November 04, 2006
Newsletter Archives

The question of the permanence of salvation has often been debated. Some theologians say: “once saved, always saved.” Others insist that if Christians behave very badly they can lose their salvation and end in hell after death. The “always saved” people believe what is called “eternal security.” But are there clear Bible verses that would settle the question?
There are! For example, the Lord Jesus stated, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27, 28. He also declared, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come unto Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37
The New Testament was originally written in Greek. And those who know the Greek language would tell you that the words in these two verses, “shall never perish” and “in no wise cast out,” have a special grammatical construction called “the emphatic negation subjective.” The term means nothing to most people, but a Greek scholar would tell you that it is the equivalent of our modern expression “No way!” It is clearly outside the realm of possibility that anyone who has trusted Christ for the remission of sins can ever be lost.
The difficulty onlookers face is that they see people who claim to be Christians who live riotous lives. So they ask, “What about them?” Our response is that we can’t stop people from calling themselves Christians but that doesn’t mean they really are. Being “born again” is so transforming that if it does not change a life to morality, honesty, and uprightness, it is likely the one professing to be a Christian never was born again in the first place.
True Christians will sin, however. No one is perfect. One Christian put it this way: I am not perfect; I’m just forgiven. That is true but it is no excuse for bad behavior. Another has given it a slightly different twist stating that a Christian is not sinless, but he ought to sin less.

Jim Beattie

submitted by Russ Nesbit