"Eternal Security"

Victory Can Be Yours!

Article #23 – “Eternal Security”

Many, and maybe most people, believe that you can lose your salvation.  That shows that they have no confidence in Christ, no security in Him.  That is simply not a Biblical position.  However, I know some who will not even allow a discussion with them on this issue.  They are so entrenched in what they have been taught that they do not want anyone to change their mind on the subject.  That is a terrible and painful position to hold.  This position means that if you sin you will lose your salvation and must re-establish it again before something drastic happens to you.  How horrible!  A person who holds that position will be so busy trying to keep his salvation that he would not be able to be concerned about someone else’s need to be saved.  Another danger in holding that position is that a person would have to come to the point of thinking they are perfect and without sin.  And, still another and maybe more horrible consequence of believing you can lose your salvation is that you, like a young person I know, has just given up completely.  What a horrible way to have to live, especially if you have once believed in Jesus.

We must understand that no one but Jesus was, is, or can be without sin.  “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)  We cannot live in this world without occasional sin.  Jesus faced the same circumstances and temptations that we face and did not sin.  The only reason He did not sin was because He is also God.  He is both man and God where we are simply part of a fallen, sinful human race.  Even Paul, the greatest evangelist the world has ever known, sinned.  “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.  Wretched man that I am!  Who sill set me free from the body of this death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” (Rom. 7: 22-25) 

Thank God, He has given us a remedy for this awful problem of sin in our lives, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)  This passage means that if we confess our known sins that God will even forgive those sins that we do not recall or are aware that we have committed, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Whoa, what a gracious, merciful, and loving God we have!

We may sometimes sin but we cannot lose our salvation if we have believed in Jesus Christ.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  Many other passages are clear on this matter. (John 5:24; 6:35; 11:26; Acts 16:31; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2: 8, 9)  If the Bible says it, believe it and have confidence in Jesus Christ.

You, too, can have victory in Jesus!  More to come.

Lowell Parrish