Once Saved Always Saved vs. Not Until You Die

Once Saved Always Saved vs. Not Until You Die

Oh, this one will create a stink and turmoil, I guarantee it! Some Christians will see it pro, while the rest will be con, but at least here we will view both sides of the coin, and while I will land on one side, surely the rest will be stiffnecked to their view, for that is the way we Christians are, isn't it? Let's see what I have found on this hot button topic, and whoever isn't sure, they will have the opportunity to choose how they think. Me personally, I find confidence in being saved makes it easier to sleep at night.

Jesus was teaching Nicodemus about salvation, and He explained that one key element of getting your name in the book of life was being "born again" - "Jesus answered, 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.'" (John 3:5 - 8) So if this "born again" experience enables a person to enter the kingdom of heaven, say, opens a door to God, can it be shut before you get there? Some believe yes, some believe no. Let's see some more factual scriptural data...

"All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:37 - 40) All who are led to Jesus, who are given to Him by the Father, Jesus will not throw them away; this is what I'm getting from this verse wherein Jesus is speaking; does that look like it to you, also? He further states He will lose nothing by the will of the Father, therefore if we are truly saved, we have this promise that Jesus will not lose us. I don't see how anyone can see this with the possibility of yet becoming lost later on.

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15:5 - 7) The Christian who does not abide in Christ cannot do what pleases God, therefore their works will be burned at the judgment seat of Christ (see 1 Cor. 3:11 - 15) This verse concerns ‘abiding in Christ’ and refers to believers’ ‘communion’ - ‘union’ - with Him. Thus the Lord Jesus Himself speaks in verse 10 of His own abiding in the Father. The figurative language of verse 6 speaks of one who, through lack of communion with Christ, loses his testimony before men (men gather and burn, not God). Some, however, may misinterpret it as being able to lose salvation.

Jude gave a great benediction at the end of his epistle, but the meat at the front of it is the faith that Jesus will keep His own from falling and (by His sacrifice) He will be able to present us faultless. "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 1:24 - 25)

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." (Gal. 5:1 - 6)
While the epistle to the Romans says that sinners are saved by ‘faith plus nothing’, Galatians proves they stay saved by ‘faith plus nothing’. The irony is that many who would abhor any thought of earning salvation by works, attempt to keep their salvation by works, which theologically amounts to the same thing. One cannot keep by works the gift one received by faith (Rom 6:23). Paradoxally, if we don't exercise what gifts we have to God's glory, what works do we have? ‘Falling from grace’ in the context of Galatians, refers to those who were trying to keep the law to ‘stay saved’ and had therefore fallen away from the true teaching of salvation through grace. They had lost their understanding of true salvation (unmerited grace), not salvation itself.

"And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life." (Phil. 4:3) For those who don't believe in once saved, always saved, this should be quite an obstacle, because Paul has stated here that well over 4 people in Philippi have their names in the book of life! By what this verse says, one could say that perhaps, even if his group were small, he must be asserting that maybe 10 people had their names in the book of life! It is unknown how many people he is talking about. It could be 50, for all we know. The point here is, how can Paul say this, unless the whole lot of whom he was speaking of fell under the once saved, always saved tenet? I have another idea from the Old Testament concerning this idea of being able to be removed from the book of life; let's view that passage of scripture...

"And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, 'Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.' And the LORD said unto Moses, 'Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book.'" (Exod. 32:31 - 33) While this passage gives weight to the potential of being blotted out of the book of life, it is important to note that Moses was unable to sacrifice his place in the book of life for the people who sinned against the Lord, and let's also remember this people was far removed from the day of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, and they had not yet been given into Jesus' hand by the Father. Additionally, these people repeatedly showed a lack of faith, though God had counted them as His people from the rest of the nations. We must remember: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;" (2 Pet. 2:4), then He certainly will not spare US! If we don't come to a saving knowledge of Christ, well, then the following passage applies -

