Are We Onced Saved, Always Saved?

ARE WE ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED?

Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Net

Last Updated : July 23, 2006

A Discussion On Perfection, Grace And Works

Some time ago, I was involved in a discussion regarding the
topic of eternal salvation and whether or not it was a
'one-time-deal' or something which could be lost and
regained depending upon a person's walk with the Lord.

During the course of the discussion, the following remark
was made:

"When you get saved, you are forgiven of your sins. To
commit sin would be to have a criminal record, or to mark
"return" on your free gift. Its not really a string, but
part of the package."

In my view, the above remark is a bit flawed and may be
misleading. Allow me then, to present my understanding of
this most important issue:

Once a person has accepted Jesus Christ as his (or her)
personal Saviour, they receive the free gift of eternal life
and are forgiven for their sins.....past sins, present sins,
and future sins. This basic Christian concept is borne out
in such verses as John 1:12, John 3:16, Romans 3:23 and
Romans 6:23. However, just because we receive Jesus does not
mean that all of a sudden we have attained to some degree of
sinless perfection and that we will never commit another
wrong in our lives. To even entertain such a possibility is
irrealistic in my view...and for those that do, I would
think that either they have received erroneous instruction,
or else they have an inflated image of themselves. The Bible
is literally full of examples to demonstrate this point.
Consider the Apostles themselves who actually accepted and
lived with Jesus. They still sinned afterwards, because
they were still human, just as we are. Consider, for
example, when they became a bit upset because they felt the
young children were bothering Jesus:

"And they brought young children to him, that he should
touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought
them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and
said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me,
and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the
kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter
therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon
them, and blessed them." (Mark 10:13-16)

Consider also when Jesus's disciples wanted to call fire
down from heaven to destroy a rebellious village:

"And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should
be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to
Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they
went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make
ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his
face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his
disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt
thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and
consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked
them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but
to save them. And they went to another village." (Luke
9:51-56)

And then there is the incident of Peter's own denial of the
Lord the night of His betrayal by Judas:

"Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto
him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. But he
denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest.
And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw
him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was
also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an
oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him
they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art
one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee. Then began he to
curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And
immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of
Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt
deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly."
(Matthew 26:69-75)

The above are just a few examples to show that accepting
Jesus does not make you perfect, it doesn't make you better
than other people so that you can brag about it or
self-righteously look down on others, it just means that you
have been cloaked in the blood of Jesus and that your sins
are blotted out, that you are forgiven, thus enabling you to
enter into eternal life. Salvation is a free gift of God not
earned through good works before or after accepting the
Lord:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that NOT of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any
man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" (Titus 3:5)

I don't believe you can "return" the gift as the person
above seems to indicate. As far as I am concerned, as the
old saying goes, 'once saved always saved,' otherwise you
crucify the Son of God afresh as we are told in Hebrews:

"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. (Hebrews 6:4-6)

The above verses spoken by Paul have been a source of heavy
controversy since the time they were written. In the context
of this article, I am using them to show that 'returning'
the gift of eternal salvation, if it were possible to do so,
is like saying Jesus would have to die for you again, should
you decide to repent and come back to Him. It doesn't make
much sense, does it?

Now to add some balance to this position, let me also add
that there is a difference between salvation and eternal
rewards. Salvation is free, but rewards are determined by
what you do AFTER you are saved. The Apostle Paul brought
this out very clearly in 1 Cor. 15 where he discusses our
spiritual bodies. We will not all shine with the same
brightness:

"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial:
but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the
terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars:
for one star differeth from another star in glory." (1
Corinthians 15:40-41)

Consider also Jesus' own words in Mark 8:38:

"Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words
in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall
the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of
his Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:38)

The Old Testament prophet Daniel also shed some light on
this when he said:

"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as
the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to
righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." (Daniel
12:2-3)

Notice, all of the saved are "raised," but those who do
little for Jesus once they are saved will have to live in
shame for a very long time. These verses go hand in hand
with the parable of the talents, as well as the parable of
the sower and many other verses found throughout the Bible.

