"Once saved, always saved." Is this a true saying under all
circumstances? Is it a contract that is irreversible? To anyone who places
complete assurance in this slogan I would like to present a few bothersome passages of
Scripture as to why it may not be trustworthy.
Eze. 33:12-19
--
Therefore, son of man, say to your countrymen, The righteousness of the righteous man will
not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to
fall when he turns from it.
The righteous man, if he sins, will not
be allowed to live because of his former righteousness.
If I tell the righteous man that he will
surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous
things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done.
And if I say to the wicked man, You will
surely die, but he then turns away from his sins and does what is just and right --
if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows
the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die.
None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him; he will surely live.
Yet your countrymen say, "The way of
the Lord is not just." But it is their way that is not just. If a
righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it.
And if a wicked man turns away from his
wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so.
I believe this is presented so clearly that no one can fail to understand how God views
this question. Even in that Old Testament time there was an apparent controversy
with the Israelites concerning God's justice in this matter. Let us turn to the New
Testament era to see if God now views this matter in an entirely different way.
I believe Peter is speaking of those who have become born again, but reverted back to
their previous practices on much the same basis as our slogan under consideration might
allow.
2 Peter 2:17-21
--
These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.
Black darkness is reserved for them.
For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of
sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in
error. They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity
-- for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
If they have escaped the corruption of
the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and
overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would
have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to know it and
then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
These men had previously been born again and have afterward used the Christian's
freedom as an excuse to return to their previous sinful habits. Not only that but
they are enticing people who are in the process of escaping from their previous sinful
practices into believing that they can have the freedom of both worlds. This passage
not only denies that this is possible but in fact states they would end up worse off than
if they had never accepted Christ in the first place.
We need to see what happens to the born again Christian when he accepts Christ as his
Savior:
Eph. 1: 13,14
--
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a
deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's
possession -- to the praise of his glory.
When we are born again we are baptized into Christ. Our sins are all washed away
and Christ places the Holy Spirit in us as a deposit guaranteeing our future
inheritance. The Holy Spirit takes charge of our lives and leads us in our daily
walk with Christ with our permission. Our inheritance comes when Christ
returns to this earth and welcomes all born again Christians into the heavenly family.
During our pilgrimage on this earth, following our conversion, it is important for us
to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit on a continual basis. While the moral
principles of the ten commandments are no longer law that has charge of us, it is still a
sin to break these basic principles. If we should break them unintentionally we can
ask the Holy Spirit to forgive us and He will do so. This is the sin that does not
lead to death because with our lives under the control of the Spirit we are not under the
law.
If we should sin deliberately and repeatedly, this is evidence that the Holy Spirit is
no longer in charge of our life since we have chosen a different master to be a slave
to. This willful sinning against the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin.
Heb. 10:26-29 -- If
we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the
truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and
of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died
without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do
you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who
has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has
insulted the Spirit of Grace?
This is speaking of the born again Christian who has been sanctified by the blood of
the covenant (Christ's blood) and has insulted the Spirit of Grace by returning to his
previous sinful practices.
Matt. 12:31,32
-- And
so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the
Spirit will not be forgiven.
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son
of Man will be forgiven but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven
either in this age or the age to come.
Why is the sinning against the Holy Spirit the unpardonable sin? From the previous text
we can see that this can only happen to the born again Christians. When we accept
Christ as our Savior we confess our sins and are baptized into Christ. All our sins
are washed away and we are given a clean slate. Christ places the Holy Spirit in our
lives as His personal representative to guide us in our daily walk with Him.
The Holy Spirit replaces the law which had been in charge of God's children prior to
the cross. Now those who are led by the Spirit (the born again Christian) are not
under the law. It is still a sin to break these moral principles contained in the
law. If we break them unintentionally and ask for forgiveness for doing so, we are
freely forgiven as this type of sin does not bring condemnation nor lead to death if we
remain in Christ.
