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Eternal Security
If someone stops believing how does that affect their salvation?
For Those Who Stop Believing
People on both sides of this issue [eternal security] agree for the most part that we are saved by faith. However, those who believe salvation can be lost often ask an insightful question about the relationship between salvation and faith. That question can be phrased, If our salvation is gained through believing in Christ, doesn't it make sense that salvation would be lost if we quit believing?
Or to put it another way, If Christians lose faith to the point that they no longer recognize Christ's death on the cross as the payment for sin, doesn't it follow that they would lose their salvation as well?
Or to put it in a scriptural context, John 6:47 says, "He who believes has eternal life." Does it not follow then that he who does not believe does not have eternal life?
Along the same lines, some have argued that the term believe, when referring to salvation, is always used in the present tense, as is the case in John 6:47. The implication is that a believer is one who is always believing. Therefore, to stop believing is to disqualify oneself from the family of believers.
As convincing as these arguments may sound, they are shot through with problems. The Bible clearly teaches that God's love for His people is of such magnitude that even those who walk away from the faith have not the slightest chance of slipping from His hand.
Faith and Salvation
Let's begin with a fundamental question: What does the Bible say about the relationship between believing and salvation? We have already seen that faith is a key ingredient in gaining salvation. But let's go beyond that. Let's focus on the specific connection between the two. The apostle Paul explains their association this way:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. Ephesians 2:4-9
At the very outset Paul makes an important theological point. The reason ("because of . . .") God made us alive was His "great love." Why is that so important? Because right up front we discover the reason or motivation behind our salvation. Paul does not say, "Because of our great abiding faith with which we trusted Him." Faith is not the reason God saves men. Love is the reason.
The Motivation of God's Salvation
We did nothing to motivate God to save us. His motivation was intrinsic. It came from within His nature. He saw our plight and felt compassion for us. Anyone who has stopped along the road to pick up a stray dog or move a fallen bird's nest to a safe place has in a limited way mirrored the compassion expressed by God in salvation.
Paul explains this even further with his parenthetical remark, "By grace you have been saved." The Greek form of the term grace implies that grace is the ìinstrument" used to accomplish salvation. In other words, if one were to ask God, "God, how did You save me?" He would answer, "Grace."
Grace summarizes the entire salvation process. It encapsulates the sending of Christ, the offer of forgiveness, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension. Why grace? Because grace indicates unmerited favor; it suggests an undeserved expression of kindness and goodwill. The whole of salvation is just thatóan undeserved gift. From start to finish, salvation is by grace. We have now answered two basic questions.
Q1: Why did God save us?
A1: He loved us.
Q2: How did God save us?
A2: By grace; by an undeserved series of events enacted for our benefit.
God's Purpose
Paul answers yet another crucial question. In verse 7 he reveals the purpose for our salvation: so that we might be the eternal objects of God's kindness.
This truth underscores the depth of the love that moved God to begin with. Unlike the nature lover who stops to rescue an injured bird, God's love goes beyond pity. He did not save us just to keep us out of hell. He saved us to guarantee an eternal relationship with us, a relationship in which we would continue to be the recipients of His kindness.
God's grace toward you did not stop with forgiveness. His grace will continue to be poured out on you forever! That was His purpose from the very beginning.
Before we go any further, you need to ask yourself a sobering question: "Do I believe I have the power to thwart the purposes of God?" Once God has made up His mind He is going to do something, do you think you have the power to throw a wrench into the works and foul things up? To believe that a man or woman can lose his or her salvation is to believe that a human being can frustrate the eternal purpose of God.
God has plans for all those who were dead in their trespasses and sins and have been made alive with Christ. To hold to a theology in which man can do something that throws him back into a state of spiritual deadness, thus denying God His predetermined purpose, is to embrace a system in which man is in the driver's seat and God is just a passenger.
. . . By Faith
At last we come to the focus of our discussionóthe relationship between faith and salvation. Whether you are aware of it or not, we have eliminated several commonly accepted views about faith and salvation. First of all, we have learned that faith is not the reason God saves us. Remember, Paul makes it clear that love is the reason.
