Christ will lose nothing: The eternal security of the Christian
Can a true Christian lose his or her salvation?
That’s been debated for centuries, but y’all can stop arguing now, because this will settle it forever! (Ha ha)
To determine whether salvation can be revoked, we should look at what salvation really is and what it entails. We’ll see that the issue is not whether salvation is something that we can lose, but whether Christ can lose it.
When are we saved?
Let’s begin with where salvation begins, chronologically:
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself” (Ephesians 1:4-5).
Paul told the Thessalonians that God chose them for salvation from the beginning (2 Thess. 2:13).
The names of believers who end up with their Lord in eternity are written in the Book of Life (Revelation 20:15). When was the Book of Life written? From “the foundation of the world” (Revelation 17:8).
Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:9 that God gave us His grace “before time began.”
Everyone who is truly born again and destined for eternal life was determined to be so before the world existed — when all of his or her sins were future sins. Our salvation began before time itself did!
And while there are different beliefs about the basis for this determination, we can all agree that at the very least, God knows each of our eternal destinies:
“For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done”
(Isaiah 46:9-10)
John writes that “Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe” (John 6:64).
So if all of our destinies have been known all along, then from God’s point of view, how can they change?
Sealed and guaranteed
Consider 2 Timothy 2:17-19, which mentions the straying from the truth of Hymenaeus and Philetus, and them leading others astray. Verse 19 says, “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His.”
Of course, the Lord has always known who are His. That knowledge is described here as a seal. In the culture at the time, a seal was an unbreakable bond; if something was sealed, it was set in stone. It’s as if our destiny has been permanently stamped on us.
To say that seal can change is to say the Lord’s knowledge can change.
The Holy Spirit is also called a seal in Ephesians 1:13 and, in the next verse, “a guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.” We are God’s possession, purchased with the blood of His Son. We belong to Him. What God has bought, He will redeem.
Paul uses the same language later in Ephesians (“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption,” 4:30) and in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
A guarantee.
For how long? Until the day of redemption.
Likewise, John wrote that the gift of the Holy Spirit is assurance of our relationship with God: “By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13).
Paul told the Corinthians that Jesus would “confirm you to the end ... blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:8). So we know at least those Corinthian believers were eternally secure, right?
And he declared the same thing over the Thessalonians: “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 also will do it” (1 Thess. 5:23-24). The Holy Spirit told the Thessalonians through Paul that God is faithful to preserve them blameless because He is the One who does it. So they, too, were eternally secure, right?
So were those to whom Peter was writing (throughout Asia Minor); he wrote they were born again “to a living hope, through the rising again of Jesus Christ out of the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in the heavens for you, who, in the power of God are being guarded, through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time ...” (1 Peter 1:3-5).
Were all these believers merely exceptions to the potential to lose salvation? I don’t think so.
The myth of ‘once saved’
There’s no such thing as “once saved,” in the way that we mean it. You weren’t “saved” when you believed; you received the salvation that was given before time began.
Salvation is more than just one moment in time when we first believe. It’s a work of God that, while manifested in time, existed from before the beginning of time and culminates in our final glorification in eternity. This is illustrated in Romans 8:29-30:
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
Two things to take from this passage:
There is an unbroken chain from foreknowledge to glorification. No allowance is made for exceptions or anyone being lost along the way. All who are justified are glorified.
Every step is carried out by God. It is God who foreknows. It is God who predestines. It is God who calls. It is God who justifies. It is God who glorifies.
Even if the choice to respond has been granted to us, the work of salvation is entirely God’s. According to Philippians 1:6, God begins the work and God finishes the work. Paul’s confidence in that verse is not in the Philippians, but in God. If God doesn’t finish the work, then He didn’t begin it.
This is why the Gospel of John repeatedly and inseparably links salvation to eternal destiny:
“... that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).
“This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:39-40).
Ponder that last one: First of all, the mind-blowing revelation that the church is a gift from the Father to the Son! Given from eternity past! In that same passage, Jesus said He will never cast out those who the Father gives Him (John 6:37). How can that not be assurance of eternal security?