Rom. 8:1
-- Therefore
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ
Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
This freedom from the condemnation of the law applies only to the born again Christian
(those in Christ). This means that this born again Christian does not come under
condemnation when he sins unintentionally. This type of sin does not lead to death
but is freely forgiven and the Holy Spirit impresses us to turn from this type of
behavior.
When we sin deliberately and repeatedly, it is an entirely different matter. This
we can only do when we turn our back to the Holy Spirit. This also is turning our
back to the finished work of Christ which has secured our salvation. It means we
have chosen a different master to become a slave to. We have disowned the Holy
Spirit which has brought us righteousness and turned to being slaves of sin which brings
us death. The law now is again in charge of us; therefore, we will be judged by the
law, and Christ is no longer in our life. Only in Christ are we free of the
condemnation of the law. When, by our own choosing, we deliberately return to
sinning, we have rejected Christ and He will in turn reject us.
1 John 5:16-20
-- If
anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray to God
and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death
(only refers to the born again Christian).
There is a sin that leads to death.
I am not saying that he should pray about that. (That's because deliberate
sinning is the unpardonable sinning against the Holy Spirit)
All wrong doing is sin, and there is sin
that does not lead to death. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to
sin; the one that was born of God (Christ) keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm
him.
We know that we are children of God, and
that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son
of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true --
even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Over 600 years before Christ, God gave through Jeremiah a preview of His covenant that
would replace the one He gave at Sinai.
Jer. 31:3l-33
--
"The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the
covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of
Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the
Lord.
"This is the covenant I will make
with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put
my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they
will be my people."
The covenant God gave the Israelites at Sinai was written on two tablets of stone with
God's finger. Transgression of any of these commandments was breaking the law and
condemned the transgressor to the death penalty. At the cross this covenant came to
an end to all who accepted Christ. Only in Christ is there now no condemnation of
the law to the one who violates one of its moral precepts unintentionally.
These moral precepts of the law are now placed in our minds and written on our hearts
as the basic principles of the world. It becomes our conscious and the Holy Spirit
sensitizes our conscious to the sin of violating these precepts. We, being human,
will continue to sin unintentionally and will immediately realize our sorrow for sinning
and will ask the Holy Spirit for forgiveness, which He will freely give. This will
help us to avoid making the same mistake again and we will continue to grow in our
spiritual walk with Christ -- being led by the Holy Spirit.
1 John 1:5,6
-- But
if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we
know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
As long as we maintain this ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit we can be fully
aware that our salvation is assured. We should also remember that there is an
abundance of evidence that a continuing walk in Christ is the essential pillar of that
assurance.
If, in the face of this evidence, we say we are saved in spite of whatever we may do;
we are walking on the broad road of presumption which does not lead to eternal life.
1 John 3:4-10
--
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know
he appeared so that he might take away our sins, and in him is no sin. No one who
lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or
known him.
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you
astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He
who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the
beginning.
The reason the Son of Man appeared was to
destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because
God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are:
Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not
love his brother.
I believe from the above we can see that continuing in deliberate sin, after we have
been saved, is unacceptable. When we see what Christ went through to purchase our
salvation, we should want to do everything we can to please Him. If the Holy Spirit
remains in charge of our life, the very thought of sin should be progressively more
repulsive to us.
Rom. 6:15-22
--
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?
By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him
as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey -- whether you are slaves to
sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness...
When you were slaves to sin, you were
free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from
the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But
now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you
reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
If the Holy Spirit is directing our life, which is the case in every born again
Christian, then we are slaves to obedience -- obedience to the leading of the Holy
Spirit.
If we continue to sin deliberately we become slaves to sin which leads to death.
This is regardless of our previous born again experience. If we persist in sinning,
the Holy Spirit will turn us over to our new master to become his slave -- the
devil.
