Eternal Security

Why Eternal Security Matters

Can a Christian lose his salvation? Nearly every believer asks that question at some point, often after a hard fall into sin or a long season of doubt. The answer shapes how he prays, how he fights temptation, and whether he can rest at night. Scripture's answer is clear: everyone who has truly been born again through faith in Jesus Christ is kept by the power of God and will never perish.

This is more than a comfort for anxious believers. To say that a child of God can be lost is to say that the Father is not great enough to hold him, that the Son's sacrifice and intercession are not enough to keep him, and that the Spirit's seal can be broken. An attack on the eternal security of the believer is an attack on the greatness of the Father, the finished work of Jesus, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It touches the Gospel too: a gift received by grace through faith cannot be kept up by our performance (Romans 6:23). Eternal life is good for eternity.

Kept by the Father, the Son, and the Spirit

Eternal security does not hang on a single verse. It runs through the New Testament, and it rests on the work of all three Persons of the Trinity.

Eternal Life Is Eternal

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”JOHN 5:24 · KJV

Notice the tenses. The believer hath everlasting life: he has it now. He shall not come into condemnation: that is a promise about the future. And he is passed from death unto life: the move has already happened. Genuine salvation saves us from future punishment: there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Life that could end would not be everlasting.

The Father Keeps

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”JOHN 10:27–29 · KJV

Jesus places His sheep in two hands. They are in His hand, and they are in His Father's hand, and no man is able to pluck them out. The Father who holds them is greater than all, greater than the devil, the world, and the sheep themselves. The promise they shall never perish uses the strongest form of denial in the Greek language. How can Jesus say that those who come to Him will never perish, and then allow them to perish?

The Father's will settles it: of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing (John 6:39). Peter adds that believers are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, with an inheritance reserved in heaven (1 Peter 1:3–5). The word kept is a military word. Paul uses it of a governor who kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison (2 Corinthians 11:32). God stands guard over His children, and He is able to keep you from falling (Jude 1:24).

The Son Keeps

Jesus finished the work of salvation on the cross. By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). If He paid the full penalty for our sins once for all, how could a believer fall back under condemnation, as though Christ had to pay for those sins again? We are saved from wrath through him by His blood, not by our own good behavior (Romans 5:9).

His work goes on in heaven. He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25). When a believer sins, we have an advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). How can one who is saved to the uttermost, with Jesus as his Advocate, ever be lost again?

The Spirit Keeps

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”EPHESIANS 1:13–14 · KJV

After that ye believed, ye were sealed. A seal marks ownership and protects what is owned, and the Spirit Himself is the earnest of our inheritance, God's down payment on everything still to come. How long does the seal last? Not until the believer's next backslide, but unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30). If a believer could lose the seal by sinning, the seal would not be worth much. God does not take back His down payment (see The Work of the Spirit).

The Spirit also gave the new birth, and He gave it from a seed that cannot die. Believers are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever (1 Peter 1:23). How can someone born of incorruptible seed be corrupted and die spiritually? How can a new creature become an old creature again (2 Corinthians 5:17)? We never find anyone in Scripture being born again a second time.

What Kind of Salvation Could Be Lost?

Many questions about security are really questions about what salvation is. Get salvation right, and security follows.

A Gift Is Not a Reward

The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23). Wages are earned. Gifts are received. If eternal life had to be maintained by appropriate behavior, it would stop being a gift and become a reward. Paul says the same of grace: if by grace, then is it no more of works (Romans 11:6). What other gift is taken back for poor behavior? You did nothing to gain your salvation. How could you do anything to lose it?

Justified and Adopted

Justification is God's verdict: a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law (Romans 3:28). If we were declared righteous without the deeds of the law, how can the deeds of the flesh condemn us once we are in Christ? It is God that justifieth (Romans 8:33; see Justification). And God adopts those He justifies: thou art no more a servant, but a son (Galatians 4:7). When a child misbehaves, does he lose his sonship, or is he a disobedient son? A father who abandoned his children for poor behavior would be a reprehensible parent. Our heavenly Father is not.

Where Is the Line?

If a believer can cross an invisible line and lose his salvation, where is that line, and how would he know when he had crossed it? Romans 6 urges Christians not to go back to their sin, yet it never threatens them with condemnation if they do. It reminds them who they are: How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 6:2).

Defining the Terms

Defining a handful of words carefully clears away much confusion.

