The view of grace that pervades today among Protestants says:
“once saved, always saved.” It comes
from John Calvin, who was considered a theologian in the 16th
century. It says, when you come to
Christ to be saved, nothing you can do can stop the process of salvation. My quarrel with that sentence is—it’s not in
the Bible, and I don’t agree with what people imply in the first part of it. My argument, based on Scripture, is: I’m not “once saved” yet—so neither am I
“always saved” yet. That day is in the
future, when my salvation is complete and perfect. The real issue is what we think “saved”
means. It means free from all sin, to be
exactly what God meant me to be when He made me, to be the perfect image of
God. Since Christ is the perfect image
of God, it means I’m saved when I’m actually like Jesus through and through—that’s
the objective of salvation. So that claim
is reserved for the future.
Why did God make us?
He had a Son already, and thoroughly enjoyed their fellowship. So God wanted to increase His family by
making us, to be like His Son. But we
became marred by sin. God wanted to
restore us to sinlessness, to be like Christ, so fellowship can be restored, and
Jesus made that possible through His suffering for us. When there is a new heaven and earth, as
Revelation talks about, unpolluted by sin, we begin with Him again, as how Adam
and Eve started out, sinless--and then we are saved.
Think about the corruption and violence that mankind got
into in Genesis 6. You could see God’s
purpose as He nearly wiped out all mankind from the earth, and started over
with eight people. But He knew ahead of
time that that wouldn’t solve the whole problem. He knew the real plan would have to be, to save
sinners.
So, “once saved” means to be perfect, as God wants you
to be. Salvation is actually in three
stages: saved from the penalty of sin,
or justification; set free from the power of sin, or sanctification; and, to
complete, when we are set free from the possibility of sin—glorification. All of them comprise salvation. So you can’t say, “I’m once saved,” until you
reach all three. Which is in heaven. Consider Hebrews 9:28:
…so Christ,
having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time,
not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him
Note that the phrase “to
save” occurs when we are resurrected, at Jesus’ Second Coming. “To” is clearly set in the future, not
now. We should be waiting for our
salvation. The past day, when you
thought you were saved? You should say,
“I began to be saved at that date.” It’s
not complete yet, not until glorification. “I’m not what I ought to be, but praise
the Lord, I’m not what I was.”
Here is another radical
thought: God will complete the work that
I’ve begun, provided that I co-operate with Him.
An issue that is undiscussed is this: Can I interrupt the process of
salvation? Or stop it? That is, can I lose my salvation? Or is it automatic and inevitable? Let’s look real carefully at Scripture, since
we are considering disagreeing with John Calvin. He is highly revered, but, keep in mind, he did
not major in theology. First of all,
note that whenever Scripture talks about the prospect of salvation being
completed, there is an expression, not of certainty, but of confidence. Such as Paul’s words in Philippians 1:6:
…confident of
this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you
will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ
He does the same thing in
Hebrews 6; after warning of the dire consequences of apostasy, he says, in
verse 9:
beloved, we are
confident of better things concerning you
Now note that neither of
those says, “I’m certain.” The
Philippian verse is saying he has high hopes that the “job” will be completed. I.e.,
“salvation.” This also supports our view
of salvation as a process. (Ed.
Note: The reason Calvin’s view is so
widely accepted, I expect, is because it’s exactly what people wanted to hear).
Mr. Pawson has, in a book, Once saved, always saved? detailed no less
than 80 Bible passages in the New Testament warning you not to allow the
process to stop. Every New Testament
writer is included in these verses. I will show the list, and comment further
on this in another blog.
These 80 warning passages
are rarely taught by preachers. We’d
rather hear assurances; we love texts like Romans 8:38-39:
For
I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities
nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor
height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But one
thing missing from that list is Yourself.
He did say that no one can take you from His hand, but He did not say
that you can’t jump out of His hand. Not
one of these Scriptures preachers quote lists you. You can, yourself, stop the process of
salvation.
For every Scripture of assurance, there is a quote of
warning. Thus, Scripture balances up the
picture; you don’t have to look far for the balance. The balance for the above Romans 8 verses is
in Romans 11:22, where it says that if you don’t continue in God, “you also
will be cut off.” That means hell. Preachers
love to quote one text, but ignore the context.
Perhaps with a Bible without chapter and verse numbering, you’d more
likely gather the context of the two views. Wherever there is a verse that tells
us He is able to keep us, nearby is another verse that tells us to keep
ourselves. Thus, a balance. Consider, in the book of Jude, verse 24:
Now
to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to
present you faultless…
Yes, He is
able; but just 3 verses up, it says
keep yourselves
in the love of God
A balance. If you only quote one of those two texts,
you’re unbalanced—because you’re not in context. Consider Paul to II Timothy 1:12:
(I)…am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day.