This next passage contains the most famous verse in the world, only I always like to put the rest of the concept, because I think people are being cheated out of understanding what God is putting forth in this passage. You can choose to believe in Jesus and have eternal life, or you can choose not to, and be eternally condemned. This passage, however, doesn't address the "what if" in the matter of changing your mind or not being able to make up your mind. You either believe or you don't. "For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." (John 3:16 - 21)

"Jesus answered and said unto her, 'If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, "Give Me to drink"; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.'...'But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.'" (John 4:10, 14) Let's study these two verses carefully; He says they will never thirst. His sheep will never thirst, and from what He told Nicodemus, they must be born again in order to be His sheep. In order to never thirst, they would have to have eternal security, wouldn't they? He didn't say anything about "unless they change their mind", or "unless they start sinning like they don't know Me anymore", did He?

"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." (Heb. 6:1 - 6) If these people were able to fall away, they were not genuine believers then, were they? Can born again believers fall away? Absolutely not! But there are they who profess to be born again, but they have not gone through the actual process. God knows who is saved from the foundation of the earth!

"And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:' The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven." (Deut. 29:17 - 20) Now this passage is about someone who was not saved from the beginning, because if they were able to turn away from God, our omniscient God knew beforehand, and blotted them out at the moment of their apostasy. The New Testament has a passage similar in nature; "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." (Heb. 12:15 - 17)

Now those who don't believe in OSAS might present you with this passage and ask, "Why would Paul tell the Philippians they had to work out their salvation if it were already a sure thing?" But what Paul meant was that they needed to behave as ambassadors for Christ, that they needed to be careful with their witness, because they needed to appear as much like Christ as possible, because they were expected to behave as "Christians"! That takes a alot of work, don't you think? "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Phil. 2:12 - 13)

"Then said they unto Him, 'What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?' Jesus answered and said unto them, 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.'"..."No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, "And they shall be all taught of God." Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He which is of God, He hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, "He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life." I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6:28 - 29, 44 - 51) Now we also know that the Bible has it, "So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isa. 55:11) So if a person be born again, yet somehow not always be saved, how would that not return back to God void? What I mean is, if it is as Jesus said that the Father drew we who are born again to Jesus, and we believed unto salvation, how could it be that we could later lose it, and thus the Father's sending us to the Son would come back to Him void? When Jesus says that if we eat of this bread, we will live forever, how can that mean anything else other than once saved, always saved?

When Paul was talking to the Romans in his epistle, he talked of the believers in Christ being inseperable from the love of God. If a truly saved believer is unseverable from Christ, how can one refute what Paul says in this passage which appears clear that a born again Christian has nothing to fear of losing their salvation by his words; "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, 'For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:35 - 39)

"As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:2 - 3) Here is one more passage where Jesus is speaking of His sheep, and that He has given eternal life to them. If Jesus knows His sheep, and they know Him, and this be a form of believing on Him in that they know Him (through the Bible), how can they "unknow" Him, that they may be unsaved once more before they die?

I have another passage from Paul's epistle to the Ephesians that also gives substance to the concept of OSAS, wherein he writes that after one believes, we are then sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, guaranteed into heaven. See if you can read anything different than that in this passage - "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory." (Eph. 1:13 - 14)

Shall we see more pro-OSAS scripture? "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." (Acts 13:38 - 41) Justified from all things, being all the sins of a lifetime! God never reverses His justification of sinners!

"I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."..."I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd."..."My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." (John 10:9, 14 - 16, 27 - 29) This is the last bit of substantiation I will produce to support OSAS; this last group of passages from the gospel of John spoken by Jesus has to be the most concrete scriptural promise of eternal security. Once we are born again, once we accept Him as Savior, once we have had our hearts circumcised, once we have believed on Him, I don't see how anyone can refute all these passages of scripture that support OSAS. For me, once we are saved, we are heaven bound!