Second, we are not saved by our faith. We are saved by grace. The instrument of salvation was and is grace. God came up with a plan and carried it out through Christ. We did not take part in it, nor did we deserve any part of it. It was grace from start to finish. "How then," you are asking, "does faith fit in with all of this?" Paul clarifies that by saying,
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
Once again Paul explains the role of grace. But then he adds the ever-so-important—yet misunderstood—phrase "through faith." "Through" is the key to understanding the significance of faith. "Through" is translated from the Greek word dia, which carries the idea of "means" or "agency." Faith was the agent whereby God was able to apply His grace to the life of the sinner.
A parallel use of the term is found in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians:
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 1Corinthians 1:21, emphasis mine.
The message was the agent through which salvation was made available to the group of people in question. Paul is not saying that the message itself saved them. The message was simply the means by which the saving grace of God was explained.
A Desperate Leap
Imagine for a moment that you are at the scene of a burning building. You notice a crowd of people shouting and pointing up at one end of the building, so you run to see what all the commotion is about. When you arrive, you are told by firemen that a woman is trapped on a ledge three floors up. Her only hope is to jump into the net that has been set up right below her.
As you peer through the smoke, you finally catch a glimpse of the woman. She is obviously scared and confused. You see the net not too far from where you are standing. It certainly looks strong enough to hold the woman, and apparently, the firemen are confident that if she will simply jump, her life will be spared.
Suddenly, without warning the woman screams and leaps from the building. The firemen brace themselves to help absorb the impact of the woman's body as she hits the safety net. As the sides of the net are lowered, you see that the woman escaped with only minor injuries. The crowd cheers, and you go on your merry way. Now, think for a moment. What saved the woman's life?
The net, of course. No one would credit her with saving her own life. Fortunately for her, trained firemen were on the spot who knew how to handle emergency situations. They formulated a plan, went to work on it, and carried it out.
But what bridged the gap between her need and the provision waiting below? One desperate leap! However, leaping did not save her. Many people have jumped from burning buildings only to end up dead on the pavement below. The net and the firemen saved her.
So it is with faith. Faith does not save a person. Everybody has expressed faith at some point or another. Yet not everyone will spend eternity in heaven. God's grace is what saves us. Our faith, however, is the thing that bridges the gap between our need and God's provision; specifically, it is a point in time at which the expression of faith in Christ brings God's provision together with our need. Once the woman jumped, she was safe. Once we believe, we are saved.
I imagine a woman who went through an experience such as the one described would always have faith in firemen and their nets. But even if she did not, the fact remains that she was saved from the fire. In the same way, in all probability, a Christian who has expressed faith in Christ and experienced forgiveness of sin will always believe that forgiveness is found through Christ. But even if he does not, the fact remains that he is forgiven!
It is true that the same woman could find herself caught in a different fire. And it is equally true that the degeneration of her faith in firemen and their nets could be deadly. But a man or woman who has been rescued once from a state of unforgiveness need not worry. For once 100 percent of a man's or woman's sins have been forgiven, the potential for being unforgiven has been done away with. The risk factor is zero. There are no more fires from which the believer needs to be saved.
Yes!
Faith is simply the way we say yes to God's free gift of eternal life. Faith and salvation are not one and the same anymore than a gift and the hand that receives it are the same. Salvation or justification or adoption—whatever you wish to call it—stands independently of faith. Consequently, God does not require a constant attitude of faith in order to be savedóonly an act of faith.
One more illustration may be helpful. If I chose to have a tattoo put on my arm, that would involve a one-time act on my part. Yet the tattoo would remain with me indefinitely. I don't have to maintain an attitude of fondness for tattoos to ensure that the tattoo remains on my arm. In fact I may change my mind the minute I receive it. But that does not change the fact that I have a tattoo on my arm. My request for the tattoo and the tattoo itself are two entirely different things. I received it by asking and paying for it. But asking for my money back and changing my attitude will not undo what is done.
Forgiveness/salvation is applied at the moment of faith. It is not the same thing as faith. And its permanence is not contingent upon the permanence of one's faith.
