A Ministry of Christian Information Bureau
 
     The question of the "eternal security of the believer" is often raised
in letters we receive.  This subject has been the cause of much controversy
in the church for centuries -- and still creates confusion and distress for
many Christians.  It is too much to expect to dispel this problem completely
for everyone in a brief newsletter, but perhaps we can at least help in that
direction.
 
     Those who believe in "falling away" accuse those who believe in
"eternal security" of promoting "cheap grace."  The latter in itself is an
unbiblical expression.  To call it "cheap" is really a denial of grace, since
it implies that too small a price has been paid.  Grace, however, must be
absolutely free and without any price at all on man's part; while on God's
part the price He paid was infinite.  Thus for man to think that his works
can play any part in either earning or keeping his salvation is what cheapens
grace, devaluing this infinite gift to the level of human effort.
 
     To speak of "falling from grace" involves the same error.  Since our
works had nothing to do with meriting grace in the first place, there is
nothing we could do that would cause us to no longer merit it and thus "fall"
from it.  Works determine reward or punishment -- not one's salvation, which
comes by God's grace.  This crux of the problem is a confusion about grace
and works.
 
     First of all, we must be absolutely clear that these two can never mix.
 Paul declares: "...if by grace, then is it no more works:  otherwise grace
is no more grace.  But if it be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise
work is no more work" (Rom. 11:6).  Salvation cannot be partly works and
partly grace.
 
     Secondly, we must be absolutely certain that works have nothing to do
with salvation.  Period.  The Bible clearly states: "For by grace are ye
saved...not of works" (Eph. 2:8-10).  True to such Scriptures, evangelicals
firmly declare that we cannot earn or merit salvation in any way.  Eternal
life must be received as a free gift of God's grace, or we cannot have it.
 
     Thirdly, salvation cannot be purchased even in part by us, because it
requires payment of the penalty for sin -- a payment we cannot make. If one
receives a speeding ticket, it won't help to say to the judge, "I've driven
many times within the 55 MPH limit.  Surely my many good deeds will make up
for the one bad deed."  Nor will it do to say, "If you let me off this time,
I promise never to break the law again."  The judge would reply, "To never
break the law again is only to do what the law demands.  You get no extra
credit for that.  The penalty for breaking the law is a separate matter and
must be paid."  Thus Paul writes:  "...by the deeds of the law there shall no
flesh be justified in his sight..." (Rom. 3:20).
 
     Fourthly, if salvation from the penalty of breaking God's laws cannot
be earned by good deeds, then it cannot be lost by bad deeds.  Our works play
no part in either earning or keeping salvation.
 
     Fifthly, salvation can only be given to us as a free gift if the
penalty has been fully paid.  We have violated infinite justice, requiring an
infinite penalty.  We are finite beings and could not pay it: we would be
separated from God for eternity.  God is infinite and could pay an infinite
penalty, but it wouldn't be just because He is not a member of our race. 
Therefore God, in love and grace, through the virgin birth, became a man so
that He could pay the debt of sin for the entire human race!
 
     In the Greek, Christ's cry from the cross, "It is finished!" is an
accounting term, meaning that the debt had been paid in full.  Justice had
been satisfied by full payment of its penalty, and thus God could "be just,
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26).  On that
basis, God offers pardon and eternal life as a free gift.  He cannot force it
upon anyone or it would not be a gift.  Nor would it be just to pardon a
person who rejects the righteous basis for pardon and offers a hopelessly
inadequate payment instead -- or offers his works even as "partial payment."
 
     Salvation is the full pardon by grace from the penalty of all sin,
past, present or future; eternal life is the bonus thrown in.  Denying this
cardinal truth, all cultists, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, for example,
reject salvation by grace and insist that it must be earned by one's good
works.

   They accuse evangelicals of teaching that all we need to do is to say
we believe in Christ and then we can live as we please, in the grossest of
sins, yet be sure of heaven.  Evangelicals don't teach that at all, yet a
similar complaint is made by those who believe in "falling away."  They say
that "once saved, always saved" encourages one to live in sin because if we
know we cannot be lost then we have no incentive for living a holy life.

On the contrary, love for the one who saved us is the greatest and only
acceptable motive for living a holy life; and surely the greater the
salvation one has received, the more love and gratitude there will be.  So to
know one is secure for eternity gives a higher motive for living a good life
than the fear of losing one's salvation if one sins!
 
     While those who believe in "falling from grace" are clear that good
works cannot earn salvation, they teach that salvation is kept by good works.
Thus one gets saved by grace, but thereafter salvation can be lost by works.
To teach that good works keep salvation is almost the same error as to say
that good works earn salvation.  It denies grace to say that once I have been
saved by grace I must thereafter keep myself saved by works.
 
     Such teaching, says Hebrews 6:4-9, rather than glorifying Christ, holds
him up to shame and ridicule before the world once again for two reasons: if
we could lose our salvation, the (1) Christ would have to be crucified again
to save us again; and (2) he would be ridiculed for dying to purchase a
salvation but not making adequate provision to preserve it -- for giving a
priceless gift to those who would inevitably lose it.  If Christ's dying in
our place for our sins and rising again was not sufficient to keep us saved,
then He has foolishly wasted His time.  If we could not live a good enough
life to earn salvation, it is certain we cannot live a good enough life to
keep it!