Chastened, Not Disowned

If a Christian cannot lose his salvation, does sin still matter? It matters a great deal. Eternal security gives no one a free pass to sin.

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”ROMANS 6:1–2 · KJV

Punishment and Chastening

There must be consequences for sin, and Scripture describes two kinds. Those still in their sin are punished for it: the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness (Romans 1:18), and they are storing up wrath that will be poured out in eternity. The child of God is never punished for sin in that way, because Jesus absorbed God's wrath on his behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our sins were nailed to the cross once and for all (Colossians 2:13–14), and God says, I will remember their sin no more (Jeremiah 31:34).

But the child of God will experience chastening. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth (Hebrews 12:6). Chastening is unpleasant action the Father takes to bring His child to repentance and maturity. It is corrective, not punitive, and afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11). Why would God chasten children He meant to disown? If He abandoned them, He would not chasten them. Chastening proves sonship (Hebrews 12:8).

What Sin Costs a Believer

• Joy. After his sin David did not pray for his salvation to be restored, but for its joy: Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation (Psalm 51:12).
• Fellowship and blessing, with God and with His people (1 Peter 3:12; 2 Thessalonians 3:14–15).
• Reward. A believer's careless works may be burned at the judgment seat of Christ, but he himself shall be saved (1 Corinthians 3:15).
• Even physical life. Some at Corinth who abused the Lord's Supper fell sick and died, chastened that we should not be condemned with the world (1 Corinthians 11:30–32).

There will always be consequences for sin, but losing the gift of salvation is not one of them. Abraham lied about his wife, Moses killed a man, and David committed adultery and murder. Each came back to a loving God in repentance, not to be saved again, but to have fellowship restored. Paul called the Corinthians brethren even while he rebuked their divisions and immorality (1 Corinthians 1:10).

A Professing Christian Living in Sin

Sometimes a person professes faith in Christ yet lives in open, continuing sin. He may be a true child of God in rebellion, under his Father's chastening hand. Or he may never have been saved at all. Authentic salvation brings life change (2 Corinthians 5:17), and it is evidenced by good fruit (Luke 6:43–45). Where a life has never turned from sin and brings forth corrupt fruit continually, we may infer that true conversion has not taken place (1 John 2:3–4; 1 John 3:6–10). Those who do not remain in the faith were never truly born again (1 John 2:19). One cannot lose true salvation, and one cannot lose what he never truly possessed.

Even so, we are not called to be fruit inspectors or to judge the salvation of another. We are called to wisdom: to discern whether someone is lost in his sin or a straying brother, and to restore the straying in the spirit of meekness (Galatians 6:1).

The Warning Passages

Christians who believe salvation can be lost did not invent their view. They point to real texts, especially in Hebrews, and those texts deserve a careful and honest reading.

Hebrews 6:4-9

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”HEBREWS 6:4–6 · KJV

Those who hold conditional security see a genuine believer here. He was once enlightened, he tasted of the heavenly gift, and he was made partakers of the Holy Ghost. They note that the same letter uses taste of Christ's real death (Hebrews 2:9), so the word means more than a sample. Three things in the passage point another way.

1. The writer never calls them saved. He describes what they experienced, then turns to his readers with a contrast: we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation (Hebrews 6:9). Enlightenment, tasting, and sharing in the Spirit's work describe people who sat under the Gospel and saw its power. Judas had all of that. The things that accompany salvation are another matter.
2. The ground shows what it is. The illustration that follows describes two fields under the same rain. One brings forth herbs; the other bears thorns and briers (Hebrews 6:7–8). The rain did not change the soil. It revealed it.
3. The passage proves too much. It says renewal after such a falling away is impossible. If it described a true believer losing his salvation, it would also teach that he could never be saved again, a conclusion most Wesleyans reject, since they call backsliders to return.

Most who hold eternal security see professors here: people who had heard the truth and seen its power, and who were tempted to go back to the old sacrifices without ever having been born again. Some read it as a hypothetical argument meant to press believers on to maturity (Hebrews 6:1), and others as a warning about fruitfulness and reward (1 Corinthians 3:15). None of these readings teaches that a child of God can be born again and then lost.

Hebrews 10:26-39

“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”HEBREWS 10:26–27 · KJV

This warning sounds even sterner. But the sin in view is not every deliberate sin a Christian commits. It is turning away from Christ's sacrifice: treading under foot the Son of God and counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing (Hebrews 10:29). For someone who rejects that sacrifice, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. The old offerings could never take away sin (Hebrews 10:11), and there is no other Saviour to turn to.

