The Doctrine of Eternal Security

RV39-02

He promises, therefore, not to erase their names from the Lamb' book of life. He promises, furthermore, to acknowledge them as His own before God the Father and the angels. How fantastic indeed that the Holy God of the universe is ready to receive us forever on the basis of His provision entirely apart from our own doing. That is grace in its finest expression.

The Doctrine of Eternal Security

1. We Cannot Become Lost Again

   Eternal security means that a sinner, once born again into the family of God, can never lose that position and become lost again. That's all it means. Eternal security means that once you have been born into the family of God, you can never again be unborn from that family. This does not mean that a believer is sinless, and it's very important for us to understand that. To say that you are eternally secure is not to say that you are sinless. You are secure in spite of the fact that you are not sinless. 1 John 2:1 says, "My little children, these things write I unto you so that you don't sin. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." Remember that this verse is being spoken to Christians. The purpose of John's writing is to enable believers not to sin. But he says that if they do sin (because they do indeed sin), he also wants them to understand that there is a lawyer in heaven (an advocate), Jesus Christ, standing for in behalf of their defense, using His wounds as evidence that they are not guilty.

   This also does not mean that God will not discipline His child when that child is guilty of evil. That is one of the things that is immediately brought up by people who think that you can lose your salvation. They immediately suggest, "Well, that means that you will live a very evil life. If people are told that they are secure in their salvation, they will live a very evil life." Hebrews 12:6-11 says this: "For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God will deal with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father does not chasten? But if you be without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they, verily, for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure. But He, for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who were exercised by it." So, the writer of Hebrews makes it clear that Christians are chastened (disciplined) by the Lord for their evildoing.

   Note one thing that this does mean: It does mean that spiritual birth is as irreversible as physical birth. John 10:27-29 (we read those in the previous session) say that those that the Father has given the Son can never be taken out of His hand again. It does mean that spiritual birth is as irreversible as physical birth.

   So, point number one says that eternal security means that a sinner, once born again into the family of God, can never lose that position and become lost again.

2. God's Justice has been Exercised on Jesus Christ

   Eternal security is based on the fact that God's justice against all the sins of the world has been exercised completely and forever on Jesus Christ. Whatever the justice of God demanded in terms of dealing with sin and in terms of punishing sin has been fully exercised on the person of Jesus Christ. 1 John 2:2: "And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." What this means is that the absolute righteousness of God demands perfect justice in Himself toward sin. Sin must be punished. If God did not punish sin, then God Himself would become unrighteous. Thus, the absolute righteousness of God rejected fellowship with the sinner, and the perfect justice of God administered the penalty that demanded spiritual death. That's what Romans 6:23 tells us – that there is a penalty, and that penalty is death.

   So, God's absolute righteousness rejected all fellowship with the sinner, and the perfect justice of God administered the penalty that was deserved by the guilty one. The penalty has been transferred to the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and the absolute righteousness of God has been permanently imputed to the sinner who trusts in Christ as Savior. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that, "He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the absolute righteousness of God in Him.

   Now that divine justice has no demands to make against the believing sinner, and divine righteousness is preserved, there is no problem between the sinner and God. Divine righteousness has been satisfied relative to our sin, and absolute righteousness has been provided. God's character has been preserved. So, since the believer possesses absolute righteousness, and he possesses this permanently, divine justice can only bless the believer forever. It can never again condemn you. Once you possess absolute righteousness, there is nothing that God can do but love you and bless you. So, eternal security point number two is based on the fact that God's justice against all the sins of the world has been exercised completely and forever on the person of Jesus Christ.

3. The Imputation of Absolute Righteousness

   Absolute righteousness is imputed to a sinner at the point of accepting Jesus Christ as his Savior – when he believes the gospel. The new birth is an instantaneous event. Acts 16:31 says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" – right then at that moment. The believer immediately then receives the absolute righteousness of Jesus Christ. In Romans 4:23-24, we read, "Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." At the point of believing, absolute righteousness is imputed to us. What God does is that He recognizes His own absolute righteousness in the believer. He loves that absolute righteousness, because God loves His Own Holiness, and because He sees absolute righteousness credited to our account, God declares that person justified, and in God's sight, he stands as one without any moral guilt, and thus as one who has never been guilty of evil. That is the thing you must understand. Until you go through this in this kind of a systematic way, the idea of being saved once and forever is entirely alien to normal human thinking, and there will be no ground of assurance unless you grasp what God has done. He has given you absolute righteousness. Therefore, when He looks at you, He sees that absolute righteousness, and then He declares you justified.