To make the salvation he procured ultimately dependent upon our
works would be the utmost folly.
 
     "Falling away" doctrine makes us worse off after we are saved than
before.  At least before conversion we can get saved.  But after we are saved
and have lost our salvation (if we could), we can't get saved again, but are
lost forever.

     Heb. 6:4-6 declares:  "If [not when] they shall fall away...it
is impossible...to renew them again unto repentance."  That "falling away" is
hypothetical is clear (v.9):  "But beloved, we are persuaded better things of
you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak."  So "falling
away" does not "accompany salvation."  The writer is showing us that if we
could lose our salvation, we could never get it back without Christ dying
again upon the cross.

     This is folly! He would have to die an infinite number of
times (i.e. every time every person who was once saved sinned and was lost
and wanted to be "saved again").  Thus, those who reject "once saved, always
saved," can only replace it with, "once lost, always lost!"
 
     John assures us, "These things have I written unto you that believe on
the name of the Son of God; that ye may know [present knowledge] that ye have
[present possession] eternal life..." (1 Jn. 5:13)  To call it eternal life,
if the person who had it could lose it and suffer eternal death, would be a
mockery.

    On the contrary, eternal life is linked with the promise that one
cannot perish -- a clear assurance of "eternal security" or "once saved,
always saved." John 3:16 promises those who believe in Jesus Christ that they
"shall not perish, but have everlasting life." John 5:24 again says, "hath
ever-lasting life, and shall not come into condemnation..." One could not ask
for clearer or greater assurance than the words of Jesus: "I give unto them
[my sheep] eternal life and they shall never perish" (John 10:28).  If,
having received eternal life, we could lose it and perish, it would make
Christ a liar.
 
     If sin causes the loss of salvation, what kind or amount of sin does it
take? There is no verse in the Bible that tells us.  We are told that if we
confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness -- so apparently any sin can be forgiven.  Even those who
teach falling away rarely if ever say they got "saved again."  Rather, they
confessed their sin and were forgiven. Hebrews 12:3-11 tells us that every
Christian sins, and that instead of causing a loss of salvation, sin brings
God's chastening upon us as His children.  If when we sinned we ceased to be
God's children, He would have no one to chastise -- yet he "scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth."  Indeed, chastening is a sign that we are God's
children not that we have lost our salvation:  "if ye be without
chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."
 
     Some teach that one must be baptised to be saved; others that one must
"speak in tongues." Both are forms of salvation by works.  Some people lack
assurance of salvation because they haven't "spoken in tongues," others are
confident they are saved because they think they have.  Both are like those
who say, "Lord, Lord, have we not...in thy name done many wonderful works?"
(Matt. 7:21-23)  They are relying on their works to prove they are saved,
instead of upon God's grace.  Nor does Jesus say, "You were once saved but
lost your salvation."  He says, "I never knew you."
 
 
     Here is an important distinction.  Those who believe in "falling away"
would say of a professing Christian who has denied the faith and is living in
unrepentant sin, that he has "fallen from grace" and has "lost his
salvation." In contrast, those who believe in "eternal security," while no
more tolerant of such conduct, would say of the same person that probably
Christ "never knew him" -- he was never a Christian.  We must give the
comfort and assurance of Scripture to those who are saved; but at the same
time we must not give false and unbiblical comfort to those who merely say
they are saved but deny with their lives what they profess with their lips.
 
     Are we not then saved by our works?  Indeed not!  In 1 Cor. 3:12-15
every Christian's works are tried by fire at the "Judgement seat of Christ"
before which "we must all appear" (2 Cor. 5:10).  Good works bring rewards; a
lack of them does not cause loss of salvation.  The person who hasn't even
one good work (all of his works are burned up) is still "saved; yet so as by
fire (v. 15).  We would not think such a person was saved at all.  Yet one
who may seem outwardly not to be a Christian, who has no good works as
evidence -- if he has truly received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior,
then he is "saved as by fire" and shall never perish in spite of his lack of
works. 
 
     Do we then, on the basis of "once saved, always saved," encourage
Christians to "sin that grace may abound"?  With Paul we say, "God forbid!" 
We offer no comfort or assurance to those living in sin.  We don't say,
you're okay because you once made a "decision for Christ." Instead, we warn:
"If you are not willing right now to live fully for Christ as Lord of your
life, how can you say that you were really sincere when you supposedly
committed yourself to Him at some time in the past?"  And to all we declare
with Paul:  "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own
selves" (2 Cor. 13:5). 
 
     Our Confidence for eternity rests in His unchanging love and grace and
the sufficiency of God's provision in Christ -- not in our worth or
performance.  Only when this is clear do we have real peace with God.  Only
then can we truly love Him and live for Him out of the gratitude for the
eternal life He has given to us as a free gift of His grace -- a gift He will
not take back and which He makes certain can never be lost!
 
In Christ's love, Dave Hunt