And, all who God has given Jesus, all those foreknown from the foundation of the world, will be raised up on the last day. It’s salvation, beginning to end. And Jesus says none of them will be lost.
Jesus says in John 10:28, “And I give (My sheep) eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” Temporary-salvation believers pounce on the second half of the verse, asserting that even if no external force can take away our salvation, we can still walk away of our own accord. But they overlook the first part: We shall never perish, regardless of potential reason.
John also writes, in his first epistle, that eternal life is a promise of God (2:25). God keeps His promises.
But Calvinism!
The perseverance of the saints is one of the five points of Calvinism. That may scare off some non-Calvinists, so let me reassure you: You don’t have to be a Calvinist to believe it.
As established, God has always known who are His. The debate is whether His foreknowledge of the elect (Romans 8:29, 1 Peter 1:2) is merely knowing in advance who will repent and believe, and then electing accordingly, or whether that foreknowledge is a loving, relational knowledge in which God takes the electing initiative, as Calvinists believe.
Say you’re the former. In eternity past, God looks forward in time to see who will respond to His call. The question then is, What kind of foreknown belief triggers the unbroken process of salvation that culminates in glorification? Just any kind?
Who did God choose before the foundation of the world? Will He elect someone based on a one-time, temporary belief that He knows will fade? A rote “sinner’s prayer”?
Or is it a true faith that God knows will continue to the end?
Remember, God sees the end from the beginning. His foreknowledge doesn’t stop at certain points along the way. He sees it all, and always has.
Therefore, if someone ends up in hell, how can it be said that at any point in his life, he was “saved” in any way?
In his case, what does “saved” mean?
What was he saved from?
What kind of a salvation is that?
Certainly not the kind described in the Scriptures above. Such a “salvation” would be so irrelevant and meaningless that it doesn’t deserve the word “saved.” And the Bible never calls it that. Scripture never uses the language of regeneration to describe someone who permanently falls away.
(“But what about Hebrews and Galatians and 2 Peter?” you ask. Those will be addressed.)
Not saved, never saved
In the end, what’s the difference, really? Hell is hell either way. We leave this world only once, and all that matters in eternity is what we are on that day.
In the fullest sense, our salvation isn’t ultimately manifested until we enter into glory. When one is facing eternal torment, being “saved” at some earlier point is just worthless trivia. Not worth believing in!
Temporary salvation is an oxymoron. If it’s he who endures to the end who is saved, then there’s no such thing as a saved person who doesn’t endure to the end. Therefore, if you’re not saved at the end, you were never saved at any other point.
This is why, instead of “once saved, always saved,” I prefer to say, “not saved, never saved.”
Yes, there are those who can appear so devoted, so sincere, so ... saved, and end up falling away. God can still use them, just as He can use lifelong, wicked unbelievers. They can do great things for the Lord, even miracles. Jesus describes such people in Matthew 7:21-23:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (emphasis mine).
These miracle-workers in Jesus’ name were not temporary Christians; they were false Christians all along. Jesus said He never knew them. They were never chosen, never sealed, never born again. Not saved, never saved.
First John 2:19 talks about such apostates, whom he calls antichrists: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
Two truths are made clear here: If these people had truly been of the church, they wouldn’t have left her. Therefore, they were never really of the church. Not saved, never saved.
This is not cheap grace
We know there are those who abuse the doctrine of eternal security, but we shouldn’t interpret Scripture according to how it’s misused. The words of Scripture alone are what determines what is true.
Such people think they’re saved because they recited a one-time prayer, and lean on that while living any way they want because “Once saved, always saved!”
We call that cheap grace. Easy-believism. I don’t recognize that kind of “belief,” because God doesn’t. But, unwittingly, believers in temporary salvation think He does.
It is ironic when someone uses cheap-grace false believers to discredit eternal security, because if we think God regenerates someone based on what He knows will be a shallow, temporary, unrepentant belief, does that not legitimize it?
Belief in temporary salvation also cheapens grace.
Faith without works is dead, James warns us. Not temporary; dead. Genuine faith results in a life changed forever. If our faith hasn’t changed us, it hasn’t saved us.
