Suppose There Is No Security?
In closing, let’s look at the alternative.
What are we faced with?
If Hebrews 6:4-6 for example applies to our salvation then if we ever sin after being saved we’ll be lost forever with no way back, because the Lord would have to be crucified all over again to retrieve us.
The New Covenant would be worse than the Old, not better.
They were
condemned for their actions. According to Matt. 5 we’d be condemned for our thoughts.
They couldn’t murder.
We couldn’t even be angry.
They couldn’t commit adultery.
We couldn’t even have a lustful thought.
Think of it.
No anger, ever.
No lust, ever.
No envy, ever.
No idolatry, ever.
No favoritism or discrimination, ever.
No impure thoughts or deeds of any kind, ever.
Is this the Good News, the incomparable riches of His Grace?
Did God become man and die the most painful death ever devised only to put His children into an even more untenable position than before?
Are we saved by grace only to be placed under the constraints of an even more severely administered law?
I can’t believe so.
Some take a more moderate view of this saying that God would never take back the gift of salvation, but that we can return it.
To justify this position they have to put words in
the Lord’s mouth.
When He says in John 10:28, “No one can snatch them out of my hand,” they have to insert the phrase “but us” after “no one”.
Same with Romans 8:38-39:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Here they have to insert the phrase “but us” after “in all creation”.
In addition, they have to ignore the fact that we are no longer in control of our eternal destiny.
One of the points Paul made in 2 Cor. 1:21-22 is that God has taken ownership of us.
This confirms the statement he made in 1 Cor 6:19 when he said, “You are not your own. You were bought at a price.”
1 Peter 1:18-19 tells us the price was “the
precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
Simply put, there’s no power in Heaven or on Earth, including us, that can undo what God has done for us.
None of this defense of Eternal Security is intended to condone sin.
As an indication of our gratitude for the gift of salvation, believers are continually admonished in Scripture to live our lives in a manner pleasing to God.
Not to earn or keep our salvation, but to thank the Lord for having given it to us.
And to help us do that, the Holy Spirit has come
to dwell in us to guide and direct us, and to pray for us.
Since the Spirit of God lives in us we are no longer controlled by the sin nature and can choose to please God by the way we live.
And even though we do this out of gratitude for the Gift He’s already given, which is Union with Him, He blesses us both here on Earth (Fellowship) and in Eternity (the Prize).
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