If there is one thing we can all be sure of, it is that once
we have received Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, our
salvation is forever, no if's, and's or but's about it:

"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, & him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." (John 6:37)

And here is another one, John 10:28:

"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall NEVER
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

That sounds to me like eternal salvation is exactly
that....eternal. Not even Satan can deny us that right once
we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. The Apostle Paul
also tells us:

"If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny
himself." (2 Timothy 2:13)

These verses tie in closely with the verse I quoted
previously from Hebrews 6:

"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."

Notice, it doesn't specifically say they lose their
salvation, it says "if they shall fall away." Falling away
simply means a loss of faith, the apostasy. But again, what
does 2 Timothy 2:13 say? IF WE BELIEVE NOT, YET HE ABIDETH
FAITHFUL: HE CANNOT DENY HIMSELF! Once you accept Jesus, you
are His no matter what. Even if you turn around and deny Him
just as Peter did...and the rest of His disciples likewise
fled...He still considers you His. Throughout the Old
Testament, the Lord dealt over and over again with His
backsliding bride Israel. Many times we see the Lord saying
via His prophets, 'I am married to the backslider.' He
doesn't like it when we turn away from Him, but He always
retains hope that we will return to Him, and when we do, He
is there just like the father of the prodigal son. (Luke 15)

This apostasy, the falling away which Paul talks about, is a
major sign that we are living in the Endtime, as I have
mentioned in other of my articles. Consider Paul's
admonition on this:

"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That
ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by
spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the
day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any
means: for that day shall not come, except there come a
falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition;" (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3)

Daniel also spoke of this time and how many believers would
fall away from the truth under the demonic forces of
Antichrist persecution:

"And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them,
and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of
the end: because it is yet for a time appointed." (Daniel
11:35)

Again, this doesn't mean that they lose their salvation, but
they do lose their faith, even some Christians. And why is
this going to happen? Well, from an earthly perspective, it
will be happening because Satan via the ungodly trio
(Satan/Antichrist/False Prophet), will be in charge of the
world. They will be persecuting the believers in the one
true God and His Son Jesus Christ. But from a spiritual
perspective, it will be because the Lord is using the fires
of persecution to purify us...and let's face it, we all need
a great deal of purifying right now. We all have our
besetting sins which need to be purged from us. Sometimes we
like to feel like we have finally arrived, that we have
overcome all sin in our lives. This is pure hogwash and
reveals one of the worst sins of all: self-righteous pride,
thinking that we are holier-than-thou sinless saints.

While I am not a member of any religious church or
organization, I do identify a lot with the Baptists.
However, the one problem I have with them, and churches
similar to them, is what I believe they refer to as the
'Holiness' doctrine. I will admit that I do not fully
understand Baptist doctrine, but unless I am mistaken, while
it appears that they believe in salvation by grace through
faith in Jesus Christ, from my participation in a Baptist
mailing list, I am given the impression that the 'Holiness'
doctrine also carries undertones of salvation through a
combination of faith AND good works. In other words, failure
to live a perfect sinless life will result in loss of your
salvation even though you have accepted Jesus. You're saved
one day, but not the next. If I have somehow misunderstood
what 'Holiness' means to them, I'd be willing to receive
email from any professing Baptists to clarify this for me.
At any rate, if this were true, that is, we can fall from
grace through sinning after we are saved, we would
constantly be living in fear and would never have any peace
of mind, the peace 'which passeth all understanding'
(Philippians 4:7). This doctrine sounds like it is saying,
'Yes, Jesus saves us, but we need to give Him a little help
by being good.' I have likewise studied the Mormon doctrine,
and they also seem to have similar beliefs. I have been
involved in conversations with them in which they deny this,
yet in some of their literature which I have read, it seems
quite apparent to me. Again, could I just be mistaken? The
main point is, some of these churches seem to be saying that
salvation is 50% grace, and 50% works, or whatever
percentages you want to throw in there, but that it is not
solely by the blood and sacrifice of Jesus alone. This I
cannot agree with.