Ephesians 2:10 says God created us in Christ “for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” When we were chosen before the foundation of the world, our life of obedience and conforming to the image of Christ was also ordained. God did not choose those who use a one-time profession of faith as a license to sin, or those who are religious for a time and then fall away.
He chose those who, by His power, would walk in the works He prepared for us.
False faith can result in good works and orthodox talk for a time, perhaps even enough to convince others that one is saved. But time and circumstance will reveal whether that faith came from the heart (and hence from God), or whether it was limited to the mind and flesh. Whether they were the works of God, or just the filthy rags of religious self-righteousness.
Jesus teaches about this in the parable of the soils. He explains the parable thus:
“The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:11-15).
Notice Jesus says temporary believers “have no root.” The Word is in their minds, their mouths and their actions, but not in their hearts. It’s self-righteousness. They have not been born again. True believers have a “good heart,” one that has been regenerated and made righteous by God.
The verb “believe” in Scripture literally means “to keep on believing.” It’s not just a one-time response; it’s a lifetime of faith. Therefore, that word does not refer to those who “believe” only for a time and fall away. In the language of salvation, they don’t count. The Lord never knows them.
Temporary belief is false belief.
But Hebrews 6!
This state is what is described in the various passages used to support temporary salvation, such as Hebrews 6, which uses the words “taste” and “partake.”
These words describe those who lived among believers, who heard the gospel, who witnessed miracles, who benefited from the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. They’re left with no excuse to not believe. But despite all that, they still reject Christ and fall away.
It’s similar to the Pharisees, who rejected Christ despite undeniable evidence of who He was — and who Jesus condemned with similar language of permanent reprobation: the “unforgivable sin” of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Also, notice what verse 9 says in Hebrews 6: “But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.”
The author says “things that accompany salvation” are better than what’s described in the previous verses; therefore, the opening passage of Hebrews 6 does not indicate salvation.
But how can someone be a believer but not really a believer, you may ask.
An example of this is Simon the sorcerer. Acts 8:13 says he “believed,” but a few verses later, Peter harshly tells him, “Your money perish with you ... You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.” Simon's belief was not genuine, and therefore his heart was not converted. Hopefully, his response of contrition in verse 24 means he did not cross the line of Hebrews 6 but repented unto salvation.
Enlightened is not regenerated
A key to understanding temporary belief is the grace that God bestows on all who hear the Gospel, not just the elect. We see this in Titus 2:11 — “the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.”
Now, we know not all men are saved, so what is this grace? Calvinists believe it to be an aspect of common grace; the preaching of the Gospel is itself grace, regardless of the response. Just hearing it is a blessing.
Non-Calvinists take it a little further and call it prevenient grace. This is the grace that enables us to respond to the gospel in spite of our inherent inability to do so. It draws us who cannot come to God on our own (John 6:44). It allows us to receive the Holy Spirit, which we couldn’t do otherwise in our natural state (1 Cor. 2:14). It grants repentance (Acts 11:18, 2 Tim. 2:25) to us who cannot repent on our own.
Either way, someone who merely tastes this enlightening and empowering grace, which is a work of the Holy Spirit, is not born again, is not secure and can still walk away without closing the deal.
True salvation is not merely being enlightened, not merely tasting the Holy Spirit, not having mere factual or even firsthand knowledge of Christ, which even the demons have. True salvation is death and rebirth.
Christians have been called a new species. Our old self has been crucified. It’s dead. Not mostly dead. Dead.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ ...” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).
Do believers in temporary salvation think we change back into our old self? The Bible teaches no such thing.
Salvation means Jesus bore our sins on the cross and paid the penalty for them. How many of your sins did Jesus bear? How much of God’s wrath stored up for you did He suffer? Is not the answer to both questions all?
If someone is “saved” and then loses their salvation, just what did Jesus do for such a person? Did Jesus bear only some of his sins, from the duration of his “belief”? Were his sins borne by Jesus and then cast back onto him? Either way, wouldn’t that mean Christ’s suffering for those sins was meaningless? The Bible teaches no such thing!
Various translations of Hebrews 7:25 say Jesus is able to save us “to the uttermost,” “completely” or “forever.” Not partly. Not temporarily.
