Objections Against Eternal Salvation (Part X)

License to Sin

Another objection to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints (or eternal security) is that it tends to lead believers to indolence and license to sin. However, this is a perversion of the doctrine, possible only to the unregenerate people since the certainty of success is the most powerful incentive to walk in holiness to the born-again believers. The fact that God ensures true believers they will not lose salvation until the end doesn’t cancel the need for good works and sanctification on the believers’ part. The apostle Paul exhorts believers in Philippians 2:12 “to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.” This doesn’t mean good works represent the means to keep their salvation until the end, but these are the effect and the proof of true conversion. Again, I bring this illustration to your attention, with King Solomon, because it’s a very good one. What did he look for when he decided to kill the living baby and share it between the two women who came to judgment? Did he look for a deed on the part of the women that would deserve or win the baby? Did he want to create a new relationship between the women and the baby that didn’t exist before? Of course not! Instead, he was looking for a deed that would prove what was already true, an action that would show who that baby’s birth mother was.

Paul says in Romans 6:2: “How can we who died to sin continue to live in it?” Why would you think to do evil when you repented and came on God’s side? Why would you want to sin when you no longer have a sinful nature, and you can live an abundant life of absolute joy, peace, health, and prosperity? Can God do whatever He wants? Yes, of course! Does that give Him license to sin? Never, because His freedom and free will have boundaries; they are informed and determined by His nature.

We need to trust the powerful and tangible transformation God does in believers through the Holy Spirit and not try to control people through fear.

 

The Confusion Regarding Human Free Will

This objection sounds like this: “If genuine believers cannot lose their salvation and don’t have the actual option of rejecting Christ if they wanted to, after they got saved, then they don’t really have free will anymore.” Such an objection is based on the false assumption that human free will is not influenced by anything, is not bound to neither depends on the inherent nature of the person in any way, which can be either sinful from the first Adam, or righteous from the last Adam, Jesus Christ.

God Himself has complete free will. However, He will never choose to embrace evil or Satan’s ways. He will never even want to do such a thing, His free will is completely bound to His righteous nature. That is how genuine believers are after salvation as well.

The only reason believers’ free will doesn’t seem bound entirely yet to the new holy nature of their spirit here on earth is that their mind is not yet wholly renewed.

The free will of the first Adam was not utterly dependent on his nature before the fall. Why? It’s because even though he had a holy nature inside, he was still capable of committing a sin that could change his nature into darkness: eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even the free will of lost people before salvation is not entirely dependent on their sinful nature. Why? Because under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and at the hearing of the Gospel message, they can make a decision that will completely recreate them spiritually. However, after salvation, born-again believers become one spirit with the Trinity (1 Corinthians 6:17). Their will is still free but now dependent on the holy nature inside them in regard to eternal salvation.

I heard some believers saying that the reason we have the Holy Spirit in us now is to help us sanctify ourselves so that we can maintain our salvation to the end, and that we should employ His help using our free will, the same way we used our free will to accept salvation and be born again. While it is true that we need the Holy Spirit’s help for sanctification and that our will is involved in this process, it is not true that maintaining our salvation relies entirely on our choice to use the Holy Spirit’s help. Let’s read Romans 4:1-8,

Romans 4:1–8 (NKJV)

¹ What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?

² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

⁴ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

⁵ But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,

⁶ just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;

⁸ Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”

Abraham lived in a time when the Law of Moses had not been given yet and the Holy Spirit was not living in him to help him do works of holiness. He did not have any other way of maintaining his salvation or righteousness, except through faith according to the passage above. Moreover, at Verse 6, King David described the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from his works (separated and independent of our good works) and he was referring to the future new creations in Christ. Were Abraham and King David in a better position than us, the believers in Christ? I am asking this because their lives seem to have been much simpler than ours by not having to maintain their righteousness by works. They only had faith and that was enough, and Abraham is the father of the seed of Christ, to whom all believers belong to. So, even though we use our free will to employ the Holy Spirit’s help and strength in doing works of holiness which we need to pursue, these have no value in maintaining our righteousness. They are only a means of releasing more and more God’s inheritance that resides in us, on the outside, and manifesting the gift of righteousness in us in increasing measure. These works will also receive reward in the future life.

