Once Saved,
Always Saved?
Existence of God and Once Saved Always
Saved?
The seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician and
physicist Blaise Pascal posited that every human being bets his or her life on
whether or not God exists.
He wrote “Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us
estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose
nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.”
This is because, if we have bet on God, and God does not exist, we lose nothing
more than our mistaken belief and temporary regrets.
But if we bet wrongly against the Almighty, we will be cast into the lake of
fire, eternally separated from God where "There will be weeping there, and
gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in
the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out..." - Luke 13:28.
The Gift of Salvation
Whether we like it or not, we are always taking a bet whenever we have to make a
choice.
This is also true for those who "accept" the gift of salvation
by the grace of God.
Some would hedge our bets by responding to altar calls at some point in our
lives, "accept" Jesus as our personal Savior and got baptized.
Some believe that, because we went through the ritual of being “saved”, we have a
life-time passport to heaven and can live our lives as it pleases us with
impunity.
Can one then lose his/her salvation?
The quick answer is No if one is genuinely saved.
Contradiction
The Bible teaches that salvation is justified by faith
through Christ as in
Romans 3:28 "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from
works of the Law.
However, James 2:24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what
they do and not by faith alone.,
seems to contradict Romans 3:28.
There is actually no contradiction here, because James was addressing the issue of a dead faith, a faith that is
nothing more than a verbal pronouncement, a public confession of the mind, and
is not heart-felt. It is empty of life and action.
In other word, on-going good work is the evidence and the expression of a living
faith in Christ.
Hence, our salvation by grace alone through faith
in Christ is more than just a
one-time
casual transaction.
It is simple to gain but impossible to keep without the presence of the Holy
spirit in us.
When we place our faith in the true God, we
will be constantly transformed by the sanctification of our life and to have the life of God flow into and out of our
daily lives.
Although we are saved by God's grace
through faith alone and not by works, there is also the possibility of someone being
'saved' by a faith in the wrong god!
Is Grace that cheap?
Philippians 2:12
Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now
that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your
salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.
What if we can fall away and our
gift of salvation
be forfeited by
our subsequent rejection or by wrongly believing that since our past and future sins are already
been forgiven by Christ's finished work on the cross, we need not repent and confess them as taught by some
new-age pastors?
Matthew 5:16-18
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good
deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. "Do not think that I have come to
abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill
them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest
letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law
until everything is accomplished.
warn us of the relevancy of the Laws.
1 John 3:7-8
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is
right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is
of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason
the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.
While our salvation is by God's grace through faith in Christ
and is not dependence on the Laws, it is a
wrong to associate our obedience as a bondage
in terms of rewards or punishments since the penalties for our failures had already been paid
for by the blood of Jesus.
Obedience to God's commands and repentance for our disobedience is our love for God and a manifestation of our
saving faith in Jesus.
While it is true that Christians have been forgiven by God,
that doesn’t mean we never have to confess our sin. James 5:16 Confess
your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
If we are to confess our sins to each other, why would we not need to confess
them to God, since every sin is ultimately a sin against God (Psalm 51:4)?
1 John 1:9
If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us
from all unrighteousness., teaches that we are to confess our sins for His forgiveness.
Moreover, the Lord's Prayer which the universal church has
prayed for two millennia
Matthew 6:9-15
"This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your
name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your
sins.
is as instructive today as it was first written and so shall
it be till the return of our Lord.
Matthew 6:14-15 implies that continuous forgiveness is
not automatic. Forgiveness is for what we have done, not for what we will do. To be forgiven after becoming a child of God, among other things,
one must forgive those who sin against him:
Thus, Hyper Grace teaching is dangerous because it teaches that "we need not repent and confess our
sins".
John 14:21
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who
loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to
them."
It is crucially important that we understand repentance is not a work we do to
earn salvation. No one can repent and come to God unless God pulls that person
to Himself
John 6:44
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will
raise them up at the last day.
While repentance is not a work that earns salvation, true
repentance is more than just a change of mind. It must also lead to a change of
action.
Luke 3:8
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to
yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these
stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
Act 26:20
First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and
then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and
demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.
For those who still hold the
“once saved, always saved” doctrine, Matthew
13: 20-22 of the Parable of the Sower
should serve as a wake up call.
Mat 13:18 "Hear then the parable of the sower:
Mat 13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it,
the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is
what was sown along the path.
Mat 13:20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the
word and immediately receives it with joy,
Mat 13:21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when
tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls
away.
Mat 13:22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word,
but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and
it proves unfruitful.
Mat 13:23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word
and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold,
in another sixty, and in another thirty."
1 Timothy 1:18-19
Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once
made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight,
holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and
so have shipwrecked their faith.
and
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether
you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is
in you-- unless, of course, you fail the test?
also show that one can lose his/her saving faith
in Christ Jesus.
In short, there is no assurance of salvation for those who
stop following Jesus and stray into wickedness. This happens if they
were not truly saved in the first place.
Grace and Work are not mutually exclusive
Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are God's handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us
to do.
Matthew 5:14-16
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be
hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand,
and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before
men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
While we are not saved by being good nor by our good works
but only by God's grace through our faith in Him alone (Ephesians
2:8-10), we are saved to do good works (Matthew
5:14-16).
Titus 3:8
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds
of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating
one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved
us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He
saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so
that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope
of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these
things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote
themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for
everyone.
It is crucially important to know the difference. True
salvation is evidenced by the expression of good works!
Revelation 22:14-15 (KJV)
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the
tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and
idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Distortion of
the Bible
Hebrews 13:7-9
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome
of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.
It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial
foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.
Unlike what a Mega Church preacher emphatically taught his
congregation that Hebrew 6 was written only for the Hebrews or Jews (see
http://youtu.be/OnEmkBOXieQ),
Hebrews 6:1-6
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be
taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from
acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites,
the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And
God permitting, we will do so. It is impossible for those who have once been
enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy
Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the
coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their
loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to
public disgrace.
show that
the audiences were the Jewish Christians, who after receiving the saving knowledge of Christ,
can
fall away and lose their salvation.
Indeed, the book of Hebrew was not written
just for the Hebrews as taught in the video just as Romans was not written just
for the Romans!
Romans 3:21-25
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his
grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put
forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to
show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over
former sins.
In Barnes Commentary on Romans 3:25,
"...This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he
had passed over former sins.", the language has no immediate or necessary
reference to past generations. It evidently refers to the past lives of the
individuals who are justified, and not to the sins of former times. All that the
passage means, therefore, is, that the plan of pardon is such as completely to
remove all the former sins of the life, not of all former generations. If it
referred to the sins of former times, it would not be easy to avoid the doctrine
of universal salvation.
In John Wesley's Explanatory Note on Romans
3:25: Whom God hath set forth - Before angels and men. A propitiation - To
appease an offended God. But if, as some teach, God never was offended, there
was no need of this propitiation. And, if so, Christ died in vain. To declare
his righteousness - To demonstrate not only his clemency, but his justice; even
that vindictive justice whose essential character and principal office is, to
punish sin. By the remission of past sins - All the sins antecedent to their
believing.
Both Barnes and Wesley implied in their
commentaries on Romans 3:25 that only past sins are forgiven when we are
justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, This clearly contradicts the teaching of the Hyper-Grace's once saved,
always saved theology.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead,
to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of
teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Can we not see the parallel of the 'Once saved, Always saved' doctrine and the
'Non existence of God' Pascal Wager"
by believing in the wrong teachings?
Proverbs 1:5-6 - Let the wise hear and
increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand
a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.
Wolves in Sheep's
Clothing
Is God an ATM
Did Judas Repent?
