Can you lose your Salvation? Is once saved always saved & eternal security of the believer true?

Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
062620
Can you lose your Salvation? Is once saved always saved & eternal security of the believer true?

1. Grace is not held back or withdrawn because of the failure or failures of the believers.

2. Grace cannot be lessened because of failure or sin.

3. Grace cannot incur or bring on a debt.

4. Grace is not something that God owes the human race because of the His work cross. 

5. Grace is never the overpayment of a debt or a reward for trying hard.

Grace is treating a person "graciously" without the slightest reference to what he deserves.

6. Grace did not appear in the immediate divine dealings with the sins of the world.

7. Grace is not the issue in dealing with the sins of the saved. 

What God does in forgiving us experientially in time is based on the cross and all that was accomplished! 

8. ROM 5:16  And the gift is not like {that which came} through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment {arose} from one {transgression} resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift {arose} from many transgressions resulting in justification.

9. In ROM 5:17  For if by the transgression of the one [Adam], death  reigned or ruled through the one [Adam], much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

10. Another principle concerning the gift of salvation which is called the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness that will reign, not be lost, but reigned or ruled in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

11. God cannot cancel His gifts. When God gives, He does not take it back. He has given us His righteousness and His life, so that we are qualified to live with Him forever.

12. The integrity of God is infinitely greater than any failure of man,    2Ti 2:11-13.

Joh 3:16   “For God loved the world so much that He gave His Son [deity of Christ], the uniquely-born One [humanity of Christ] that whosoever believes in Him shall never perish but have eternal life.”

Note that no conditions are added to “shall never perish.” All you have to do is believe in Jesus Christ; nothing is added to faith.

Point 13.  There is also the Exegetical Rationale for Eternal Security, Eph 2:8-9. 

The intensive perfect of the verb sozo emphasizes the present state from a past action. 

This indicates the completion of an action at the moment of faith in Jesus Christ with an emphasis on the existing results:  once saved, always saved. 

This is also known as the intensive perfect tense which is a strong way of saying a thing is. 

The intensive perfect is the emphatic method in the Greek of presenting the fact of eternal security after salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. 

The passive voice of sozo means that, at the point of faith in Jesus Christ, the believer receives the action of the verb. We received forty things at salvation.

This is known as a gnomic present tense of EIMI which expresses a universal doctrine of eternal security. 

The time element is remote, because the doctrine of eternal security is true all the time.

You never lose your salvation for a second. 

The active voice of eimi involves you, and you will never lose your salvation. 

This is known as a declarative indicative mood of eimi which is used for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, the doctrine of eternal security.

If you are not dogmatically convinced that you are eternally saved or concerning the doctrine of eternal security, you will lose your confidence in living the spiritual life. 

If you are not dogmatically convinced that you are eternally saved or concerning the doctrine of eternal security, you will never go through life understanding forgiveness.

If you are not dogmatically convinced that you are eternally saved, you will live in guilt and fear in your relationship with God.

This means that grace must always be based on purity. 

Pure God and nothing whatsoever to do with man. 

Through grace, God is glorified, and sinners are saved.

Whatever God does, He does in grace and therefore He presents it as a gift.

Point 14.  There is also the Positional Sanctification Rationale.

The last prepositional phrase, “in Christ Jesus,” is technical for our union with Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

This can also be called the Baptism of the Spirit rationale. 

Through the baptism of the Spirit at the point of faith in Christ, every believer is entered into union with Christ in the Church-age = positional sanctification. 

Every Church-age believer shares who and what Christ is. 

Jesus Christ is also eternal life; 1Jo 5:11-12.

He is not someone who is like eternal life,  but He is Eternal life.

We share His life, 1Jo 5:11-12, “This is the record:  God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has [eternal] life; he who does not have the Son does not have [eternal] life.”

 We share Jesus Christ’s divine righteousness, 2Co 5:21.

We are accepted in Christ forever, Eph 1:6.

We share the destiny of Christ, Eph 1:5.

We share the heirship of Christ, Eph 1:4.

We share the election of Christ; Eph 1:3.

We are sanctified in Christ, 1Co 1:2, 30.