 

Renouncing Salvation by Free Will

There is a teaching in the body of Christ that, based on Hebrews 6:4–6 (a text which was already covered), there is a slight possibility of genuine believers to lose their salvation through their own free choice. This teaching says you can’t sin your salvation away, but you can renounce it. Rejecting your faith isn’t quickly done, but it is possible. Before someone would ever renounce such a great salvation, they would have to become hardened toward God (Hebrews 3:13–14). Although your spirit is unaffected by sin, your body and soul are altered, because your perception, wisdom, and understanding of who you are in the spirit gets dulled. If you persist in sin long enough, you can come to a place where Satan would try to make you renounce your faith in Christ with your voice. And if you leave your faith and reject God, you can throw your salvation away. These teachers say it’s not something you lose without knowing, like, for example, misplaced car keys. This rejection is done deliberately and openly. That’s something that takes place over some time. However, the proponents of this view admit not many fall away in this manner.

First, such a possibility of genuine born-again believers renouncing their salvation consciously can never be proved empirically. Even the advocates of this perspective admit it’s almost impossible. So, then I ask, why, for the sake of a 0.000001% possibility of renouncing salvation, would we consider it as a teaching to bring an unjustified fear to the 99.99999% of saved people who will never give up on their faith? If you put just a tiny drop of ink in a cup full of clean water, the whole water will change its color. Such a possibility of renouncing salvation through our free will cancels completely any assurance of salvation or eternal security. Second, there is no clear Bible verse, like Romans 10:9–10, affirming that the new creations can become unsaved by confessing with the mouth that they no longer want Jesus in their lives. Such a possibility is crucial and should have been explicitly mentioned in the Bible. Third, does the Devil have a greater power of conviction upon people, to give up on their salvation deliberately, than the Holy Spirit Who convinced them of the truth of the Gospel, regenerated them, and intercedes continuously for them before God? Of course not! Lucifer and the first Adam renounced their state of perfect holiness by their own free choice in a perfect heaven and earth, without being hardened by sin or having their perception blinded. Even more, in a world full of evil, temptations, appetites and bad habits which are against us as believers, the probability that we can renounce our salvation is exponentially increased unless God keeps us by the power of the Holy Spirit and preserves our salvation, as well as our desire never to reject it by our free will:

Jude 1:24 (NKJV)

²⁴ Now to Him Who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

Another variation of this teaching is that those who renounce their salvation in Christ by their free will, are very mature spiritually and know exactly what they are doing. However, how can a mature person in Christ make such a foolish and immature decision? It’s impossible, because even humanly speaking, the more mature you are, the wiser decisions you take. All the more, that is true spiritually speaking.

Someone once asked: “If a born-again Christian turns his back on God, becomes a satanist and does a covenant with the Devil, will he still be saved?” If a person manages to do a functional covenant with Satan, that means he was not regenerated. In that case, while he lives, he still has a chance to come to Christ. In the case of those genuinely born-again, I think it’s impossible for them to accomplish a pact with the Devil and I will explain why I believe so. First, at the moment of salvation, people become “owned” by the Lord Jesus if I may say so, although the term sounds a bit harsh, but He is the best owner to be under! People under this authority and ownership would never want to leave willingly out of it. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 that they are not their own:

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NKJV)

¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Moreover, Jesus promised to protect those under His ownership so that no one can snatch them from His hand:

John 10:27–28 (NKJV)

²⁷ My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

²⁸ And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

Second, the covenant made with Jesus at salvation is not a contract that can be canceled anytime we want. It is a forever blood covenant. I don’t think we fully grasp in our day and age the strength and extent of a blood covenant like ancient people understood it. The Devil may try to overwrite or replace that covenant with another, but he will fail. I believe it’s possible that some born-again believers may attempt to make a pact with the Devil out of frustration or lack of understanding and knowledge, but I don’t think it will work. They might even try to manifest some satanic behaviors. However, in the end, they will either come to their senses and return to Christ after a while, or they will be saved as through fire.

 

Apostasy Cases

What about the cases recorded in Scripture as actual apostasy in the faith? Among such examples are Lot, King Saul, Solomon, Judas Iscariot—Jesus’s disciple—Ananias, Hymenaeus and Philetus, Demas, etc. First, let’s deal with the Old Testament individuals who lived before Jesus’s death and resurrection. About some of the more prominent figures of the Old Testament, like Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets, we know for sure that after Jesus’s death on the cross, they became saved. However, on what basis? Moreover, what about all the other less-known people whose names were not mentioned in the Bible but who were still part of God’s people? Were they saved after the cross? If yes, how? On what basis? If not, why? How did redemption touch the lives of Ruth and Rahab? These are essential questions.

