one nation
under God

AGAIN

There are so many Christians that aren’t clear on this topic. Many, unfortunately, don’t understand the doctrine of eternal security. Let’s take a close look at this subject so it isn’t something that will cause doubts or insecurities in your new life in Christ.

“A quick, simple way to get some clarity on this topic is to review what we have already established.”

We agree that when Jesus died on the cross, he paid for all sin. Past, present and future. So we need to ask ourselves, if Jesus Christ paid for all of our sins, which sins then, can make us lose our salvation? Absolutely none! They have all been paid for.

Some people have been led to think that bad behavior on their part can get to the point where God can decide to take back the salvation that he has already given. To them this makes sense. An ungodly life will not be enough to keep our place in heaven. We have to continue to live a life that honors God. If this were true, we need to ask ourselves if we received God’s salvation or his probation? Probation would be like getting saved until we sinned again. If salvation is dependent on how we live, then it’s really not salvation. Let’s break this down a little bit. First of all, we need to understand that forgiveness of all sin means exactly that, ALL SIN. There is no sin after you’ve been saved that has not forgiven. Not one! Think of the most hideous sin that you can ever commit. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was enough to forgive even that sin. There is absolutely nothing that you can do that is not forgiven.

Some will then say that due to the fact that all of our sins are forgiven, we can live as we please and still end up in heaven. We have to be so careful when we look into this scenario. If you are truly born again, you were indwelt with the Holy Spirit. One of the Holy Spirit’s responsibilities is to convict Christians of sin in their lives. When Christians do things that they shouldn’t be doing, they will feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. This is a supernatural uneasiness that is telling us that we shouldn’t be doing certain things. We also have, of course, the written word that specifically tells us what sins to avoid.

“The reality of life is that often we will ignore that conviction and continue to live in a way that our Father in heaven would not approve of.” 

When this occurs, our Father in heaven will do what any good father would do. He disciplines us. This discipline can take many different forms. God can allow any number of circumstances, often painful or difficult ones, to take place in our lives to get our attention. Hebrews 12:5-11 describes how God deals with us through discipline.

Unfortunately, some Christians will still not learn in spite of the discipline that God sends their way. God didn’t create robots. We are capable of leading disobedient lives. This behavior will inevitably lead to empty, unproductive and painful lives. People like this can still be saved but will have wasted their lives away.

In the book of 1 Corinthians 3:11-16, we’re told about what we can build on the foundation of Jesus Christ. We’re told that we can build upon the foundation with gold, silver and precious stones. These represent good, God honoring things. We’re also told that we can build with wood, hay or straw. These items, on the other hand, represent unfruitful, worthless works.
In these scriptures, we’re told that fire will be used to purify these different items. Those people with the wood, hay or straw will have nothing after the fire burns up their works.

“The Bible tells us, however, that they themselves will be saved. (I Corinthians 3:15)”

So there’s our answer. If a person is truly saved, he can live a sinful life and still end up in heaven. People like this are called “backsliders”. They, through careless living, have a weak, meaningless spiritual walk. When they stand before their Father in heaven, they will be ashamed and receive no rewards.

There is a very real danger here, however, for those that claim to be Christians when they always intended to live life however they wanted. A “backslider” is a Christian who once lived the proper way and then “backslid” into a sinful lifestyle. This person can never lose his eternal life. A “hypocrite”, however, is someone who never really belonged to God but outwardly said all the right things. This person was never saved in the first place. Someone like this will unfortunately find out that he never had a home in heaven. If you’re living a life that doesn’t honor God, you need to be very careful that your salvation experience was indeed genuine.

An apostate is someone who claimed to have held a particular truth and then departed from it.
Someone like this will say that they no longer believe in God and have decided to live their own life. A true apostate only gave lip service to Christian truths but never really accepted them so he never had a real conversion.

“Never forget that God knows what is inside our hearts and minds and knows exactly what our motivations are.” 

If our faith in him was genuine, he’ll know that but if it wasn’t, he will also know that.

Live your life in a God honoring way. This will always give you the most fulfillment in life.
In conclusion, true Christians can never lose their eternal life. (John 6:37)