A Gift Is a Gift Is a Gift
You and I are not saved because we have enduring faith. We are saved because at a moment in time we expressed faith in our enduring Lord. Notice how Paul ends this passage:
It is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. Ephesians 2.8-9
Pictured here is something we experience every time we are handed a gift. It refers to the entire process Paul has just finished describing, that is, salvation. "Salvation," Paul says, "is a gift." Now I don't know about you, but I have learned that a gift that can be taken back is no gift. True gifts have no strings attached. Once you place a condition of any kind on a gift, it becomes a trade, not a gift.
To say that our salvation can be taken from us for any reason, whether it be sin or disbelief, is to ignore the plain meaning of this text. To place conditions on the permanency of our salvation is to say it is not a gift. Therefore, placing conditions on the permanency of salvation is the equivalent of not believing Ephesians 2:8 or John 4:10 or other passages where salvation is clearly described as a gift.
What we do with the gift is another matter entirely. The fact that I don't take advantage of a gift says nothing about who it belongs to. It still belongs to me. You can take a gift and bury it in the back yard, but it is still yours. Once you accept a gift, you are stuck with it, like it or not!
You say, "What if I give it back?" You can give it back only if the giver accepts the return. In the case of salvation God has a strict no-return policy. There is no evidence by way of statement or illustration that God has ever taken back from a believer the gift of salvation once it has been given. His love would keep Him from doing so. Keep in mind, Christ came to seek and to save the lost. Why would He take back what He came to give?
And faith? Faith is our way of accepting God's gift. Faith serves as our spiritual hands by which the gift is received at a particular moment in time. Again, saving faith is not necessarily a sustained attitude of gratefulness for God's gift. It is a singular moment in time wherein we take what God has offered.
Before we go any further, let me ask you this: Has there been a time in your life when you accepted God's free gift of salvation? If not, why not settle the issue once and for all right now? It's really so simple. God is not looking for a series of promises. His primary concern at this point is not your ability to follow through. He does not want to hear all the things you intend to do for Him. He is more concerned about what you will let Him do for you.
When I was twelve, I prayed a prayer similar to the one I've included here. If you are not sure you are saved, why not make sure now? If you recognize your need for forgiveness and you believe Christ's death made your forgiveness possible, you are ready. Pray,
God, I know I am a sinner.
I know my sin has earned for me eternal separation from You.
I believe Christ died in my place when He died at Calvary.
I accept His death as the full payment for my sin.
I accept Him as my Savior.
Thank You for saving me.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Notes
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Robert Shank uses this line of reasoning to argue against the eternal security of the believer in Life in the Son (Springfield, Mo.: Wescott, 1960).
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C. F. D. Moule, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1959), p. 44.
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"In order that" translates hina. This Greek conjunction is almost always used to signify the idea of either purpose or result. Since what is spoken of here is still in the future, purpose seems to fit best.
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This view does not jeopardize man's freedom. Experientially, man is free to choose or reject God's gift of salvation. However, to reject salvation in no way thwarts the purposes of God. Nowhere does Scripture teach that God has purposed that every man and woman be saved. We must differentiate here between matters of desire and matters of purpose. God desires that every person be saved, but He has not purposed that it be so. He has purposed, however, that every person who is saved at any point eventually be the object of His grace in the ages to come. To say that man can do something that causes him to lose his salvation is to say he has the ability to block God in carrying out His purposes. If this is in fact the case, all of prophecy is up for grabs, for how can we legitimately make a distinction between the purpose of God as stated in Ephesians and that of Revelation?
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Bauer, Gingrich, and Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature, 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), p. 180, section III, subsection 1, d.
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Many argue that it refers to faith, and therefore, the gift of faith. Grammatically speaking, that evaluation of what Paul had in mind is doubtful. The pronoun it is neuter. Faith and grace are feminine. The use of a neuter pronoun following these feminine nouns indicates that it refers to a broader idea. Paul probably had the entire salvation scenario in mind here. Salvation is a gift. See A.T.A. Robertson, Grammar of the Greek New Testament (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1934), p. 704.
This material has been adapted from:
Eternal Security: Can You Be Sure?
by Dr. Charles Stanley
Used with permission. Thomas Nelson Publishing, Nashville, Tennessee
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