I was listening to a guy speak online and what he had to teach from was good.  His challenges were solid. He was speaking on how being a disciple of Jesus is not lip service.  In his words, “You don’t just say a ‘sinner’s prayer’ and then you are magically a Christian.  Jesus must be Lord of your life.”  Good words.

And then he ruined it by asserting that we are “once saved, always saved.”  He said, “Am I saying then that you must do everything right to get to heaven?  No! God sent His Son to die for you and once you ask Jesus in your heart, your salvation is secure no matter what you do.”  Part of what he said was correct.  We don’t earn our salvation through good works.  Ephesians 2:8-9 establishes that fact.  We are saved by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 6:29).  But, God does save us unto good works (Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:14) and His Word assures us that salvation is in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23).  If we are IN Jesus, we are saved (1 Timothy 4:10).  Outside of Jesus, we are lost (John 15:1-8).

Here was another example of holiness preaching gone bad.  I know several men like this.  They are good Bible teachers.  They teach hard.  They preach repentance.  They preach holiness.  But then they turn around and embrace eternal security.  They claim it is because they are convinced from Scripture that our salvation is secure (Romans 8:38-39).  I agree.  Our salvation is secure IN Jesus (John 10:27-29).  We are saved by faith (Romans 5:1) and we are kept by faith (1 Peter 1:5).  We should preach perseverance in the faith (Acts 13:43; 2 Corinthians 1:24).  If we remain in faith in Jesus, our salvation is assured (1 Corinthians 1:21; Hebrews 6:4-20).

I don’t understand how a person can truly teach people to be holy, to pursue God in prayer, to seek Jesus in the Bible, to share your faith, etc. and then tell them that no matter how they live their lives, they are eternally secure.  Why not teach that if we remain in Jesus by grace through faith, we are saved and secured?  Why tell people that they are “once saved, always saved” apart from Jesus?  To me, this type of teaching doesn’t glorify Jesus at all.  In fact, it makes salvation based on us and not on God.  It makes our salvation OUR salvation instead of causing people to focus on Jesus and give glory to Him for His salvation that He has given us freely in Him (Romans 3:22-24 NIV).

The teaching of “once saved, always saved” robs grace of being true grace.  Titus 2:11-12 assures us that the grace of God does much more than just saving us in Jesus Christ but God’s grace also frees us from the power of sin.  Through grace, we can overcome sin (Romans 6:1-14).  Through grace, we don’t have to fall trapped to the world.  Through grace, we can approach the throne of God and find help (Hebrews 4:14-16).  The cheap grace offered by “once saved, always saved” teachers is not true grace for God’s grace is powerful enough to forgive us and free us to serve the risen Jesus (Jude 4).  No wonder then that Paul would speak about the grace of God in truth (Colossians 1:6) implying that there were already false teachers of grace.

So many people who embrace eternal security end up struggling with the assurance of their salvation.  Why?  Because there are no promises from God of salvation given to those living in sin.  We human beings search in vain hoping to find assurances that we can remain in sin, in compromise, or at least luke-warmness and still go to heaven.  Sadly, they will never find them (Revelation 3:16).  God’s promises are only for those who are overcoming!  I pray that I am that type of disciple.  One who keeps his eyes on Jesus forever (Hebrews 12:1-2).

© 2011, Matt. All rights reserved.