Those who hold conditional security point to the words wherewith he was sanctified as proof that a true believer is meant. But Scripture can call a person sanctified by outward association without his being saved, as an unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife (1 Corinthians 7:14). Some interpreters read he as Christ Himself, set apart for His priestly work (John 17:19).

Then the writer does what he did in chapter 6. He turns to his readers with confidence: we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39). The warnings are real, and they must be heeded. They stir God's people to press on, and they expose those who only professed.

Other Hard Texts

• Fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4). Paul is addressing those who sought to be justified by the law. To fall from grace here is to leave grace for law-keeping as the way of justification.
• If ye continue (Colossians 1:23). Continuing in the faith is the evidence of genuine reconciliation, not the price of it. Hebrews says the same: we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end (Hebrews 3:14). Holding fast shows that we have been made partakers.
• Many will say, Lord, Lord (Matthew 7:21–23). Jesus will not tell the false professor that He knew him once. He will say, I never knew you.

Where Christians Differ

Bible-believing Christians have long disagreed here, and each view deserves to be stated the way its own teachers would state it. The full treatment is in the comparison of views.

Conditional Security

Wesleyan and Methodist churches, Free Will Baptists, many Pentecostals, and others teach that a believer can turn from Christ and be finally lost. Most Wesleyans hold that he may be restored by repentance; many Free Will Baptist theologians hold that such apostasy cannot be reversed. These Christians honor the warnings of Scripture and fear that eternal security breeds carelessness. We share their concern for holiness, but we believe the promises of John 10, Romans 8, and Ephesians 1 are unconditional.

Perseverance of the Saints

Reformed churches agree that a true believer cannot finally fall away. They teach that God's elect, effectually called and regenerated, will certainly persevere to the end (Westminster Confession, chapter 17). We rejoice that God keeps His own. But we ground that keeping in His promise to everyone who believes, in the new birth, and in the Spirit's seal, not in a decree that passed over others (John 3:16; see Election and Foreknowledge).

Grace Lost Through Mortal Sin

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that sanctifying grace, received in baptism, is lost through mortal sin and restored through the sacrament of Penance, and that without special revelation no one can be absolutely certain he will persevere. We believe justification is God's once-for-all verdict on everyone who believes (Romans 5:1).

A Short History

The question is old. In 1610 the Arminian Remonstrants asked for further study of whether believers can fall away, and the Synod of Dort answered with a head of doctrine on the perseverance of the saints (the Remonstrance and Dort). John Wesley later taught that a true believer can fall from grace. Believer-baptizing churches have not been uniform, but most Baptists in America came to hold eternal security alongside a general atonement. We hold it not because a synod or a confession taught it, but because Scripture does.

Living Secure

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life (1 John 5:13). God wants you to be certain.

If You Are Not Sure

Ask the question that matters most: who or what are you trusting for the payment of your sins and for eternal life? Salvation is not a feeling. It is a relationship with God through Jesus alone (John 14:6), by grace alone, through faith alone. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Everyone who turns from trusting himself to trust Christ alone as Saviour is saved, by grace through faith, not of works (Ephesians 2:8–9). If you have never turned from your sin and trusted Him, you can do it today, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13).

If You Have Strayed

Your Father has not disowned you, and He will not. But you are missing the joy, peace, and fellowship He wants you to have. Come home. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (1 John 1:9). Like the father in Jesus' parable, He is ready to run to meet you (Luke 15:20).

If You Know You Are His

• Rest. Stop trying to keep yourself saved. Spend that energy serving the One who keeps you.
• Fight sin as a son. Say no to sin, not to stay in the family, but because you are in it (Romans 6:11–13).
• Serve out of gratitude. The love of Christ constraineth us (2 Corinthians 5:14). Love, not fear, is the believer's motive.

Explaining It to Someone

If a friend asks whether a Christian can lose his salvation, you might say:

1. Eternal life is a gift, and it is eternal. God gives it to everyone who believes, and He never takes it back (John 5:24; Romans 6:23).
2. God does the keeping. The Father holds us, the Son intercedes for us, and the Spirit seals us until the day of redemption (John 10:28–29; Hebrews 7:25; Ephesians 4:30).
3. Sin still matters. A believer who sins is chastened as a son and loses joy, fellowship, and reward, but never his place in the family (Hebrews 12:6).

Then ask your friend what he is trusting to get to heaven. That question often opens the door to the Gospel.