One of the many blessings we are told that proved that God was for us were the blessings that He gave all of us made up of over forty things and more. 

This passage uses the system of logic called a fortiori, meaning “with stronger reason” in the Latin. 

A fortiori says, in effect, that if God did the greatest thing at salvation by not sparing His own Son, it follows logically that He can do less than the greatest thereafter - give you eternal security.

The less than the greatest is all that God provides for us in grace during our lifetime and forever in eternity. 

If the justice of God can provide the greater at salvation, it follows logically that the justice of God can provide the lesser for the believer.

If grace does a greater thing at salvation, then grace can do a lesser thing after salvation.

Nothing and no one else can hinder blessings from the justice of God to the mature believer except his own negative volition. 

Eternal security is related to blessings from the justice of God.

Capacity for blessing includes total awareness of security from the integrity of God. 

No believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security ever attains spiritual maturity. 

He never receives blessings or eternal rewards from the justice of God. But he still has eternal security; he hasn’t lost his salvation.

You have two realities in life:  eternal security and prosperity from the integrity of God. Eternal security is a reality that never changes; prosperity is a potential reality.

Eternal security is not a potential; it always existed in God’s people and His plan. 

Reality of prosperity comes with maturity.

Point 15.  The Family of God Rationale.

Gal 3:26, “For all of you are the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

Once we are born into a human family, we cannot be unborn and removed from that family. 

All believers in Christ are born again into the same royal family of God = eternal security.

Point 16.  Therefore, every believer possesses an eternal inheritance; 1Pe 1:4-5.

1Pe 1:4-5, “To obtain an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, that will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are guarded by the omnipotence of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Rom 8:16-17, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Son of God.”

Gal 4:7  “Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son, a child of God, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Tit 3:7, “That being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs on the basis of the confidence of eternal life.”

Point 17.  The Body Metaphor for Eternal Security.

Jesus as the head is found in Eph 1:22, 4:15; Col 1:8.

At the time of writing, the eye referred to those with the gift of tongues who tended to get arrogant over their very sensational gift.

The foot is another inconspicuous gift. The head is Jesus Christ, Col 1:18. 

Point 18.  The Essence of God Rationale.

Jude 24, “Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forevermore.”

The perfect integrity of God cannot be canceled by the failure or renunciation of any believer living on earth, according to 2Ti 2:11-13.

The fact that we are unfaithful and losers does not change the faithfulness of God.

2Pe 3:9 “not willing that any should perish.” Therefore, He is certainly not going to lose anyone who is past the point of perishing once they believe in Jesus Christ.

Point 19.  Anthropomorphism for Eternal Security.

An anthropomorphism ascribes to God a human characteristic or a part of the human body which God doesn’t have, but it is used to explain some divine policy to us in terms of human anatomy.

In the Old Testament, the anthropomorphism is found in Ps 37:24. “Though he falls [believer’s failure], he shall not be completely cast down, because the Lord is the One who sustains him with his hands.”

JOH 10:28, “I give to them eternal life. They shall never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” This anthropomorphism says you’re in the Lord’s grip forever; and He never lets go.

Point 20.  Sealing Metaphor for Eternal Security.

Eph 1:13, “In whom, when you heard the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation [common grace]; in whom, when you believed [efficacious grace], you were also sealed by means of the Holy Spirit.”

1. Sealing is the guarantee of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in common and efficacious grace. This is pre-salvation grace.

1. Sealing is the guarantee of eternal salvation at the moment of faith in Christ. This is salvation grace.

1. Sealing is the guarantee of eternal security in time. This is post-salvation grace.

1. Sealing is the guarantee of your portfolio of invisible assets in time. This is post-salvation grace.

Eph 4:30, “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you have been sealed to the day of redemption.”

1. Sealing was a sign of possession. Therefore, a seal attached to something signifies ownership.

1. No matter what happens after salvation, God owns us and will deliver us at the point of ultimate sanctification, i.e., the Rapture of the Church.

1. Anything to which God attaches His seal belongs to God forever. Through the function of the integrity of God, we are permanently owned by God.

1. The sealing of the Holy Spirit at salvation is used as a challenge to the believer to avoid carnality and reversionism, and to keep going, no matter how he fails.  

