TRUE ETERNAL SECURITY

WHO ARE THE SHEEP?

The doctrine of eternal security, also referred to by some as “once saved, always saved,” has been crucial for me in understanding the goodness and faithfulness of God. It firmly establishes God as the author and sustainer of salvation and negates any source of credit that one may claim before the cross.

One of the bedrock verses supporting this doctrine are the words of Jesus Christ Himself, who declared that:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. (John 10:27-29, ESV)

Sadly, as many detractors and even believers of this doctrine point out, the belief in eternal security can be misconstrued by some to be a license to sin. After all, where is the danger? Our salvation is safe and secure already, after all!

Many jump on the promises that the sheep “never perish” and “no one will snatch them out of my hand,” and while these are true, we must remember that the same passages also describe certain characteristics of those who are saved.

First, they hear God’s voice (John 10:27a). This is more than hearing preaching on Sunday morning or a cursory reading of one’s Bible. To hear, as the passage uses it, implies a recognition of one’s Master (cf. John 10:5).

In Bible times, shepherds would often guard their sheep together with other shepherds. The flocks would be mixed in the common sheep-pen, but despite this, the shepherd knew whose sheep belonged to him. He knew their physical characteristics, their peculiarities even and not only that, but he also knew them by name. He could call them and they would follow him out of the sheep-pen. They would not do so to a stranger.

Second, they followed him (John 10:27b). Not only is hearing in view here, but also hearing that seeks to obey. There is not only recognition, but there is also obedience.

At this point, it is necessary to stress that obedience is not a prerequisite for salvation. We are saved through God’s grace, through faith:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.(Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV)

However, this faith is more than mere intellectual assent to a set of facts, but it is living and dynamic. It is active, and as such, it necessarily gives proof of being genuine through external manifestation. After all, the same passage in Ephesians tells us that we were saved to do good works:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.(Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

A claim that one has saving faith without the presence of proof is something that is highly questionable. In fact, the brother of Jesus, James, addresses his Epistle to such claims:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? (James 2:14, ESV)

James points out the absurdity of such a claim, if, upon examination, it fails to provide the vital proof that its is real saving faith.

But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?…For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (James 2:18-19, 26 ESV)

THE SIGNS OF A BELIEVER

A truly saved person is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) is justified by faith (Romans 5:1), is redeemed and rescued by God (Colossians 1:13-14), is led and sealed by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14-17, Ephesians 1:13, 4:30), and who bears the characteristics or fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf. Galatians 5:22-23). He is not perfect (cf. 1 John 1:8-10) but he has in himself the prompting of the Holy Spirit to desire to please God.

He has repented of his sin (Acts 3:19, 20:21) and continues to live a repentant life (cf. 1 John 1:9), always conscious of his shortcomings, yet trusting in the God who justifies the sinner (Romans 3:26, 4:4-5). There is, in the saved person, a growing disgust for sin, which is the natural result of a relationship with God: we begin to love what He loves, and abhors what He abhors. Gerry Bridges drives home this point:

”Because God is holy, He hates sin. Hate is such a strong word we dislike using it. We reprove our children for saying they hate someone. Yet when it comes to God’s attitude toward sin, only a strong word such as hate conveys the adequate depth of meaning. Hatred is a legitimate emotion when it comes to sin. In fact, the more we see ourselves grow in holiness, the more we hate sin…As we grow in holiness, we grow in hatred of sin; and God, being infinitely holy, has an infinite hatred of sin.

“We often say. “God hates the sin but loves the sinner.” This is blessedly true, but too often we quickly rush over the first half of the statement to get to the second. We cannot escape the fact that God hates our sins. We may trifle with our sins or excuse them, but God hates them.

“Therefore every time we sin, we are doing something God hates. He hates our lustful thoughts, our pride and jealousy, our outbursts of temper, and our rationalization that the end justifies the means. We need to be gripped by the fact that god hates all these things. We become so accustomed to our sins we sometimes lapse into a state of peaceful coexistence with them, but God never ceases to hate them.