   The whole transaction is a grace gift to the sinner with absolutely no human works involved or required. That's what Romans 6:23 says: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ." It comes as a gift. So, a believing sinner possesses absolute righteousness, which is neither his own by nature nor maintained by him after he has received it. That's important. You need that absolute righteousness to be declared justified. Remember that unless God can say that you're justified, you cannot go to heaven. That absolute righteousness is neither yours by nature, nor is it maintained by you after you have received it. Since you're out of it, you cannot lose it. Since salvation is of God as a gift, there are no strings attached to retaining it.

   That's what the human mind wants to always come up with – some kind of a string that God has attached to that salvation that He has given you. There are no strings attached. God never said , "I'll save you if ..." He never said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved if ..." Anytime you do not believe that the salvation you have is secured to you forever, then you're adding an "if" to every passage that deals with grace salvation, and that cannot be.

   The real issue in eternal security is whether a genuinely born again person possessing eternal life can lose that which God alone has done in saving him. That's the question. If you possess eternal life, which came to you as an act of God alone, is it possible for you to lose that which God alone has produced? And the answer is, "No."

4. Who Does the Work of Saving?

   The ultimate question in eternal security is: "Who does the work of saving?" Now, there are several answers which we might give. The first one is the sinner alone. Many people indeed say that that is why you are saved. You alone do the saving. This cannot be true because the sinner is spiritually dead, and therefore, he is totally incapable of producing a single divine good work which would merit salvation. That's what Ephesians 2:1 tells us – that everybody is spiritually dead. If you're spiritually dead, you can produce nothing of merit with God. "You have been made alive who are were spiritually dead in trespasses and sins." So, the answer cannot be that the sinner alone does the work of saving a soul.

   A more popular answer is that salvation is part the work of the sinner, and part the work of God. But, of course, that obviously violates the concept of grace salvation. It is important to realize that God doesn't save on any other basis but grace. Once you interject this concept that salvation is partly of what you do, you have removed any possible ground for salvation whatsoever. In Romans 4:4-5, we read, "Now, to him that works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of death. But to him that does not work, but believes on Him to justify the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Whose faith is counted for righteousness? "To him that does not work, and to him alone." You can add to that, of course, Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."

   The third answer as to how salvation is brought about is, of course, God alone, and this is exactly what the Bible teaches. All of you know John 3:16. That's what that verse says. Romans 5:6-8 tells us that it is God alone: "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." While we were yet sinners, with nothing to offer, that's when God came into the picture.

   So, internal security is based on the fact that salvation depends entirely on who and what God is and does – never on what man is, or what man does.

5. Salvation is Always a Gift (Not Earned)

   Salvation is never a reward which is earned in the Bible, but always a gift received. The Bible never talks about salvation as being a reward. Anytime you read passages in the Bible that deal with rewards, you can know absolutely immediately that it has nothing do with salvation. Salvation is always a grace gift. It is never anything else. John 4:10; Romans 6:23; and, Ephesians 2:8:9 all declare that salvation is a grace gift.

   Rewards

   Now, rewards, that you do read about in the bible, are always associated with good service, and they are earned by divine good service, or they are lost by carnality. In Matthew 10:42; 1 Corinthians 9:24-25; and, Revelation ... 22:12 – these passages all deal with the fact that rewards are earned by divine production (that is, Holy Spirit production), or they are lost by carnality. Salvation is a reality that you possess now, but rewards are potential. You can lose rewards, but never salvation.

   This is what brings confusion, because people who read passages that deal with rewards in heaven for Christian service associate that with salvation. Then, obviously, the Bible does talk about losing rewards. One of the great tragedies when the rapture takes place is going to be Christians who discover how little they have in terms of rewards in heaven. That is going to directly affect the enjoyment of your eternal life. Oh, you'll be saved. Paul makes that very clear. He says that there are some folks who are going to heaven by the skin of their teeth. They're just barely going to make it in. Is this because they behave themselves? No, it is simply because they trusted in Christ as Savior. Unless you're not taking care of your teeth very well, and you're letting the plaque build up, you won't have any skin on your teeth. So, to be saved by the skin of your teeth, almost suggests the problems that you have. But you're just barely believing. You just believe. You accept it, and that's it. You're in the family of God.

