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Question:
Our pastor has been preaching a series of sermons on salvation which
has really been helpful to me and my understanding of God’s grace.
Recently, he stated that "once saved—always saved." I have
heard others say that you can lose your salvation. Which is true? Help
me with some Bible passages.
A number of years ago, I had the privilege of
leading a couple to the Lord who had come out of a cult that was
constantly teaching that one can lose their salvation unless they
follow the rules of the church which were supposedly based on
"biblical principles" as interpreted by the church
leadership. I shared with them a number of biblical passages which
gave them the assurance they needed in order not to be constantly in
fear of dying and going to hell should they be "out of
fellowship" with the rest of the church.
Our oldest daughter we adopted from Korea. We
appeared before a judge at the final adoption proceedings and he
reminded us that adoption meant that she was now as much a part of our
family as our biological son and would share equally in all aspects of
our life including financial. There would be no distinction.
The same is true of our adoption into God’s
family. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says that "the Gentiles
[that’s us] are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and
fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the
gospel." Read also Galatians 4:4-6. It must be understood that
our security in Christ only comes through true confession, repentance
and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Let’s look at some passages that confirm our
security in Jesus Christ.
John 10:27-28: "My sheep [that’s
us] hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give
eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall
snatch them out of My hand."
Notice Jesus’ words "shall never perish"
and "shall not snatch." These are imperatives!
Romans 8:35, 38-39: "Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… For I
am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
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."
Finally, 1 John 5:18:
"We know that no one who is born
of God sins; but he who is born of God keeps him and the evil one does
not touch him."
Not even Satan can snatch us our of God’s hand!
If you have access to a concordance, look up the
word "assurance" and you should be led to additional helpful
passages of Scripture. |