Hebrews goes on to teach that His one sacrifice obtained our redemption (9:12) and “perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (10:14). Notice the juxtaposition in that verse; in this life, we are still being perpetually sanctified, never perfect in deed, still struggling in our flesh — but already and forever perfect in standing with God.
Because it was finished at the cross. No more sacrifices are necessary to save us. No works are necessary to save us. Nothing we do can add to His finished work.
How God keeps us
If we can lose our salvation, then salvation is our doing, is it not? God chose us from the foundation of the world, pursued us, drew us to Him, gave us faith, granted us repentance, imputed the perfect righteousness of His Son, regenerated us and works in us ... but keeping it that way is all up to us?
God doesn’t just save us and then leave us on our own; our sanctification is His work as well. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
It is God’s work to keep us in His will. Therefore, it is He who keeps us secure, and that is how we know we are eternally secure. Jude wrote that God “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.”
This work was prophesied before Christ came: “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27).
The 1 Peter passage quoted earlier says God’s power guards us unto salvation, through faith, which itself is a gift (Ephesians 2:8). Apart from God’s grace, we are incapable of faith, before and after the new birth. If it’s only by God’s power that we believed in the first place, then likewise it’s God’s grace that powers our faith to persevere.
God’s work in the hearts of His children to permanently secure their relationship was also foretold: One of the promises of the New Covenant was, “I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me” (Jeremiah 32:40).
If someone does depart and is damned, then God wasn’t working in him. If we are responsible for our security, then we can’t ever be secure.
John MacArthur has taught, “If the Lord can’t hold on to me, what hope is there? If salvation isn’t God's work, then I’m not going to get there. Do you understand that? If it’s not His work and He doesn’t hold me, and He doesn’t keep me, and He doesn’t preserve me, I won’t make it. If God doesn’t save me, I can’t save myself. If He doesn’t sanctify me, I can’t sanctify myself. And if He doesn’t glorify me, I can’t glorify myself. If He doesn’t keep me, I can’t keep myself. I’m not good enough to save myself, and I’m certainly not good enough to keep myself. I will never be worthy of salvation. I wasn’t in the past; I’m not now.
“Let me put it another way. If you could lose your salvation, you would.”
“If left to ourselves,” Charles Spurgeon said, “we’ll go to hell.”
Bible-based objections
Let’s examine more of the Scriptures used to support the idea of losing one’s salvation.
First, remember that Scripture interprets Scripture. All of the passages that apparently suggest that individual, eternal salvation can be lost must be interpreted in light of the Bible’s abundant, clear and overwhelming teachings on the nature and permanence of the new birth.
Based on what the Bible says about regeneration, it cannot be read into the apostasy passages. They must mean something else.
Some point to 2 Peter chapter 2, which speaks of those who have “forsaken the right way and gone astray” — “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning” (verse 21). But the chapter’s first verse indicates its context — it’s about false teachers and their disciples.
In that verse, Peter writes that false teachers deny “the Lord who bought them,” but the weight of the rest of Scripture demands a definition of “bought” other than redemption unto eternal life. God “bought” the nation of Israel (Exodus 15:16, Deuteronomy 32:6), but not unto eternal salvation or even temporary salvation. In a passage steeped in Israel’s history, verse 1 is Peter — using a different Greek word (despotes) than what he usually uses to refer to Christ as Lord (kurios) — likening contemporary false teachers to the false prophets of Israel’s history who were bought by the Father but never atoned for by the Son.
The people they seduce may be led out of “the pollutions of the world” and find religion, but “knowledge” is not necessarily regeneration. If they’re born again, they will not be overcome.
Some cite Galatians 5:4, which says, “You have fallen from grace.” That verse addresses those “who attempt to be justified by law”; the letter to the Galatians is a polemic against Judaizers, those who insisted that converts must obey the law of Moses to be saved. Paul is saying such people have rejected grace alone as the means of salvation. They have fallen from the doctrine of grace.
But weren’t the epistles addressed to “brethren”? When reading a book rife with warnings against apostasy, such as Galatians, remember that most of the epistles were written to entire communities. Was every single person who heard the reading of those letters truly born again?