   However, it's going to be a shock. I'm amazed at how this doctrine of rewards is distorted on the one hand, by attaching it to salvation, and ignored on the other hand, by vast numbers of churches who often are very sound in the Bible. Christian people should never be allowed (and certainly in these closing days of the dispensation of grace) to forget the importance of storing treasures in heaven. The Lord Jesus had a lot to say on that, as you well know, and He tried to alert us to the fact that our sights on temporal matters are going to cost us dearly when it comes to eternal pleasures in His presence someday.

   So, salvation is a reality now, but rewards are always potential. Salvation is not something which is potential. You've got it. The rewards passages confuse the salvation issue. They deal with good works as believers.

6. Salvation is a Grace Gift

   Salvation is provided by God as a grace gift. The reason He did this was to make it absolutely certain that you could not lose your salvation. Romans 4:16 says, "Therefore, it is of faith (that is, salvation), that it might be by grace to the end, that the promise (that is, the promise of eternal life) might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all." Abraham was given the promise that he and his followers would be given a new heart. He was given the promise of eternal life. All of his seed, both Jewish and gentile, were given the promise of salvation through faith – eternal life through believing in Christ as a gift from God. The reason it was established as a gift from God is so that you could never lose it.

   Obviously, if you have a beautiful television set that you have bought, and that you have arranged to buy on time payments, and you don't make the payments, you can lose your television set. But if somebody at Christmastime gave you a television set as a gift, you never can lose it, unless somebody steals it, and that doesn't happen with salvation. But it's yours because it was given to you. You have title to it, and no one else can lay claim to that.

   So, salvation was provided as a great gift for the very purpose of making sure that it was secure forever. You must make that connection. Most people don't ever ask themselves, "Why is it that God saves by grace?" Well, here is was one of the biggest reasons. If He didn't save by grace, you would never be sure of it.

7. Peace in the Soul

   Perfect security in salvation means peace in the soul of the believer. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." That is a very wonderful thing – to have peace with God, and not to be afraid about coming into God's presence. Anybody who is not absolutely sure that his salvation cannot be revoked is never at peace. He is always uneasy because you never know at what point in your life you have had that salvation revoked. You never know when you have been evil enough that God says, "Okay, that's too much. You crossed the line."

   Please remember this: You could ask somebody who does not believe in eternal security, "How do you lose your salvation?" He would say, "Well, by sinning." Then you could ask him, "Well, how much sin? Any sin" He might say, "Well, no, not everything – not little ones: just really bad big ones." They will never say, "Just one little speck of sin, and you're out." That is because their own experience tells them that they can't stay in salvation very long. You have to be a pretty mature Christian to be able to go very long during the day without being guilty of evil yourself. So, the sin always has to be something that they call "gross sin." Most of those people wouldn't really know a gross sin if they saw it – if it was staring them in the face. But they envision it as something very terrible, and they don't really want to know gross sin, because they prefer to think that they don't have that kind of sin themselves. But there's no peace in that. There's misery. That's enough to drive a gentiles to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. I mean, that is misery. There's no peace in that at all. There's no rest. You're always on edge. You never know where you are. Of course, that isn't the kind of salvation we have. Romans 5:1 says, "We have that peace."

   So, what does that mean? Well, it means that a Christian, instead of worrying about whether he's still going to heaven, can get his thinking on what he should be thinking about – storing treasures in heaven. He can go on to the question of rewards. He doesn't always have to be looking over his shoulder fearfully to see whether God is sneaking up on him about ready to cast him into hell. The Christian can go on to spiritual prosperity and to spiritual maturity. He doesn't have to keep slipping back forever into spiritual bankruptcy.

   Of course, the reason Satan likes to keep your eyes on the issue of salvation is so that you will not go on to spiritual maturity. He does not want you to go to super grace, and he certainly does not want you to store treasures in heaven. Isn't it a terrible thing when you think how this city is filled with churches on Sundays where the preachers preach on the theme of the gospel? The preacher prepared his whole Sunday message with one single thought at the end of that sermon: how many more members he could bring into his church by getting people to walk down the aisle and join that assembly? The gospel message was what he gave those people. And for the 52 other Sundays of the year, they've heard the gospel message.

   This is the very thing that we're talking about here – that a Christian has his eyes focused on the gospel, either in the fear that he's going to lose it, or in the idea that he comes to church to hear the gospel so that some poor soul there might be saved. Preachers should not be preaching on the gospel when Christians gather together for worship. The Christians who have gathered there for worship should be out there preaching the gospel among the unbelievers that they move with. How many unbelievers generally come to church? Not many. Unbelievers are elsewhere than in church. This is why the people of God are so pathetically starved.