Point 21.  The Eternal Security Rationale.

Three categories of grace:

1. Pre-salvation grace.
2. Salvation grace.
3. Post-salvation grace.

1. Eternal life means eternal security.

1. When we were born physically, God imputed human life to our soul. When we believed in Christ, God the Holy Spirit created a human spirit, to which God the Father imputed eternal life. Eternal life is the basis for eternal security.

1. So there are two categories of life. Soul life is everlasting, and it will live forever in the unbeliever in the lake of fire. Eternal life is life forever with God.

Man’s weakness cannot cancel God’s strength. Man’s failures cannot abrogate or nullify the integrity of God.

Point 22.  Forty things of salvation.

Point 23.  Losers have eternal security.

Escrow blessings are irrevocable, they remain on deposit forever in heaven as a memorial to lost opportunity and failure to utilize the grace assets of our portfolio in order the fulfill God’s plan.

There will be believers at the Rapture who were losers in their modus operandi in life, though they did not lose their salvation. Phil 3:18-19.

Such people make emotions their criterion. 

Emotions are relative, and should never be a criterion for anything. Grace is an absolute; metabolized doctrine is absolute truth.

Many believers in the Church-age fail to execute the PPOG after salvation, due to malfunction of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation, i.e., perception of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.

They become the enemies of the cross by adding something to faith in Christ for salvation. 

The only condition for receiving eternal life from God is personal faith in Jesus Christ. 

Jesus Christ provided eternal salvation on the cross through His substitutionary spiritual death, when He received the imputation and judgment of our sins.

Believers who are the enemy of the cross always use their arrogance to add something to faith in Jesus Christ, whether it is faith plus:  baptism; repentance as sorrow for sins; submission to the Lordship of Christ; inviting Christ into your heart; discipleship.

Preparing for salvation by self-improvement by giving up certain sins and bad habits; psychological activity such as raising hands, walking aisles, weeping tears of repentance; or emotionalism.

These concepts represent salvation by works, which is not salvation at all. Nothing can be added to faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

For the believer in Jesus Christ who gives #1 priority to the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, he becomes a “workman who does not need to be ashamed,” 2Ti 2:15.

“Dead works” (Heb 6:1 and 9:14) can be defined in two ways.

1. Those who add to faith for salvation.
2. And those believers who reject the invisible of their portfolio and refuse to function under the power of God.

Winners are described in Phil 1:20, “According to my earnest expectation and hope [motivation], that 1 shall not be put to shame in anything [Judgment Seat of Christ], but with all boldness [confidence], Christ shall even now as always be glorified in my body, whether by life or by death.”

Point 24.  Eternal Security and the Grace of God.

Adherence to any system of salvation by works, adding anything to faith for salvation results in one of two categories of legalism.

  (1) Salvation by works.

  (2) Spirituality by works. 

No believer can orient to the grace of God until he understands the PPOG, the portfolio of invisible assets, the available power of God, the assigning #1 priority to the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, which mystery doctrine is the quintessence of God’s eternal and infinite wealth.

Rom 9:23, “In order that He might make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy, which He prepared in advance for glory.”

Rom 11:33ff, “Oh the depth of the wealth, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His decrees; how unteachable His ways. Who then has known the mind of the Lord? Who has become His advisor? Who has given to Him and not been compensated? For from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

The key to understanding God’s wealth is in knowledge, which is the perception of doctrine, and in wisdom, which is the application of doctrine. 

Eph 1:18, “That the eyes of your right lobe may be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

Eph 3:8, “To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace has been given to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable wealth of Christ.”

Eph 3:16, “That He may give you, on the basis of His riches in glory, to become strong by means of power through the Spirit in your inner being.”

Col 1:27, “In whom God willed to reveal to the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Col 2:2, “That their right lobes may be encouraged, having been knit together in virtue love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding on the basis of epignosis knowledge of God’s mystery.”

If you don’t understand it, you will never be able to use in this life the infinite, eternal wealth that God has provided for you! 

Point 25.  Eternal Security and Confidence in God.

Confidence is not possessed by every believer. Confidence is a virtue directed toward God.