“We need to cultivate in our hearts the same hatred of sin God has. Hatred of sin as sin, not just as something disquieting or defeating to ourselves, but displeasing to God, lies at the root of all true holiness. We must cultivate the attitude of Joseph, who said when he was tempted, ‘How then could I do this great evil, and sin against God?’ (Genesis 39:9)

“In the deceitfulness of our hearts, we sometimes play with temptations by entertaining the thought that we can always confess and later ask forgiveness. Such thinking is exceedingly dangerous. God’s judgment is without partiality. He never overlooks our sin. He never decides not to bother, since the sin is only as small one. No, God hates sin intensely whenever and wherever he finds it.” ” – (Gerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, pp. 31-33)

OBEDIENCE IS PROOF OF SAVING FAITH

True saving faith not only rescues a person from hell and gives eternal life, but it empowers a person to obey. One to whom God has graciously bestowed repentance and faith is likewise given the motivation and the ability to obey God:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 1ho gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14, ESV)

John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, described the error common among many evangelical and Baptist churches today that seemingly creates a false division between justification and sanctification, which makes it sound that sanctification is an optional “second level” that may or may not occur in a Christian’s life.

In a lecture at Wheaton Christian High School, Piper spoke about the need for lust. Building on Matthew 5:28–29 where Jesus says, "Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell." he pointed out that Jesus said heaven and hell are at stake in what a person does with his eyes and with the thoughts of his imagination. Describing the reaction to the message, Piper writes:

After the message one of the students came up to me and asked, "Are you saying, then, that a person can lose his salvation?"

This is exactly the same response I got a few years ago when I confronted a man about the adultery he was presently living in. I tried to understand his situation and I pled with him to return to his wife. Then I said, "You know Jesus says that if you don't fight this sin with the kind of seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye, you will go to hell and suffer there forever."

He looked at me in utter disbelief, as though he had never heard anything like this in his life, and said, "You mean you think a person can lose his salvation?"

So I have learned again and again from first hand experience that there are many professing Christians who have a view of salvation that disconnects it from real life, and that nullifies the warnings of the Bible and puts the sinning person who claims to be a Christian beyond the reach of biblical threats. And this doctrine is comforting thousands on the way to hell. “ (John Piper, Battling the Unbelief of Lust, November 13, 1988)

Addressing the issue squarely, Piper says: :

“The great error that I am trying to…is the error that says, faith in God is one thing and the fight for holiness is another thing. Faith gets you to heaven and holiness gets you rewards. You get your justification by faith, and you get your sanctification by works. You start the Christian life in the power of the Spirit, you press on in the efforts of the flesh. This is the great evangelical error of our day. The battle for obedience is optional, they say, because only faith is necessary for salvation.

Our response: the battle for obedience is absolutely necessary for salvation because it IS the fight of faith. The battle against lust is absolutely necessary for salvation because it is the battle against unbelief. Faith alone delivers from hell and the faith that delivers from hell delivers from lust. “ (ibid.)

Jesus likewise strongly emphasized obedience as the proof that one knows, believes and loves Him:

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15, ESV)

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. (John 14:21-24, ESV)

GOD’S PURPOSE FOR THE SHEEP

The second most famous set of verses describing the security of the believer’s salvation, Romans 8:28-39, emphasizes that salvation also involves a predestination of those who are saved to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). The same verses begin with an assurance that what God has purposed in a believer will definitely come to pass:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)

Having stated such, Paul then emphasizes the complete assurance of a salvation that cannot be lost or cannot be stolen:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39, ESV)

God’s purpose cannot be broken. Those whom He saves He will conform into the image of His Son. If the work of God in one’s life is absent: if there is no growing desire to please God; if there is no sorrow and repentance over sin; if there is no compulsion to obey; if there is no proof of a changed and sanctified life, then there is no real comfort in the doctrine of eternal security. Worse, it might be the bedrock of a delusion where one believes that he or she is saved, perhaps because he or she once “said a prayer,” or walked down the aisle in an altar call, or perhaps raised his or her hand when some preacher said so.

It is no sin to question one’s salvation if it seems that the fruits are missing. Paul in fact challenges the Corinthians to do just that:

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? --unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Corinthians 13:5, ESV)

All quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.