8. Eternal Security only Applies to Those who are Born Again

   Eternal security only applies to one who has been genuinely born again. The profession of salvation apart from the reality of the new birth is not uncommon among people. There are plenty of people who are running around saying and claiming that they are born again who indeed are not. 1 John 2:19 says, "They went out from us (some who left the fellowship of the believers), but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." So, John is explaining to Christians who are a little upset here that they see that some people quit attending their assembly. Suddenly, many of them, perhaps, were even active, and suddenly they evaporated. They were off doing something else. Demas was one of those. Paul had a personal association with him in that respect. John here says, "I'll tell you what that indicates. That indicates that they were never part of us in the family of God in the first place. If they had been, they would not have deserted us.

   So, eternal security, obviously, only applies to those who genuinely are born again. Mere professors of salvation can imitate all the virtues of the Christian life and all the lifestyles of Christians, and they may be viewed by others as being true believers. I can't look into the hearts of you people, as you cannot look into anyone else's heart. You may be putting on a pretty good front. You may be playing all of the themes that make you sound and appear to be a Christian, but only you know how genuine that is. Only you know whether you have believed and whether you have cast yourself upon the mercy of God through faith in Christ.

   What I'm getting at is that one of the arguments brought against eternal security is that there's always somebody who says, "Man, I know so-and-so. He was a wonderful person. He was even an officer in the church. And all of a sudden, man, he ran off. He got off into immorality, and went off doing this and doing that. You can't tell me that he is still saved." Well, maybe he wasn't saved in the first place, and that, in all likelihood, is the issue. However, I wouldn't want to give you the false impression that a person who is saved cannot also be very immoral. That's true. A person who is saved can also be as guilty of these things of the world as anybody else. But very often the person who just drifts off from the things of God or goes deeply into sin is simply not saved in the first place.

   Public Moves

   Part of this problem is this point right here. People get into that situation because they become the victims of false invitations for receiving Christ as Savior. As a result of that false invitation, people assume that they are in the family of God when they are not saved, in point of truth, at all. There are all kinds of false ways to invite people to be saved. The public move technique is for preachers' statistical benefit within their denomination and within their church structure and with other churches. It is to prove their success. Calling people to make a public move in order to be saved is a notion out of hell itself. It is not a thing that you find anywhere in the Word of God. The only way you find salvation presented in the Word of God is a group of people who have the gospel taught to them, and they are urged to accept it. And out of that group, some of them believe, and some of them do not believe. Those who believe indicate that by beginning to associate with a local assembly of believers.

   So, a false invitation is a very serious problem. A lot of these people who think they're saved are hung in that because they did something that some preacher told them to do that he indicated would get them saved that had nothing to do with salvation at all.

9. Discipline

   A child of God is disciplined for his sinfulness, but he is never lost again. Chastening itself is an evidence that you are a child of God. 1 Corinthians 11:29-32 teach that. But the divine discipline is for the child of God, and it may involve physical death. But the believer is still God's child. 1 John 5:16: "If any man sees his brother sin a sin which is not unto death." One Christian sees another Christian guilty of a sin, but not in the category of a sin unto death (that is, where his physical life is taken): "He shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it." There are some people who are on the road to physical death, and you may pray for them – that God will preserve their lives. But sometimes the Lord will indicate to you and say, "I'm taking this Christian out. This Christian has crossed the line, and there is no return, and don't even pray for him. Don't even talk to Me about it." The Lord says, "Don't even discuss it. Death is the decision, and there is no return for this person." And the Lord indeed will sometimes give us that very clear indication as we see Him dealing with someone who is in the family of God.

10. Evidence of Salvation

    Verses quoted to prove the need to maintain one's salvation actually deal with human works which give the evidence of salvation. Believers should show their new birth in their daily lives (James 2:14-26). The whole point of James is that God sees salvation; He understands whether your faith is genuine; but, people understand what they see. So, to God, you prove your salvation by faith to people – you prove it by your works. But these verses are not associated with salvation. Some verses refer to broken temporal fellowship – not to eternal fellowship. John 15:6 is like that. Of course, 1 John 1:9 is a verse that people love to say, "You see, that one indicates that you can be lost: 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'" This is being spoken to Christians. The argument is, "You see, a Christian can lose his righteousness." No, that is dealing with temporal fellowship – not with eternal fellowship. Christians who are saved are indeed to produce divine good works (Ephesians 2:10, Titus 3:8). That's the name of the game in the Christian life. But these verses that deal with rewards should not be associated with maintaining salvation.