The Lamb of God, Who takes away the world’s sins, came to the nation of Israel approximately four hundred years after the Old Testament canon was closed. How, then, could there be a clear object of faith?

A common misconception about the Old Testament way of salvation is that Jews were saved by keeping the Law. But we know from Scripture that this is not true. Galatians 3:11 says:

Galatians 3:11 (NKJV)

¹¹ But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”

Some might say this verse applies only to the New Testament, but Paul is quoting from Habakkuk 2:4, where it says,

Habakkuk 2:4 (NKJV)

⁴ “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.

Salvation by faith, apart from the Law, was an Old Testament principle. Paul taught the purpose of the Law was to serve as a “tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). Also, in Romans 3:20, Paul made the point that keeping the Law didn’t save Old Testament or New Testament Jews because no one can be declared righteous in His sight by observing the Law.

If people’s salvation in the Old Testament was not through the keeping of the Law, then what was it through? The answer to that question is found in Scripture, so there can be no doubt regarding this issue. In Romans 4, the apostle Paul clarifies that salvation in the Old Testament was the same as in the New Testament, which is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. To prove this, Paul points us to Abraham, the forefather of the Jewish people, who was saved by faith and not by works: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3). Abraham could not have been saved by keeping the Law because he lived over four hundred years before it was given! Also, circumcision was not introduced to Abraham and his descendants until Genesis 17, that is more than ten years later. Romans 4:13-16 says this:

Romans 4:13-16 (NKJV)

¹³ For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴ For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,

¹⁵ because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶ Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

Here, we see that the promise of becoming heirs of the world, or the promise of salvation, was not made only to Abraham but also to his descendants who came through Isaac. And this didn’t come through the Law, but through the faith of Abraham. All his descendants, from Isaac to Christ, received salvation after the cross federally because of Abraham’s faith and covenant with God, even though some of them did not fully walk with Him. Abraham was the federal head of their salvation through faith. To prove that God fulfills the promises made to a federal head in the descendants’ lives even though they are not always pleasing to God, I will provide a few examples. First, Noah was saved from the flood’s destruction with all his family (wife, sons, and daughters-in-law) although the Bible doesn’t say anything about their relationship or devotion to God. They were saved because of Noah. Second, in 2 Kings 10:30-31, God makes a powerful promise to King Jehu that his sons will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation without adding any conditions or disclaimers:

2 Kings 10:30-31 (NKJV)

³⁰ And the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”

³¹ But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin.

After God gave that promise, even King Jehu, himself, to whom the promise was given, didn’t walk according to the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. Did God revoke His promise to him or his sons because of his sins? Absolutely not! Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, reigned seventeen years over Israel in Samaria, although he did evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 13:1-2). Then, Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz and the second generation descendant of Jehu, reigned for sixteen years over Israel in Samaria, although he did what was evil in the eyes of God as well (2 Kings 13:10-11). Moving forward, in 2 Kings 14:23-24, we see the third generation of Jehu, Jeroboam the son of Jehoash, beginning to reign in Samaria, and he does it for forty-one years although he also did evil in the eyes of God and caused Israel to sin. Lastly, in 2 Kings 15:8-9, the Bible says that Zechariah the son of Jeroaboam (the fourth generation of Jehu) reigned over Israel in Samaria for six months. 2 Kings 15:12 says the following:

2 Kings 15:12 (NKJV)

¹² This was the Word of the Lord which He spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” And so it was.

I wonder at God’s extravagant goodness and faithfulness toward people! So, the descendants of Abraham were saved through his faith after Jesus’s resurrection. You might say that God is not fair to choose only a man (i.e., Abraham) and only a nation, the nation of Israel, to bestow salvation upon irrespective of works. What about other people or nations from the Old Testament? However, God’s sense of fairness is out of this world and beyond human comprehension. Not only were the descendants of Abraham saved, but anyone outside of his lineage who had ever made the smallest steps toward pleasing and following God in the Old Testament was also saved after the cross. God considered their actions as faith in Christ in advance. We can see this in Hebrews 11 about Abel, Enoch, and Noah, who lived long before Abraham and the Law, being put together in the same category of people of faith:

Hebrews 11:4-8 (NKJV)

⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.

