Christian Concepts

Bringing your Potential to Light

Eternal Security

You are Perfected for All Time

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The Gospel changes everything. When you accept God’s salvation, He no longer sees you as an unworthy sinner. But I often encounter Christians who hold onto their old self-image.

You must see yourself through God’s eyes. God considers you as sanctified and perfected, even though His work in you is an ongoing process:

We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

—Hebrews 10:10, 14

Therefore, you are both perfect and being perfected. You’re becoming perfect in a way that you can’t reverse the process and become imperfect.

Jesus is Lord and He lives forever to intercede for all believers. Previous sacrifices by human priests had no power to save. But through Jesus, you are perfect for all time. That means your sanctification is a done deal. Jesus paid the price for your perfection. He paid it one time, for all time.

Then later in Hebrews 10, there is a hint of a warning to not fall away from your faith.

but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

—Hebrews 10:38-39

When you read Hebrews 10 you must decide who you are. Are you of the people who don’t shrink back? You preserve your soul through your believing faith. Put your faith in Jesus. Keep your faith in Jesus. You are truly saved, safe, and secure when you entrust your life to Him. Where there is faith and the Spirit of God, there is freedom and there is no longer condemnation for sin. Your sin can’t prevent you from keeping your eternal life.


Know You Have Eternal Life

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What assurances of eternal life do you have? I recently wrote that you need to be careful how you view yourself when you interpret scriptures. To the degree you doubt whether you are saved, you increase the chance that you’ll interpret the Bible incorrectly.

The way to be saved is believing that Jesus is the Christ. If you have doubts about your salvation, you’re probably not saved. But if you’ve made this declaration and you know in your heart it is true, by faith, then you have been born of God.

1 John says clearly that once you cross over to being a believer, you can know you have eternal life, with confidence. Chapter 5 drives this point home. But even earlier in Chapter 1, John provides the formula for having complete joy: to have eternal life and fellowship with the Father and the Son (verses 3 and 4).

John says he is writing so that your joy may be complete (1 John 1:4). Later he writes so that you may know you have eternal life.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

1 John 5:1, 13, 14, 18

I’ve skipped over a difficult passage about a “sin that leads to eternal death.” I will address it in a future post. For now, focus on the positive. Reread the verses I did select. Verse 18 is especially reassuring. 1 John 3:6 makes it clear that those who keep on sinning (with hardness of heart and without repenting) never had salvation.

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

1 John 3:6

If you have any doubts also consider verses 5:1 and 5:13. If there is a way to lose salvation, the only way would be not believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. God promises you eternal life as long as you keep in your heart the gospel message which you heard when you became a Christian (see 1 John 2:24-25). This should be the very thing we as believers are eager to do.

Guarantee of Inheritance

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This post is part of a series on eternal security. If you’d like some background, you can read the introductory post: eternal-security-why-or-why-not.

God gives the believer His Holy Spirit. A genuine believer can know he or she is eternally secure because of Ephesian 1:14. You become a genuine believer by hearing the word truth, which is the gospel, and believing the truth. This provides you eternal salvation.

As soon as you believe, God seals you with His Holy Spirit so you can feel secure. God personally guarantees your inheritance until you receive it. If God is the guarantor, can there be any doubt He will keep His promise?

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

—Ephesians 1:11-14

Eternal Security – Why or Why Not

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I believe all born-again Christians have eternal security. I know this can be a subject for debate. I welcome your comments so we can have a lively, in-depth discussion.

When interpreting the Bible, it is important to look broadly (across many scriptures) and narrowly (in the immediate context of a verse). Also, everything written has an intended audience. The Bible has two main audiences: the Christian and the non-Christian. The Christian should approach the Bible as someone who is already saved and interpret every verse from this perspective. For the true believer, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). I wrote about this several weeks ago: Interpret The Bible With Your Christian Identity. The non-Christian should feel conviction for their sin and need for the Savior.

The question of eternal security is a positional one. Whether you believe you can lose your salvation or not, we should all be able to agree on what it takes to become a Christian. Then you should be able to evaluate whether or not you are saved at the present moment. If you’re saved today, then let’s not worry right now if you weren’t saved yesterday.

The process of gaining salvation requires putting your faith (actively believing) in Christ’s work on your behalf. You can’t provide any “work” other than your faithful belief. Salvation is a gift. Gifts are received not earned.

Ephesians 2:8-9 makes this clear:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

If someone can lose their salvation, there must be an equally clear procedure of how that happens. I suppose someone could return the gift, but I’m not sure why anyone would want to do that. Otherwise, I can’t think of any other way to lose salvation. If you can lose salvation by not working hard enough at it, then this makes salvation sound like a trap: it’s easy to step in, but once you’re in, you have to work increasingly harder to stay in, otherwise, you’ll be kicked out. But then is it easy or hard to get back in again? Besides being confusing, this seems to go against the Gospel message and many Bible passages.

I plan to explore this topic for several weeks and maybe even months. For now consider Jesus’s words:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

—Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus is saying that salvation is process of finding rest for your soul.

Whether you agree or disagree with my belief, please share your comments and ask questions.