11. The New Birth

    Salvation means entering the family of God by the new birth (John 1:12, Galatians 3:26).

12. Discipline does not mean Loss of Salvation

    A child of God is disciplined for his sinfulness, but he is not lost again. Here's the point that we should have made earlier (where we jumped). Here is the reference that chastening itself is an evidence of being a child of God (1 Corinthians 11:29-32). The divine discipline, as we indicated, might involve physical death (1 John 5:16). There are times when you don't even pray that God is going to preserve a life. So, failure to live a godly life will bring discipline on a Christian, but it will never cause him to lose his salvation.

    Of course, one of the great examples of that in the Old Testament was Saul. Saul was guilty of the sin of death when he refused to rub out the Amalekites nation. The result was that ultimately God took his life. But we know that Saul went to heaven, because when God permitted him to talk with Samuel, who was already dead, and Saul was asking Samuel what to do, Samuel said, "Tomorrow you and your sons are going to be where I am." Of course, the place of Samuel was the place of eternal life with God. So, we have indicated that Saul, as terrible a man as he was, was going to go to heaven. You don't lose your salvation, but you may lose your physical life.

13. Fallen From Grace

    The term "fallen from grace" in Galatians 5:1-4 does not refer to salvation, but to the lifestyle of freedom as a believer – going into a life of bondage of legalism. That is falling from grace – the lifestyle which depends upon keeping certain rituals; certain holy days; and, performing certain good things at certain times in order to gain God's favor. That is fallen from grace. It has nothing to do in that passage with eternal life.

14. Enduring Unto the End

    Matthew 24:13 speaks about enduring until the end. People quote this first to show that if you do not endure until the end, you will not be saved. Let's just read that verse, because it sure sounds like that's what it's saying: "But he shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." But, of course, what that is referring to here in this passage is the end of the tribulation. The word "saved" means physical survival. It means to be rescued by Jesus Christ at His Second Coming. You have to fit it in the context there. This is a person who survives (a believer who survives) the tribulation. He will be kept physically alive to go into the millennium by the arrival of Jesus Christ. But it is this verse that sometimes you'll hear people – they pray publicly, and they close their prayers with, "And Lord, save us in the end." This what they're talking about. ... But the point of this verse is not that somehow you've got to survive through to the point of death, or you may not make it.

15. All Sin has been Paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ

    Every sin which a believer can commit has already been paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John 2:2 says, "He is the propitiation for all those sins."

16. The Position of Absolute Righteousness is Secure

    The believer's position of absolute righteousness cannot be changed by his practice of evil at some point in time. Oh, how the legalists hate to hear someone say that. A believer's position in absolute righteousness can never be changed no matter how rotten you become; no matter how evil you become; or, how base you become. Now, if you follow that route, you're going to have an awful lot of miserable discipline from God. I'll guarantee you that. But you will not lose your salvation. You have to understand that. You have to think in terms of salvation being possessed forever by the worst possible kind of person you can imagine, or you don't understand eternal security. If God has done it, it's going to be preserved. He is perfect, and what He does is perfect.

17. Jesus Christ is our Advocate

    The work of Jesus Christ in Heaven now, as the believer's advocate, assures us of eternal salvation. This often comes as a great relief to people. 1 John 2:1 tells us that Jesus Christ is our advocate: "My little children, these things I write unto you that you don't sin. If any man (anyone) sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." The Lord Jesus is always in heaven acting as your defender. He is your lawyer. One of the nice things about the Lord Jesus Christ, in contrast to human lawyers, is that He never loses a case. Hebrews 9:24 says, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Why is He in the presence of the Father? For us. So, I want you to remember the next time the devil sneaks up on you and says, "Hey, you're a Christian? Look at you. Look at the way you're thinking. Look at the things you're saying. Look at the way you just acted. Look at that outburst of temper. Isn't that something? Aren't you a wonderful Christian? Do you think that God's going to take you into heaven?" You just turn to Satan and tell him to get lost, because Jesus Christ is already up there as your lawyer, and He never loses a case. You can count on it.