⁵ By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

⁷ By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Not only these, but also Ruth, a Moabite, and Rahab, a young Canaanite prostitute, were included in the genealogy of Jesus and were saved after the cross because of their deeds toward God and His people. I am confident that in heaven, we will also meet Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Syria from 2 Kings 5 because he worshipped only God after he was healed of his leprosy, although he still kept going with his master, who was worshipping in the temple of Rimmon. Moreover, if God wasn’t fair enough, then through Christ, the seed of Abraham, He opened the door to salvation for all the Gentiles after the cross. All people of any nation that come into Christ and put their faith in Him become descendants of Abraham.

Now, moving on to the rest of the Old Testament, after Abraham and the Law of Moses, a gospel theme is also set forth: through the prophets and throughout the Psalms, people were saved from sin by grace, through faith in the Lord and His promises. Several texts from the New Testament illustrate this premise:

1 Peter 1:10–12 (NKJV)

¹⁰ Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,

¹¹ searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

¹² To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.

This text reveals some essential ideas. The “prophets . . . who prophesied” longed for the arrival of an era of grace. The “Spirit of Christ” within them was filling them with this great desire, witnessing in advance through them, and to them, the work of Christ. The prophetic message was often a Gospel message since it told of the Messiah’s sufferings and the glories that would follow. The Spirit of Christ witnessed in advance the sufferings and glories of our Lord.

The New Testament serves as the inspired commentary on the Old Testament, and it’s an incredible blessing to have it in our hands. However, even before its completion, the Old Testament served as the Scripture for Israel, and it contained a Gospel theme concerning the coming, the sufferings, and the glory of the Messiah.

So, the second text underscoring this in the Old Testament is spoken by Jesus Himself:

Luke 24:25–27 (NKJV)

²⁵ Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

²⁶ Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”

²⁷ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Here Jesus speaks to some of His followers on the road to Emmaus. Notice the extent of His teaching! He begins with Moses and the Prophets and reveals to them in all the Scriptures things about Himself, His sufferings, and His glory. Later in the same chapter, Jesus speaks of His presence in the Old Testament’s words:

Luke 24:44–47 (NKJV)

⁴⁴ Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”

⁴⁵ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

⁴⁶ Then He said to them, “Thus it’s written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,

⁴⁷ and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

This text is loaded with evidence of the Gospel given by Jesus to His disciples. He references His presence in the Law of Moses, claims the Prophets testified about Him, and also shows He can be found in the Psalms. Then Jesus collected these three areas and defined them under one title—“the Scriptures.” Again, the clues to the Gospel from the Old Testament content are remarkable. The Lord’s teaching about Himself in the Scriptures was centered on the necessity of His suffering, of His resurrection, and of the call to preach repentance for the remission of sins.

I have one more text which illustrates the Gospel theme in the Old Testament and which also speaks about things that took place before the incarnation of Jesus on this earth:

Acts 3:18–24 (NKJV)

¹⁸ But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.

¹⁹ Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

²⁰ and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,

²¹ whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

²² For Moses truly said to the fathers, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.

²³ And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.”

²⁴ Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.

The apostle Peter preached from Solomon’s Porch and called the people to repent. He reminded the listening crowd that the suffering, the resurrection, and the glory of the Messiah had been the central theme of the Scriptures. However, God’s plan for salvation has been hidden in the Old Testament and encrypted so that none of the dark princes over this world would know it and so prevent Jesus’s Crucifixion. We see that in two New Testament passages:

Ephesians 3:8–9 (NKJV)

⁸ To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

⁹ and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:7–8 (NKJV)

⁷ But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,

⁸ which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Were there multiple ways of salvation before the coming of Jesus in space and time to die as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity? The answer must be a resounding NO. Paul explained in Romans 4 that salvation has always been and will always be by God’s grace, and people can receive it through faith alone. Genesis 3:15 promised Someone would come to clear up the sin problem created by our first father, Adam. As the Seed of the woman, He would be the One Who will battle with the serpent and defeat it.

Although some of them ended their lives in the wrong way, like Samson, King Saul, King Solomon, or the people of Israel who rebelled in the wilderness (i.e., Korah, Dathan, Abiram, Achan), all of these were ultimately saved in Christ. Their salvation was not based on their deeds or how they ended their lives but on them being part of a federal covenant with God.

