Once Saved Always Saved?

With it being Easter weekend, I thought this would be a good time to talk about this... Once Saved Always Saved, or can you lose your salvation?


Can an egg be unhatched? can the baby chick ever go back in that shell?



No, of course not. It's a silly question. once the shell is broken and the young chick is born, they can't be unborn. Right?



The same concept can be applied to salvation if taken into full account of scripture and the nature of God as He is described in the Bible. "Once Saved Always Saved" is one of the most controversial concepts in Scripture.




But before I go into why it fits in Scripture, let me first explain what Once Saved Always Saved is NOT.



It is not a 'get out of jail free card'. It is not a permission slip to live worldly or however you want. It is not a license to sin. It is not a pat on the head to those who want to live however they want.



There are many who preach that, and that is NOT what it is or what is described in ANY part of the Bible. It's not. So strike that from your mind ASAP.


My belief, from what I come from my own study of Scripture, I call "TRULY Saved, Always Saved"


Now, I've heard arguments on both sides, and I'll talk about a few here.


I find it particular difficult to really argue the Calvinist without completely removing Romans chapter 8,9 and 10 from scripture but not impossible.


But just look at the overall scripture and theme of God's Word over the 4000+ years of writings, and how they describe God's Character and God's plan. That makes things more difficult to discredit it.


God is a jealous God. God will not do anything to give anyone else the glory, but to bring glory for Himself, so that none may boast.


We've all heard the testimonies and songs, I choose to follow Jesus, I walked the isle, I made a decision.


decisions can change. we are fickle people. And by our natural desires we will ALWAYS choose sin and selfishness over God and selflessness. Even if we do something to help others, there's always an ulterior motive. When we do something we do something for ourselves.


Even the concept of our deciding to follow Jesus is an act of selfish desire. We want to be saved, we want to escape hell, etc. etc. etc. A question that always bothers me is the old guilt them to the alter question  "If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven or hell?"


To be completely honest, even after receiving salvation, I would likely answer, "Well sir/ma'am, I'm honestly not planning to die tonight..."


Salvation ultimately is about being found innocent before God through the covering of the blood of Christ, and if we look at it as only that, then it is easier to believe that it is a choice that can be lost or turned away from.


But the truth of God's Salvation Plan is so, so much deeper than that. It means so much more than getting to go to Heaven. That's just a benefit. The true wonderful aspect of Salvation of Christ, is getting the Holy Spirit, getting God, and being sanctified and transformed into the image and persona of Christ.


And the most important thing to learn of Salvation is who makes the first and last move. Is it you deciding to follow Jesus? Is it you walking the isle and throwing yourself to an alter, and saying a prayer. There's nothing wrong with the Roman's Road, but we've put too much into it I believe. We focus too much on what we say, and what we do and how we respond. What about God? What about what God does? What about how God moves?


When we are in the world, we are blind to all of our sins. sure, we may have an inkling of right and wrong in the world and in others, but to ourselves, we have scales over our eyes preventing us from seeing just how wrong we are. When it is time for our salvation to be made manifest, we have to receive the call. What call? God himself, as the Holy Spirit, will come upon you, and call you to Himself. He will open your eyes. Like Isaiah when he stood before the throne of God, He didn't celebrate, he wasn't joyful, he saw his sinfulness and he wept, and cried out that he was guilty of death.


God will make you aware just how sinful you are. You may not see everything you're doing wrong, sometimes it takes time to truly be made aware of ALL the sins in your life, but at that one moment in time, you will be made aware.


God has many ways of moving over you and making you aware through the Holy Spirit. He does it through the preaching and teaching of His Word. He does it through the actions and love of His people living the Gospel and sharing the Love of Christ. He does it through reading of God's Word. And sometimes He simply does it Himself, and the Spirit washes over you.


Anyway it happens, God calls you to himself, and makes you realize that you are beyond a doubt in need of his Salvation. At that moment, that's when you're able to not only speak the words that Christ is Lord, but you truly believe it in your heart. Without the revelation, you may know of God, you may know He is in control, you may speak Christ is Lord, but in your heart, YOU are lord, and YOU are in Control. He has to break your sinful heart and its control over you.


I walked the isle when I was 6 years old at VBS. I knew God. I knew he was in control. I knew Jesus. I knew all the right things. I said that mass-produced oft-said prayer, and spent years playing the part of a good Christian boy. But my heart I was lord. I was addicted to the pats on the back. I was hooked on the praise. I loved to hear how good I was.