18. Jesus Christ Intercedes for Us

    Jesus Christ is now in heaven, interceding in the believer's behalf to preserve him in salvation. It's not only that the Lord is there arguing our case. He is also praying for us. Romans 8:34: "Who is he that condemns? Shall Christ that died, yea, rather that has risen again, who is even at the right hand of God who makes intercession for us?" Hebrews 7:23-25: "And they truly were many priests because they were not allowed to continue by reason of death. But this man, Jesus Christ, because He continues ever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them."

    There are a lot of people whose prayers you may appreciate, and those are very valuable indeed. That's why we put out that prayer list (that prayer guide) for your use during the week. I can guarantee you that I (for one) esteem very highly people praying for me. I consider that to be the most valuable thing they can do for me. That's the nicest thing they can do for me. That's the greatest thing we can do for one another. But after all is said and done, who can imagine a better prayer partner than the person of Jesus Christ? And that's what He's doing. He isn't only praying for you when you get in trouble, but He's praying for you before you get in trouble. He's anticipating the problems that are going to arise. You and I have no idea how much grief we have avoided in life because Jesus Christ is up there interceding for us. So, when you think things get tough, just imagine how bad it would be if you didn't have Him running interference for you.

19. The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit is Permanent

    The indwelling of the church age believer by the Holy Spirit is never presented as a temporary relationship, as if the believer can be lost again. To be indwelt by God the Holy Spirit means to be born again (John 7:37-39, 1 John 2:27). If you could ever lose your indwelling, then you could lose your salvation.

20. The Baptism in Christ is Permanent

    The baptism of the believer by the Holy Spirit into Christ also is not viewed as a temporary act, nor as one that is to be repeated as if one were saved and lost repeatedly. 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Corinthians 5:17 teach us that. The baptism of the Holy Spirit takes place once, and only once, in a person's experience. That is what puts you into Christ. That is the point of salvation.

21. The Sealing of the Holy Spirit

    Eternal security is evidenced by the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit, marking a believer for eternal life; that is, God the Holy Spirit Himself is the stamp or the seal upon our lives. That means that we belong to God. Ephesians 1:13-14, Ephesians 4:30, and 2 Corinthians 1:22 tell us that God the Holy Spirit Himself, as the seal, seals us into eternal life. That means that you cannot go anyplace else.

    People who are in the freight business will load boxcars or they'll load trucks, and then they will put a seal on that door. That seal ensures that that cargo is going to get to a certain place, and it cannot go anywhere else, and nobody can tamper with that seal. So it is with Jesus Christ. Once you have been sealed, you have been sealed for eternal life. You can't break the seal. You cannot tamper with it.

22. Negative Volition cannot Reverse Salvation

    The believer's negative volition toward God cannot cause God to deny His own work of salvation and reverse it. 2 Timothy 2:12-13 tells us that God cannot reverse His own work of salvation. He can't deny Himself.

23. Arrogance Prevents Spiritual Maturity

    The believer who rejects eternal security has an arrogance which prevents him from going on to spiritual maturity. This is another thing that you can be sure about. A person who believes he can lose his salvation – not only is there a serious question about whether he is saved, but if he is saved, I guarantee you that he will never go on to spiritual maturity. He will always be a baby Christian. He thinks that his sin is a sin that God cannot cover. That's arrogance. It takes the height of arrogance to think that there is something you can do that God can't handle. Losing salvation is an idea which only immature Christians hold. A Christian holds this view in his pride because his eyes are on himself, and not on the Lord.

24. Nothing can Separate us From God's Love

    The Bible declares that nothing can separate a believing center from God's love for him as His child (Romans 8:35-39). That is a great and comforting passage. I've often read that to people, who have been tortured in their souls about their assurance, to show them that God the Holy Spirit, here in Romans, says that nothing can separate you from the love of God once you are in His family.

25. Eternal Life is Preserved by God

    The Christian is preserved for eternal life in heaven by the power of God. 1 Peter 1:4-5, Philippians 1:6, and Jude 24 all tell us that we are preserved for heaven by the power of God.

26. The Marriage of the Believer to Jesus Christ

    The last point is that the marriage of the believer to Jesus Christ can only be undone by the principle of death. Marriage is: "Until death do you part." Since we are united to Jesus Christ; we are His bride; we are betrothed to Him; and we are married to Him, we cannot be separated from Him because we will never again die spiritually. Spiritual death is a thing which is behind us. So, the very marriage relationship is indicative of the fact that there can be no loss of salvation.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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