Participation and adherence to the covenants of God in the Old Testament was a proclamation of faith in Jesus Christ ahead of time. Even people of God who took their own lives, like King Saul and Samson, were still saved. Suicide is not an unpardonable sin. Many people believe this because it leaves no room for repentance. Through suicide, a person enters eternity with unconfessed and, therefore, unforgiven sin. But the Bible doesn’t say anywhere that suicide is an unforgivable sin; moreover, it teaches that all sins, past, present, and future, are erased by faith in the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at the time of one’s salvation. One’s eternal destiny is sealed and set at the time of justifying faith. Moreover, Romans 8:38–39 says neither life nor death can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

Now, Judas Iscariot was part of the people of God and one of Jesus’s disciples, but the Bible says clearly in John 17:12 that he was eternally lost. But why was he lost? On what basis? Was it because he betrayed Jesus? The Bible doesn’t say anywhere that betraying Jesus is an unforgivable sin. I am convinced that if he had asked for forgiveness like Peter did after denying Jesus, God would have forgiven him. Was it because he committed suicide? Again, according to the Bible, that is not a reason for the loss of salvation. I think one possible answer might be that he died physically between the covenants without repenting of what he had done and without putting his faith in Jesus in a saving way. While Judas was busy betraying Jesus, Jesus inaugurated a New Covenant in the upper room for the entire human race (including the Gentiles) when He gave the bread and the cup to His disciples in Matthew 26:28. At that time, God’s decreed method, of saving man, changed. It was no longer enough to be a child of Abraham or to take certain steps toward God as in the Old Testament to be saved, but now a person had to put his faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and confess Him as Lord. Also, at that time, other significant things were beginning to change: animal sacrifices were to be replaced by the sacrifice of Jesus after His resurrection, and God’s presence was to be transferred from the ark and the physical temple to the inside of the human being. Judas was no longer under any covenant of the Old Testament, for Jesus had inaugurated a New Covenant by faith, which superseded and concluded all other ones by their fulfillment. Nor did he live long enough to put his faith in Jesus after His death and resurrection and be saved. I believe with all my heart that if he had not taken his life and repented of his deed, Judas would have been saved. But I think it got to a point too late when he couldn’t do it anymore. Thus, what the Scripture said concerning him or the son of perdition was fulfilled.

Moving forward to the New Testament’s examples of so-called apostasy, none of them can prove that true believers, in possession of true saving faith, can fall from grace in the sense of losing salvation, but rather in the sense of falling back under the Law, or of spiritual backsliding for a while. Nobody can know who is genuinely saved to conclude that some people were once saved and then fell away completely. Only God knows who is genuinely saved, and the actual people themselves who have this internal witness of the Holy Spirit that they are saved.

“But what about this close person I knew who was baptized and received Jesus at one point but later went back to drinking, living in adultery, and finally took his own life? Was this person saved? And what about this pastor who I heard served God for years only to one day kill his two children and then take his own life? Is that person saved, too?” These are sad situations, but they are also a part of real life. However, we cannot interpret the Bible based on some people’s experiences and conclude that these people were saved at one time and then went back into the world and lost their salvation. We don’t know if these people were genuinely saved; only God knows, and themselves. We also don’t know what was happening in those people’s hearts and what they believed when they did those horrible things. What we know for sure based on the Bible are the following three things:

(1). These people might have never been born again, but they just seemed to be so for a while. This is what 1 John 2:19 and Hebrews 3:14 advocate:

1 John 2:19 (NKJV)

¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

Hebrews 3:14 (NKJV)

¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.

(2). These people might have been genuinely saved at one point, but because of their perseverance in sin, they reaped some unwanted consequences in the life here, and maybe they left this earth too early and in a shameful way. Persistence in sin attracts death at multiple levels here on earth and in different forms: depression, darkness, confusion, frustration, boredom, and even premature death. However, that doesn’t mean these people have lost their eternal salvation forever. Based on 1 Corinthians 3:15, they are in the Kingdom but will probably not receive any rewards and will be saved through fire:

1 Corinthians 3:15 (NKJV)

¹⁵ If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

(3). According to 2 Peter 3:9, God is good and longsuffering toward people not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance:

2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV)

⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

God has always reached out and did everything He could to save anyone who has ever made the most minor step toward Him. Think about Rahab the prostitute, Ruth the Moabite, and Cornelius who gave alms to the poor. God always met them halfway, accepted them, and showed them the way. Since I cannot know for sure about anyone if they were genuinely saved, I, for one, prefer to believe that in most of these cases, if there was a moment in their lives when they put their trust in Jesus, these people were genuinely saved. This is, I believe, the heart of the Father. Even though they failed miserably through sin, from the perspective of this physical life on earth, they retained their eternal salvation.

 

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Session 12 – Eternal Security and Free Will (Saved for Eternity) – July 5th, 2024
Session 13 – Apostasy Cases (Saved for Eternity) – August 3rd, 2024