Eternal security is the Bible's teaching that everyone who is genuinely born again through faith in Jesus Christ is kept by the power of God and will never be lost. Salvation does not rest on the believer's grip on God, but on God's grip on the believer.
Jesus said that His sheep shall never perish and that no one can pluck them out of His hand or His Father's hand (John 10:28–29). The one who believes hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation (John 5:24). Believers are sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30), and Christ ever liveth to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25). Eternal life that could end would not be eternal.
The doctrine that a person who has truly been born again through faith in Christ can never lose that salvation, because it rests on Christ's finished work, God's promise, and the Spirit's seal, not on the believer's performance.
“Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Not a License to Sin
Eternal security is sometimes caricatured as permission to live carelessly. Paul anticipated that charge and rejected it outright (Romans 6:1–2). The same grace that saves also teaches believers to deny ungodliness (Titus 2:11–12). A true child of God is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17), and when he sins, his Father disciplines him precisely because he is a son (Hebrews 12:6).
Persistent sin can bring the loss of fellowship and joy, the loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:15), and even the Lord's chastening to the point of physical death (1 Corinthians 11:30–32). It does not bring the loss of sonship.
How the Warning Passages Function
Passages such as Hebrews 6:4–6 and Hebrews 10:26–29 contain sobering warnings. Bible-believing teachers who hold eternal security read them in more than one way, and the approaches often complement each other:
- Warnings to those who profess faith. Some in a congregation may taste the truth without being born again. Their departure shows they were never truly saved (1 John 2:19). The writer of Hebrews is persuaded of better things for true believers (Hebrews 6:9).
- Warnings about discipline and reward. Some warnings concern the Father's chastening and the loss of reward, not the loss of eternal life.
- Warnings as God's means. God uses warnings to stir His children to faithfulness, much as a father warns a son he has no intention of disowning.
Notice too that Hebrews 6 says renewal after such a falling away would be impossible. If the passage described a true believer losing salvation, it would also teach that he could never be saved again.
Two Neighboring Views
Eternal security is close to, but not identical with, the Reformed doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Calvinism grounds the believer's security in God's unconditional election and effectual grace, and it stresses that the elect will certainly persevere in faith and holiness. Baptists who hold eternal security agree that God keeps His own, but they ground that security in God's promise to everyone who believes, the new birth, and the sealing of the Spirit, not in a decree that passed over others.
It differs more sharply from conditional security, held by Wesleyans and Methodists, many Pentecostals, and Free Will Baptists. They teach that a true believer can fall away and be lost, usually through a deliberate turning from Christ. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that sanctifying grace is lost through mortal sin and restored through the sacrament of Penance. See the full comparison.
God wrote His Word so that believers may know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:13). Assurance rests first on His promise, and it is confirmed by the Spirit's witness (Romans 8:16) and the fruit of a changed life.