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 16thcentury. 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.&nbs
p; 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 yourselvesin 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 processto 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.
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