Again, let me remind everyone of Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus
3:5 quoted above. God doesn't need our help to save us.
Jesus already paid the price. Either His blood on the cross
was good enough, or else it wasn't.

Now some people will take the following verse and interpret
it to mean something entirely different than what the writer
originally intended:

"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." (Philippians
2:12)

'There! We've got you!' they say. 'See, the Scriptures say
we have to work for our salvation!' I wonder how many of
them take the time to read the very next verse to put this
verse in context. It says:

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do
of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)

Just adding that one verse changes the meaning of the first
verse quite a bit. First it looks like we have to work to
earn our own salvation, but once we add the second verse, we
see that it is GOD's spirit working in us to motivate us to
want us to do what is right and pleasing to the Lord. It is
NOT something which we can do by ourselves in our own
strength. It is God's goodness working through us. In the
book of Jeremiah we are told:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

Again, it is just not a part of our human sinful nature to
be good enough to deserve or merit eternal life. As Paul
says to the Philippians, it is God's spirit working in us
and through us which results in our salvation, so there is
no room for us to take any of the credit. Period!

As far as I am concerned, God's plan of salvation is
foolproof, no loopholes, no ways for the Devil to win you
back once you are truly saved. I should mention, however,
that there is the possibility that if you go back on the
Lord too far, say to the point where you are really becoming
a detriment to His work, such as even fighting against other
Christians, the Lord may just have to opt to totally remove
you from this physical realm. Consider the Apostle Paul's
sobering words to members of the congreation at Corinth.
They were a wild bunch having all kinds of sexual problems:

"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among
you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among
the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye
are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that
hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For
I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have
judged already, as though I were present, concerning him
that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with
the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one
unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is
not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump?" (1 Corinthians 5:1-6)

So what about perfection AFTER we are raptured? Will we have
overcome all of our personal sins and weaknesses? I'm sorry
if this may disappoint some of you, but I am still not
convinced that we will have attained to perfection, at least
perfection in the way some readers of the Bible understand
it. I believe we will still possess the freedom of personal
choice & that we will still make mistakes as we continue the
learning process on a higher plane of existence. I don't
think that being zapped with a new body is a cure-all
so-to-speak. I mean, if you look at it, even the angels are
able to choose as is witnessed by the fact that the Devil &
a third of the angels are able to rebel against the Lord as
mentioned in Genesis, Revelation, the Book of Enoch and many
other places. This gets into the subject of personal choice
which I discuss in a separate article.

Now, some will argue, well didn't Jesus say, "Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect."? (Matthew 5:48). Yes indeed, He most certainly
did, but does it mean what most people think it means? I
think not. If we try to understand this verse with our
carnal minds, it will surely lead to discouragement. Why?
Because it will appear that Jesus has put up an
insermountable obstacle which we will never be able to
overcome. Has anyone become perfect this past week? I think
not. Try as we might, we will never ever be perfect in the
flesh...and if you think you are, then you are just fooling
yourself. Furthermore, if Jesus had really thought it
possible for us to attain to eternal life on our own just by
being perfect, then there would have been no need for Him to
die on the cross, right? Obviously by making such statements
as this, and a number of others about human behaviour, He
was trying to bring out an important point, which some in
His day, and in ours, just have had a hard time grasping.
And what is that? It is that no matter how hard we try, we
will never be good enough to deserve God's mercy and
salvation.

'Well, if that is the case, then it looks pretty hopeless
for us,' some might say. 'If God knows we will never be good
enough to make the grade, doesn't that mean that He has
condemned us even before we get started? Why did Jesus tell
us to be perfect then? This is confusing!'

