Can Our Salvation Be Undone?
The scriptures teach that the Lord Jesus imparts
everlasting life to those who believe on him. Eternal life means
just that: life forever! There are no conditions or caveats given in
scripture whereby one can forfeit eternal life or that would cause
God to take it back.
It is impossible to lose the salvation that God gives
us by his grace. Call it ’Eternal Security’ or ‘Once Saved, Always
Saved.’ It matters not. I think of it as ‘Once a Child, Always a
Child!’
Yet some argue that our
salvation can be undone. They claim ‘Once Saved, Always Saved!’ is a
false doctrine. For the sake of argument, if it was possible for one
to lose the salvation that God gave him, then there are several
divine operations integral to our salvation that God would have to
UNDO in order for us to be lost again.
Justification
When a sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts
16:31), God imputes unto him the righteousness of his Son and
reckons it to his account. With the righteousness of Christ imputed,
God declares him righteous.
This is a divine declaration that happens one time
for all time. It is NOT contingent upon what the believer does
afterward. God NEVER reverses his decree, NOR debits the
righteousness of Christ he credits to us. In order to lose
salvation, God would have to remove that righteousness and
un-justify one of his own.
The scripture says we are “justified freely by his
grace” (Romans 3:24). The adjective ‘freely’ is dorean (in
gift-like manner, undeservedly, without a cause). If God finds NO
cause in a believer as the basis for justification, but rather finds
the SOLE cause in his grace, then it stands to reason that God will
NEVER find cause in the same believer to reverse that decree of
righteousness! If it is God’s grace that justifies us, then it is
God’s grace that keeps us justified!
Moreover, the scripture
declares: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). The verb ‘being
justified’ is a past participle that serves as antecedent to “we
have peace” in present tense. Expanded translation: “having been
justified by faith one time for all time, we are in possession of
peace with God.” Again, once God issues a declaration of
righteousness for a believer, there is no retracement of that
decree!
Regeneration
Jesus said: “Ye must be born again!” (John 3:3,7). In
that context he gave an OT illustration (serpent in the wilderness)
that depicts the manner in which the new (or second) birth takes
place. When a sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, looks to Jesus in
faith as the remedy for his sins and spiritual death, God literally
raises him to spiritual life.
This impartation of spiritual life is called
regeneration. It is the work of God. It can be neither done nor
undone by man. Therefore ONLY God would be able to UNDO a spiritual
birth. But there is NO scripture that suggests that God EVER does
that!
In addition, the new birth, or regeneration, makes
one a child (son) of God. To suggest that one can lose salvation
puts God in the position of spiritually ‘killing’ one of his
children, whom he raised from the dead, back into the hands of the
enemy. What would this say about the power or love of God as a
Father? It’s the ultimate insult to suggest that God is capable of
such a thing!
Moreover, regeneration makes the believer the
habitation of God through his Spirit, who takes up his residence in
the child of God (Ephesians 2:22). The Holy Spirit becomes the
unbreakable seal of our salvation (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30) as well as
the earnest (down payment) of our inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:22).
In other words, God gives his very self as earnest money. If a child
of God lost his salvation and failed to get the full inheritance God
promised, then God would forfeit the earnest of the Spirit. God
would have broken his promise, lost his integrity and existence as
God. If just ONE saved soul is EVER lost, then EVERY human soul will
be lost and
doomed!
From an exegetical perspective, Jesus taught us that
one who hears and believes on him “hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”
(John 5:24). The verb ‘hath’ is present tense, signifying the actual
possession of eternal life. In another text, Jesus said the
unbeliever is “condemned already” (John 3:18). If faith in Jesus
delivers one from the condemnation under which he languished as an
unbeliever, he has the guarantee of his Savior that NEVER again will
condemnation mar his future!
The verb ‘passed’ is the perfect tense of the Greek
verb metabaino (‘to pass over from one place to another’).
The perfect tense signifies an action with permanent or finished
results. The passing of a sinner from death unto life is a finished
work that cannot be undone! A saved man or woman can NEVER pass from
spiritual life unto spiritual death! According to Jesus, it’s an
impossibility!
One more thought on the
indwelling Spirit. If one could be saved and then lost again, it
would mean the Holy Spirit vacates the premises. Could that newly
created God-vacuum go unnoticed? Wouldn’t a Spirit-indwelt person
know when that rapid departure took place? Imagine that you are
swimming in the deep end of a swimming pool when all of a sudden the
water evaporates and leaves you lying on your belly on the pool
bottom. The departure of the Spirit would be no less dramatic!
Redemption
The salvation of a sinner involves the purchase of
his soul by the blood of Christ, which is the very blood of God
himself (Acts 20:28). The child of God is no longer his own (1
Corinthians 6:19). We are bought with the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The title deed of our eternal soul belongs to God. He
has CLEAR title with NO liens. In order for one to lose his
salvation, God would have to relinquish ownership of his child and
sign the title back over to the former owner – the devil. It would
signify that the blood of Jesus, while sufficient to accomplish the
initial act of redemption, lacks the potency to KEEP a sinner saved
and God’s title clear! And if that be the case, the reasonable mind
MUST ask whether the blood of Christ has the potency to keep ANY
sinner saved for eternity.
The doctrine of
redemption is rooted in the Cross of Christ, his vicarious death for
the sinners he loved. The blood Christ shed in his death was the
total satisfaction for God’s wrath toward our sins. That blood is
efficacious to accomplish our redemption. If it is possible for one
to lose the gift of salvation, it would mean that something MORE
than Christ is essential for us to keep it.
Conclusion
The various arguments against
‘Once Saved, Always Saved’ may appear noble. But the implications
are devastating. In order for a lost sinner to be saved and then
lost again, the God of our salvation would have to undo
Justification, undo Regeneration, undo Redemption and then undo
himself! That God, my friends, does NOT exist on the pages of holy
scripture!
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