As we saw in 1 John 2:19, those who are not “of us” start “with us.” As with any church, these communities surely contained some false believers — tares among the wheat (Matthew 13:30). So a courteous, corporate greeting of “brethren” doesn’t necessarily describe each individual hearer. The tares among the wheat are always tares.
An example of this is one of the Hebrews passages on apostasy: In 3:12, the author writes, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.” An “evil heart of unbelief” — similar language to what described Simon the sorcerer, and the opposite of the “noble and good heart” Jesus said true believers have.
How can that describe someone who’s born again and made righteous in God’s sight? It makes sense if the word “brethren” is a general, corporate term. What the author is telling them is to examine themselves — just as Paul does in 2 Corinthians 13:5, and Peter in 2 Peter 1:10, as we saw — to make sure their heart is right and their relationship with God genuine.
(“Brethren” also could refer to Jews, particularly in Hebrews. In Romans 9:3, Paul refers to obviously unbelieving Israelites as his “brethren” — the same Greek word that’s in Hebrews 3:12.)
In that same Hebrews passage, look two verses down: “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end” (14). Look at the verb tenses in that verse: if something happens in the future (“we hold ... to the end”), that determines whether something has already happened (“have become partakers”). If the future condition doesn’t happen, then the past event did not happen. If they don’t remain steadfast to the end, they were never true partakers.
Biblical warnings of damnation for apostates are addressed to those who count themselves Christians, who fellowship with the saints, who partake of the Lord’s supper, yet are not necessarily born again. If you claim Christ, then you take on the responsibility of living up to that claim. You own it, and Scripture labels you accordingly. God will hold that claim against you if it is proven false; you will be judged as if you were genuine and fell away.
Also remember that some Scriptures are written for us to understand from our point of view. For example, several verses say God “repented” of something, or that He was regretful, or changes a course of action He had threatened (Genesis 6:6, Exodus 32:14, 1 Samuel 15:11 and 35, Jeremiah 18:8, Jonah 3:10). Now, does God really change His mind? Does God say, “You are justified! You’re forgiven! You’re born ag ... Whoa, wait, what? Never mind!” Does He merely react to us as if He didn’t already know what would happen? Does He ever gain knowledge He did not have before? Of course not, but He phrased those Scriptures for us to understand from our point of view.
Likewise, a belief in temporary salvation implies that God, in a way, repents of saving some people. That He simply reacts to us, as if He existed only in our linear time continuum. But the Bible teaches us enough about God to know this isn’t the reality. God declares the end from the beginning because He is the Beginning and the End.
The entirety of Scripture, everything it teaches about God’s work, His omniscience and His sovereign claim on His children, sets the context for any individual verse. Any verse that seemingly contradicts those principles is taken out of that context.
From our point of view, what can appear to be salvation can be lost. From our point of view, false converts among us are counted as brethren, as branches in the Vine (John 15:2). It’s from that perspective that He warns us against apostasy.
But from God’s perspective, it’s all finished. He knows the final answer, and always has; therefore, it never changes.
Conclusion
Either our sins are forgiven, or they’re not.
Either Jesus paid our penalty in full, or He didn’t pay any of it.
Either He satisfied God’s just wrath against us, or He didn’t.
Every person deserves that wrath, and for each person, Jesus either bore it or He didn’t. They don’t share it. Believers in temporary salvation imply they do.
True believers are promised in Hebrews 13:5 that God will never leave us or forsake us. That’s a quote from Deuteronomy, a term of the covenant made with Israel. Was it conditional for them? Yes, but consider, who has fulfilled Israel’s part of the covenant? Jesus.
Remember that God has imputed the righteousness of His Son onto the elect (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are born again into perfect righteousness, reconciled to God, with all of our sins forgiven, past, present and future. God can no more leave us than He can leave His beloved Son, because we are in Him, and He in us.
If we have truly believed. If our belief results in lives of repentance and obedience to the end. That's why we're told that faith without works is dead, that genuine faith must continue in Christ (Romans 11:22) and to make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). That doesn’t mean make sure we still have it. It means make sure it’s true, that it’s changed us, that it’s proven itself genuine through obedience.
In eternity, either you are saved, or you are not. There is no third option worth arguing about.