I found a clue to answer this question in a verse from the
Old Testament. In the Book of Deuteronomy we find many of
the laws the Lord gave to the people via Moses His servant.
In Deuteronomy 18:13 we read:

"Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God."

Next to this verse there are some notes from the original
translator. Two alternative translations for 'perfect' in
this verse are 'upright' and 'sincere.' These words shed a
whole new light on this issue of perfection. This verse
seems to be indicating that to be perfect is a quality or
state of being sincere, of being upright, trying to do what
is right. This doesn't mean that we will always be perfect,
but that we will strive with all sincerity to do what is
right. Having now established this meaning for the word
'perfect,' consider this next verse:

"Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God,
to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at
this day." (1 Kings 8:61)

Again, this verse shows us that we are supposed to sincerely
try to obey the Lord, to do what is right and pleasing in
His eyes. As a final confirmation that 'perfect' is really
referring to a degree of sincerity, consider what Jesus said
to the rich man:

"And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what
good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he
said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good
but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said,
Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery,
Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All
these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the
young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he
had great possessions." (Matthew 19:16-22)

You see, this rich man was all hung up on a works trip, on
the outward appearance. He self-righteously thought that he
must be in pretty good standing with God because he kept the
commandments. It appears that he really wasn't coming to
Jesus for an answer, but more to brag about his own
goodness, his own righteousness, and not the righteousness
which comes from God. Notice how he asks Jesus 'what good
thing shall I do.' He apparently thought he could merit his
own salvation. Jesus immediately recognized where this man
was coming from even before he opened his mouth. That is why
the very first thing He did was to challenge the man's usage
of the word 'good' even when applying it to Himself.

After that, Jesus tells him to keep the commandments,
knowing full well how the man would reply. This man was so
sure that he was good enough to deserve eternal life, that
he asked which commandments he was supposed to keep, like he
wanted to make sure he was keeping the right ones. He still
hadn't understood what Jesus was trying to teach him. Even
after Jesus had named some of the commandments, the man was
still confident that he was good enough to make it to Heaven
on his own merit. So, in his own pride, he asked one more
time if there was anything else he had to do, and that is
where Jesus had to finally show him the error of his ways.

And exactly what was the error of his ways? Was it just the
fact that he was rich and caught up in materialistic living?
No, it was that he lacked the sincerity to leave it all
behind in order to follow Jesus. His righteousness was a
proud outward pretense. What counts with God, what the Lord
considers perfection is sincerity of heart. If we sincerely
love the Lord, if we try our best to please Him, this is
counted as righteousness in His eyes. We may fall, even as
Peter and the others fell, or as many under the reign of the
Antichrist will fall, but if the inward desire of our
hearts is to love, obey and please the Lord, this is what
matters the most to Him. He knows us, He understands us.
Jesus lived in the flesh just like us. He is aware of the
weaknesses and temptations of the flesh. Consider the
following verses:

"For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and
cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:" (Ephesians
5:29)

"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the
spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matthew
26:41)

When Peter denied the Lord, it wasn't because he didn't love
Jesus anymore, or because he no longer believed in Him, it
was because he was scared out of his wits. For all he knew,
they wanted to kill him too! He was worried about his flesh,
so he did what most of us would have done too...he denied
even knowing Jesus. I wonder how many of us have
self-righteously thought to ourselves, 'Gee, if that would
have been me, I would have NEVER denied Jesus!' The same
goes with Judas. How many of us have judged him critically?
How many of us have judged Adam and Eve critically, or King
David, or any other of the poor examples we find in the
Bible? Well folks, our time is coming when we will likewise
be tested in a big way. Under the cruel reign of the
Antichrist, there will be many who will do the same exact
thing. They will deny their faith, they will fall in order
to save their own flesh, or to protect their families. But
as with Peter and the others, this doesn't mean that they
have lost their salvation. It is just a time to purge us and
to try us in the fires of tribulation, to make us truly
righteous in God's eyes, and to show us that we have no
righteousness of our own...and right now, this is one of the
most serious problems with modern-day Christians,
particularly in organized religion. Some of them think they
are so good and so holy and so righteous, that they can't
even see that, to God, their righteousness stinks as filthy
menstruous rags:

"Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of
silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou
shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say
unto it, Get thee hence." (Isaiah 30:22)

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a
leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away." (Isaiah 64:6)

In short, their idea of perfection is very different from
that of the Lord's. They believe it is some kind of state
where we no longer sin in the flesh, and thus obtain our
salvation. They don't say this outwardly, but by the very
fact that they teach you will lose your salvation if you
fall into sin again, they are in essence saying this very
thing. God's idea of perfection is an attitude of sincerity
and willingness to do what is right. Of course, if we are
sincere, then we will strive to obey His commandments which
are summed up in the two Golden Rules:

"Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question,
tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great
commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all
the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40)

Before going on, I want to mention one more important point
from the story of the rich man. In part of His final answer
to the rich man, Jesus said:

"If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven:
and come and follow me."

Notice that Jesus is really saying two things in this verse.
First, He is pointing out that our good works do not merit
us salvation, but they do result in rewards in Heaven. As I
said earlier in this paper, salvation and heavenly rewards
are two separate issues. You can be saved, but still not
have very many rewards in Heaven as the previous verses from
Daniel and Corinthians pointed out. In order to obtain his
salvation, the rich man had to believe in and follow Jesus,
just like anyone else. Putting these two points together
then, if we are really sincere in our belief in Jesus as the
Son of God and Saviour of the world, we should be willing to
leave anything behind which would hinder us from sharing
that belief with others...and that is where different
degrees of discipleship and rewards come into play, and why
some will have greater rewards than other in Heaven. Some
are willing to deny themselves more than others. Consider
these verses:

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but
whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall
save it." (Luke 9:23-24)

Before concluding this paper, let me touch on one more
important topic regarding salvation. One occurence common
amongst those who are not sure of their salvation, is the
practice of praying over and over again. Every time they
fall, or commit a sin, (at least in their view), they feel
they have lost their salvation, so they think they need to
pray all over again to accept the Lord, in other words, to
crucify the Lord again as discussed previously. This again
is based on the erroneous idea that we need to give the Lord
a little help in order to keep ourselves saved. It is an
odd mixture of grace and works, like oil and vinegar or
gasoline and water. Folks, they just don't mix. It is
either one or the other. If you have asked Jesus to enter
your life and heart even once, that is sufficient. Let me
ask you...are you putting your faith for salvation in your
own good works, or in the blood of Christ? If you are
putting it in your own 'good' works, then you better keep
praying!...and praying...and praying...and praying! <big
grin>. After you have accepted Jesus as your personal
Saviour, you have to BELIEVE that God has fulfilled His
promises to you. You must BELIEVE the Word of God. We are
told that "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing, by the Word
of God." (Romans 10:17) You need to bolster your faith by
reading and memorizing verses on eternal salvation and the
promises of God. The verses contained in my article 'Fifteen
Reasons Why Jesus Is Unique.' is a good place to start.

In conclusion, let me leave you with a cute little acronym
which will help you to remember that our salvation is only
by the grace of God:

G. R. A. C. E.

G ift R eceived A t C hrist's E xpense

If we truly believe this, then there will be no room in our
lives to self-righteously judge others whom we feel are not
as deserving as we are. Remember the admonition Jesus gave
to His disciples shortly after the encounter with the rich
man:

"But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall
be first." (Matthew 19:30)

Even today there are self-righteous people who think they
are standing in front of the theater line waiting for the
greatest movie of all time to begin. Then there are those
who thought they were smart by buying pirated tickets so
they could still grab a seat. Well, they may be surprised
someday to find out that those people a couple of blocks
away at the very end of the line might end up getting the
front row seats! It's something to think about, isn't it?