It wasn't until I was 17 years old, in a discipleship training class, Tonya Hennessee asked her dad, our teacher, questions and was confused and concerned for her own salvation. I have no doubt God allowed the doubt to enter her heart to the intensity of asking questions for me. He arranged that moment in time, and as everyone was talking to her and trying to comfort her, I sat in the back. It is difficult to describe what was happening to me. I FELT God. I felt his presence washing over me and through me. I felt like I was in a storm, and all I could do was sit there and be hammered over and over by His power. I could see over what I had done, and who I was and I could see how much of a sinful person I was. I knew at that moment that I was without hope or excuse. I was condemned. I didn't ask him to enter my heart. I didn't go any isle or anything like that (even though I did later) I just sat there and I cried, and I mentally and silently, because I could form no words, cried out to God without even a thought of what I was trying to think or pray, I just cried out and reached out like a child reaching for his Father. And, that storm of power that I knew was the Holy Spirit changed from a rush of power to a warm embrace. And for the first time, I knew God. I didn't just know of God. I knew Him, and I knew He had called me to Himself and called me His.


It flew in the face of everything I had been taught of getting saved.


It made me realize it wasn't about me, but it was all about Him.


All through the Old Testament, it made clear that God handled things, he did not give Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, the Judges, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, the Kings of Israel and Judah, the Prophets, they were all clearly instruments or witnesses of God and his power and authority. And Paul even makes it clear in Ephesians that it is by grace you are saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, but a gift from God, and not by work, so that no one can boast.


So if our faith is from God, and the call is from God, and not a thing to do with anything we do, our salvation is of God and not ourselves. So how can we walk away from or lose something that was had absolutely nothing to do with?


John Piper writes this about the concept:

“The true Christian is safe, but his safety is confirmed in his pressing on to make his final inheritance his own. Our safety is seen in the words “because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” In other words, our security is not based finally on our grip on Christ, but his grip on us. ” -John Piper

I could not agree more with this statement, though we might disagree as to means and methods that God uses to “make us” His own.  The real question of this debate is not, “Can you lose your salvation,” but instead, “If you lost it, did you ever have it to begin with?” 1 John 2:19 and 20 answers that question quite clearly:


They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.


I had a friend of mine try to tell me it's like love, that people can fall in and out of Love. As she knew of a friend who fell out of love with her husband and left him. but, that's not Love at all. With great care I had to explain to her that she cannot refer to that as “love,” because according to God’s definition “love does not fail.”  True genuine love is a never ending commitment.  So, this woman may have cared for her husband, liked him a lot, or been infatuated with him for a time, but she cannot rightly call what she had “love.”  We cannot change the definition of the word to match our behaviors.


The same is true of salvation.  If it lasts, then it’s real.  If it does not then it is proven itself to have been false.  So, from the human perspective, unlike God who can see the heart, it may appear one has lost something that he once attained.  This may be why some passages appear to suggest that we may lose our salvation.  However, from the divine perspective one choosing to walk away from the faith is merely revealing externally what has been true internally all along.  The ultimate external fruit of true salvation is perseverance to the very end.


Now, does that mean God’s warnings about falling away are benign?  Is God just bluffing as a means to ensure we do not fall away even though He knows full well we cannot?  I do not believe so.  We should never dull the edge of God’s warnings with our systematics.  The warning is a real one and it is given for those who may be self-deceived into thinking they have something they truly do not. This is why Paul exhorts his listeners to, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.” (2 Cor. 13:5) Paul is not concerned for those who truly are in the faith, but for those who falsely believe they are in the faith.  The only way the self-deceived may come to realize their error is by examining themselves to see if Christ is truly in them.  I love what Francis Chan wrote in his book titled Crazy Love in reference to the parable of the sower:

“Do not assume you are good soil.”

I constantly test myself by the Scriptures and in prayers. I have to remind myself that I am nothing and undeserving of God's Grace, that He gave it freely. And Christ died for the sins of those who have been Called by his name. We can't put Him back on the Cross for sins that he had already paid for. We have to realize that there is no condemnation in Christ, and in that even when we stumble and fall, he has given us the ability to get back up. When things become too much and we stray, he simply goes with us and waits for us to hear his voice again. He is not like us. He will never leave us or forsake us. If we depended on our own power, we would never be able to get up, nor will we ever realize when we've strayed. No, it is through the Holy Spirit that we are aware of ourselves and how we are and Who we need. We are called to persevere but we can only do that through the Power of He who is within us. We persevere because His power and His will, not our own.


That is why Truly Saved Always Saved is true, Because it's not about us, or our feelings or our thoughts.


It's all about Him, and His Glory, forever and ever, Amen .