Heb. 6:4-6
--
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the
heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the
word of God, and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought
back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over
again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
This is another illustration of the unpardonable sin. This is the sin that only
the born again Christian can be guilty of because only he has committed his life to Christ
and has been cleansed by His blood. The Holy Spirit has been placed in him as
Christ's personal representative to guide him in his walk with Christ. If he truly
believes that "once saved -- always saved" is true, then he would
consider it a small thing for him to drift back into his previous life of sin. He
becomes the slave to sin as the Holy Spirit abandons him when he chooses a different
master to be a slave to.
James 5:19
--
My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring
him back, remember this: whoever turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save him
from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
This is speaking of a Christian who has wandered from the truth. He is
backslidden. The one who brings him back to the truth has saved him from
death. If he hadn't been brought back he would have died a sinner. Apparently
James didn't understand this concept of once saved -- always saved.
Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, made a timely quote for our study:
2 Tim. 2:10-12
-- Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may
obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. Here is a trustworthy
saying:
If we died with him, we will also live
with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we disown him, he will also disown us;
if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
"If we disown him, he will also disown us." Is this validating the
words of God to Ezekiel in the first prophecy in our study? God told Ezekiel's
countrymen that if the righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will
die for the evil he has done. Here we have the same thing expressed in a different
way.
Also if we turn from being slaves to obedience to the Holy Spirit -- which leads
to righteousness, then we become slaves of sin which leads to death.
Heb. 3:12-14
--
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns
away from the living God.
But encourage one another daily as long
as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sins' deceitfulness.
We have come to share in Christ if
we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
Another condition of maintaining our born again relationship, our salvation is
absolutely guaranteed if we maintain our relationship with the Holy Spirit in His
leading. We continue to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the
confidence we had at first.
Notice Paul's explanation to a group of Gentile Christians how through unbelief many of
literal Israel have been removed from the cultivated olive tree and Gentile branches have
been grafted in to take their place:
Rom. 11:17-22
--
If some of the branches have been broken off and you, though a wild olive shoot,
have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive
root, do not boast over those branches.
If you do, consider this: You do not
support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were
broken off so that I could be grafted in."
Granted. But they were broken off
because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be
afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
Consider therefore the kindness and
sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that
you continue in his kindness, otherwise, you also will be cut off.
I believe we can see from this the importance of maintaining this vital relationship
with the Holy Spirit to maintain our standing with Christ. And why would we not want
it to be this way anyway?
Col. 1:22,23
--
But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death, without
blemish and free from accusation -- if you continue in your faith,
established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.
This is the gospel that has been
proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Paul probably wrote more about our relationship to the gospel than any of the Bible
writers. It is obvious that he took his relationship seriously and stresses the
importance for us to do the same.
1 Cor. 9:24-27 (Revised English Bible)
-- At the games, as you know, all the runners take part, though only one wins
the prize. You also must run to win. Every athlete goes into strict
training. They do it to win a fading garland; we, to win a garland that never fades.
For my part, I am no aimless
runner. I am not a boxer who beats the air. I do not spare my body, but I
bring it under strict control for fear that after preaching to others, I should find
myself disqualified.
Paul likened his preparation for his spiritual activities like an Olympic
athlete. The difference was that only one could win the prize at the athletic games,
whereas all may win the prize offered by the gospel. He brought his body under
strict control so that it was not used to promote sin. Wouldn't that go a long way
toward solving most of our problems? This was for fear that otherwise, after
preaching to others, he might find himself disqualified.
Paul knew he had no intention of letting that happen to him, but he knew it could
happen if he should become careless and drift back into the sinful life he had prior to
his conversion. It shows he was completely unacquainted with once saved --
always saved. We know that, as he approached the end of his life's work, he had full
confidence in his eternal reward -- and the reasons for this confidence.
2 Tim. 4:7,8
--
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Now there is in store for me the crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day --
and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
He knew that he had kept the faith, he had followed faithfully the leading of the Holy
Spirit in his life. He wanted us to know that anyone who would do the same would be
assured of the same reward.