I have heard it said, “Once saved, always saved.” Is that true? What can a person do to ensure he or she remains saved?
A person cannot do anything to save themselves, and a person cannot do anything to keep themselves saved. It is all God’s doing. It is all His work. It is all based on His grace, mercy, and unconditional love toward us.
Can Anyone Lose Their Salvation?
Questions about losing salvation originate straight from the lies of Satan himself. Satan wants you to live a defeated Christian life. Satan cast doubt on God’s word with Eve, and she fell into the trap. Using God’s Word, let’s settle this once and for all.
A passage of Scripture taught by Jesus has been misused, misinterpreted, taken out of context, and misapplied. Jesus said that no one can snatch one of His out of His hand (John 10:27-30) and that no one can snatch those who belong to Him out of His Father’s hand because He and the Father are one.
In context, Jesus teaches that He is the Gate to the fold. His sheep can go in and out to find pasture, to feed and rest, all the while protected by Jesus, the Gate. Thieves and robbers cannot harm His sheep (John 10:7-10).
Jesus then tells those gathered around Him that He gives His sheep eternal life (John 10:25-30) so they will never perish (suffer God’s eternal judgment of wrath), and that no thief or robber (including Satan himself) can steal His sheep away from Him.
In that context, believers should be secure, protected, and know they are eternally sealed in the hand of God. But foolish questions derived from Satan cause people to ask questions out of context, such as, “What if a person chooses to get out of God’s hand? What if a person leaves on his or her own accord, is that person still saved?
The answer to that question is, no, that person was never saved in the first place. The person does not lose salvation because he or she never had it.
To think a saved person would voluntarily want to leave the security and protection provided by God is preposterous and goes completely against God! This is not talking about a believer falling into a moment of sin. The question centers on the person never having believed at all.
Jesus uses many examples to show the difference. First, if a person could actually lose his or her salvation, it would require Christ to die over and over again (Hebrews 9:26).
It would mean that Jesus was not the perfect sacrifice, that it was not sufficient, and that more blood sacrifices would be required to pay the sin debt. Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect, only needing to be done once as Jesus cried out His last words on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Once we believe in Christ’s substitutionary death and His resurrection, we are given Jesus’ righteousness to replace our “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) that fall short of God’s standard (Romans 3:23). As we are adorned in His righteousness, we are seen through Jesus and made right with God.
When we are given Jesus’ righteousness, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13-14), which keeps us as a pledge of God’s inheritance and as an eternal sign of being God’s possession because we have been purchased with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20; Matthew 20:28).
Since believers are God’s inheritance and He has sealed us for eternity as His, the Apostle John affirms that we can know for a certainty that we have eternal life with Jesus (1 John 5:13). God would not have initiated His plan of salvation for us if He did not intend for us to be eternally secure.
As people, we are totally incapable of saving ourselves, keeping ourselves for Him, or even doing good works to please Him, apart from Jesus being our perfect sacrifice and the Holy Spirit sealing us and maturing us to be more like Jesus.
Why would God, who was willing to allow His own Son, Jesus, to die for us, not fulfill His work in us and fulfill His promise to us of eternal life with Him (Romans 8:31-39)?
God has given believers His peace (Romans 5:1), grafted us into Him as branches into the Vine (John 15) to sustain us, protected by God Himself (1 Peter 1:5), and able to save us forever (Hebrews 7:24).
Is it True Once Saved, Always Saved?
Once saved, believers are adopted as His children to establish a forever covenant with Him (Romans 8:15; Ephesians 1:5) and are equal — joint-heirs — with Jesus (Romans 8:17), not just sharing God’s riches and all of heaven but being co-equal beneficiaries with Jesus!
To all who believe in Jesus, God has given them the right, the authority, to be children of God (John 1:12), that we who believe are all children of God through faith (Galatians 3:26).
We are no longer slaves to sin, children of God and, as children, heirs (Galatians 4:7). This makes a believer an irrevocable beneficiary (Romans 11:29) of all that God possesses with an incorruptible inheritance (1 Peter 1:4).
Paul then teaches that we as believers are members of the body, with Jesus as the Head (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). As the Church, we as members of the body are all given a gift by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) to serve, edify, and minister (Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Peter 4:10).
As believers, given the righteousness of Jesus, we are then adorned as a bride ready to be presented to the bridegroom, Jesus (Revelation 19:7-8; Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:19-20).
Jesus will return to gather His bride, and we will feast at what has been prepared for us as the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9; Matthew 22:2).
God has provided those who believe in an eternal, sealed, secure, protected salvation. None of it is based on a person’s goodness or works, as no person can meet God’s standard on his or her own.
Through God’s mercy (not giving us the death we deserve) and grace (giving us what we do not deserve in and of ourselves) through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), God provided His unconditional love and His unmerited favor upon mankind.
God does not desire for anyone to perish (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9), so the work that Jesus did on the cross will cover payment for all of mankind’s sin and judgment.
But, and this is an important one, without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). A person must believe in Him (John 3:16) to be given eternal security and protection from God’s judgment of wrath.
Once accepted, Paul tells believers there is no longer any condemnation against those who believe in Jesus. Salvation, then, requires a person to call upon the name of the Lord in repentance to be saved (Acts 3:19; Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:10).
Remorse or feeling sorry or guilty for our sins is not enough. A person must accept what Jesus did on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and repent (turn away from sin, turn toward God).
The Bible offers numerous examples of those who are His and those who are not. Comparisons include those who are saved and lost (1 Corinthians 1:18; 15:2), the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30), the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), seed falling on fertile soil, and seed falling on stony ground (Matthew 13:1-23).
What Does This Mean?
At the end of each person’s life, there is only one of two responses that person will hear: “well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of the Lord” (Matthew 25:23), or, “Depart from me, I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23).
A person who does not accept Christ is not saved. A person who does accept Christ is saved for eternity. No one can take that person away from God’s love, security, and protection.
A believer becomes a child of God; a believer becomes a member of Christ’s body. A person is sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day that Jesus comes to gather His bride.
The question, can a person jump from God’s hand on his or her own, demonstrates an action of a person who was never in God’s protective hand in the first place (Titus 3:9; 1 Timothy 1:4; 1 Timothy 6:4).
God went into overdrive to prove He wants us as His children and wants to keep us for eternity. A believer has the living hope within, the confidence that God is good, God is faithful, and God keeps His promises.
Study the Word (2 Timothy 2:15), and you will be encouraged, blessed, and at peace with knowing that God — through all of His provisions — will never fail in His promises of eternal security!
For further reading:
Can a Christian Lose Salvation?
Does God Want All People to Be Saved?
Is it True Once Saved Always Saved?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/Tutye
