans 8:9). If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to Him. You are not a genuine Christian unless you are born again, born from above, born of the Spirit.

Do not be deceived. You are not in the Spirit unless the Spirit of Christ is in you. If the Holy Spirit does not live in you, you are not truly a Christian, you are still in the flesh. It does not matter what you believe, if the Spirit of Christ is not in you, you are none of His. You must be born again, born from above, born of the Spirit.

The apostle John instructs us as to how we can know if we are genuine Christians. “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He (Jesus) walked” (1 John 2:1-6, NASB).

The apostle John continues to warn us, “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. 

“The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother and sister” (1 John 3:4-10, NASB).

If someone’s professed salvation experience contradicts the entire counsel of scripture, they are not really saved. If we have been deceived into thinking we are saved, when the scriptures assure us that we are not, then the teaching of ‘once saved, always saved’ is irrelevant. The teaching of eternal security for that person would more accurately be expressed as ‘never saved, still lost.’

The gospel presented in scripture always requires a decision on the part of the hearer, to believe or not to believe. If they are persuaded that Jesus has been made both Lord and Christ, that He died sacrificially, in our place, and that by the power of the resurrection, He was raised up from the dead, never to die again, they can by faith, repent and be baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ. By that baptism, they receive the Holy Spirit into their spirit and thereby become a new creation, liberated, set free from slavery to sin to walk in newness of life. By this baptism they are empowered by the Spirit, enabled to walk in joyful obedience to God.

The reality of this salvation experience is demonstrated in the life of the believer by doing works worthy of repentance, by loving one another and by bearing fruit of the Spirit. You will know the tree by the fruit it bears. They will no longer glory in sin, but they will be ashamed of that in which they formerly lived. They will no longer maintain a form of religion, while denying the power of God that is able to set them free from slavery to sin.

Rather, they will glory in the power of God working within them to sanctify them, making them holy in all their conduct as the one who calls them is holy. They will experience unspeakable joy as they yield themselves fully to Christ Jesus their Lord, and allow Him, by His indwelling Holy Spirit, to transform them by the renewing of their minds, placing His desires into their hearts, conforming them to His image.

Now, for someone who has had such a genuine salvation experience of being born again, being born of the Spirit, and having escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we can consider the validity of the teaching, once saved, always saved.