Close by is II Timothy
4:7, where Paul says “I have kept the faith.” Keeping going is a cooperation between you
and God. As we keep ourselves in the
love of God, He keeps what we’ve committed to Him. That’s the whole Gospel, and not a dangerous
half-Gospel. So there is a
responsibility on us, to go on believing in Him, to respond to His kindness, to
the end. Those who endure to the end are
saved. It’s not those who start the
Christian life who end up saved, but those who finish in faith. The New Testament is full of warnings to the
majority who start, but don’t finish. Just
ask any honest evangelistic speaker who actually follows up and finds how few, after
they came forward and he told them they were “saved,” that are not in any
church three months later. Faith is a
continual relationship of trust and obedience. As long as we keep in the faith,
He will keep us. For proof, some more of
the 80. John 15:4-5:
Remain in me, as I also
remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 ‘I
am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you
will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If
you do not remain in me, you are like a branch
that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into
the fire and burned.
The underlying warning is, if you don’t remain in Me, I won’t
remain in you. And hell is the destination for such a one.
Eternal life is not in me, it’s in Christ. If I stay in Christ, like a branch that dedicates
to staying on the vine, He nourishes me and keeps me alive; and with Him I have
eternal life. But He didn’t give eternal life to me, like a bottled potion to
take when I feel low; it’s still in Him. I have eternal life in Christ. A branch doesn’t have life in itself; the
vine has the life. If the branch stays
in the vine, it will go on living. But if the branch gets cut off, or if it
cuts itself off, it will die. As long as
I remain in Christ, I go on having eternal life. John 3:16 really says that, too, when you understand
the real definition of “believing.” It really
reads like:
For God…gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever goes
on believing in Him should not perish but go on having everlasting
life.
Another translation of the word “believing” from the
Pure Word translation, says:
For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever is continuously by his choice committing in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
Either translation shows that salvation is a process
to completion, a process of “going on” or “continuously committing.” Continuously committing is a partial
definition of “abiding,” or “remaining,” which we saw was necessary in John
15. That says that whoever goes on
believing, will then go on having eternal life. It suggests that without the going
on, you don’t continue having eternal life.
Put them together, and you see how that a relationship is involved, not
just “mental assent” or a “fire insurance.”
If you don’t remain in Christ, you’ll die; and the dead branches are
thrown into the fire.
Think about how 2-1/2 million Jews left Egypt,
but only 2 of those made it to the Promised Land. Paul explains why “negative” stories like
that are in Scripture. As I Corinthians
10:11 says:
Now all these things happened to them as examples,
and they were written for our admonition (i.e.,
warning)
Setting out from Egypt, having initial freedom, was only the
beginning. Getting into Canaan was the goal. That took endurance, and relying on Him,
trusting in Him—which they failed to do after the spies’ bad report. They didn’t believe God would help them
overcome great obstacles. The fact that
most of them never made it to complete their deliverance, was a warning to us.
Look at Romans 11:20, when Paul warns the Gentiles not to
make the same mistake as the Jews who died in the wilderness, short of their
goal. Most Jews were cut off because they
were branches that didn’t stay on the vine—they really cut themselves off:
Because of unbelief
they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but
fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He
may not spare you either.
He says, don’t be arrogant, which means feeling
so secure that you can boast of your position.
Their “security” isn’t what they think.
God would deal with Gentiles the same way He dealt with Jews; He’s the
same God, in Old and New Testaments. He can be harsh. Here is a quote from
Romans 11:20-22 to remind you of that:
…you stand by faith. Do not
be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural
branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and
severity of God:
This is uncomfortable and somewhat scary text,
when you think deeply what it means. No
one wants their “eternal security” (a popular phrase, but not in Scripture)
lopped out from under them. Now they
have to ask: Do I have the kind of
relationship with God implied here? Most preachers don’t like the “other side”
of God, and it is not taught with personal application in most seminaries, and
not really considered by most pastors.
But the pastor bears a responsibility to study the Word himself, beyond
seminary, with his mind open to truths inspired by the Holy Spirit. If his “happy” preaching on the good-only God
sends complacent people to hell, he must bear responsibility—and his own
eternal life is in jeopardy.
Pastor Pawson taught on Hebrews 6, where it says
that some Christians go apostate, and have no means of repentance. He was asked by some Christians, “how far
does a person backslide, when he can’t come back? His answer:
that’s a dangerous question; don’t even run the risk. We don’t know what that “point of no return”
is, but it certainly suggests Christ is not valued very highly, if we are
seeking to betray Him, and how many times can we betray Him? The
simple answer is, “Don’t backslide.” Fight
it. Remember that God’s patience can run
out.
PART 2 WILL PRESENT VERSES AGAINST THE "ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED" THEORY, AND PRESENT CONDITIONS UPON MAINTAINING SALVATION
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