“Eternal security”, being free from the possibility of falling from a spiritually “saved” condition into a spiritually “lost” condition, is a mythical state. Belief in it is used by some as a license to sin. The blood of Jesus, the one who made the “saved” position possible, has never been a friend to sin. but a destroyer of sin. Some, though not all, who advocate eternal security teach that once a man is saved no matter how wicked he becomes he is still saved.
First, let’s examine scriptures most used in defending eternal security:
- John 10:27-29:
“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.” — Some who teach eternal security say that since no man can pluck the sheep from the Father’s hand that they are forever there, but this is not so. In verse 27 Jesus said that His sheep follow Him. Can a drunkard be a sheep of Jesus? Is he following Jesus? Some eternal security teachers say he can be. In which case Jesus would have had to be a drunkard, or a liar to make such a statement. The drunkard may have in the past been a sheep of Jesus, in the Father’s hand. When sin came he ceased to be a sheep of Jesus for he ceased to follow Him. Therefore, he was no longer in the Father’s hand. No man plucked him from the Father’s hand; he sinned and the Father plucked him away, for God is holy. Notice also that the gift of eternal life is conditional to following Him. Only as we follow Him do we have eternal life; just as only as a sheep follows the shepherd does he have the good things the shepherd gives. Eternal life is ours as we follow Jesus.
- Romans 8:38-39:
“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.” — Some say that this passage teaches “nothing” can separate you from God. The scriptures say differently. Isaiah 59:2 –“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.” Romans 8:38-39 teaches that no power, no circumstance, no creature can separate you from God’s love in Christ. However, sin and iniquity will separate you from God. A man can say that no power, no circumstance or no creature can separate him from his wife’s love. Although he may of his own free will separate himself from his wife by leaving. Likewise, a saved man can say no power, no circumstance, or no creature can separate him from God’s love but he can of his own free will separate himself from God by sinning. God will still love him as He loves all lost men. God’s loving you doesn’t mean you are saved. “For God so loved the world” – saved and lost. Notice also that it is “God’s love in Christ Jesus” that nothing can separate you from. God loves even the lost, but He has a special love for His children — those in Christ Jesus. As we stay in Jesus nothing can separate us from God’s special love.
- 1 Peter 1:5:
“Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” — Some major on the scripture portion “kept by the power of God” — which is a great thought, but not the complete thought in the verse. The keeping power of God comes only through faith. When we cease to have faith we cease to be kept by the power of God.
As we can now see these verses don’t teach eternal security. Also, in the light of other scriptures numerous contradictions arise when these verses are rendered to teach eternal security. Let’s examine some scriptures that contradict eternal security:
- II Peter 2:20-21:
“For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have know the way of righteousness, than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened to them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the pig that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” — These verses are so clear. They put the backslider in his place — on the way to hell. A saved man, having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be entangled in them again. This has happened to most of us. But, only when he is again overcome by the pollutions (sin) of the world, does he find himself in a worse condition than had he never been saved. There is a difference in being entangled and being overcome. For the man who is overcome it would have been better for him to have never known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and turned from it. For now he is “trodding under foot the Son of God” (Hebrews 10:29).
- Hebrews 10:26-29:
“For if we sin willfully 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. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, supposed ye, shall he be thought worthy who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace.” — These verses also are very clear to the sincere reader. A man, sanctified by the truth and by the blood of Jesus, who sins willfully, will find that there remains no more sacrifice for his sin. The blood of Jesus stops working for him. He therefore has nothing ahead but fiery indignation and judgment unless he repents.
- Romans 3:25:
“Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” — Some teach that when salvation happens sins are forgiven — past, present and future. The scriptures teach differently, as can be seen in this verse. Through faith we receive forgiveness for sins that are past.
- 1 John 3:7-10:
“Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” — Don’t be deceived by those who say a man can live like the devil and still be a child of God, for “in this the children of God are manifest…whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.” The man who practices sin is of the devil. The scriptures are so clear. If a man is born of God he does not live in willful sin. If he sins willfully, he dies spiritually and must repent.
- 1 John 1:5-8:
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” — I believe the light is knowledge of the truth; and the darkness is iniquity. Only as we walk in the light (truth) does the blood of Jesus cleanse us from all sin. No one can honestly say that they have no sin. All have sinned (Romans 3:23). But sin can either be forgiven or unforgiven. No one walking with God has any unforgiven sin in his life (1 John 3:9).
Sin is never the expected thing of a child of God; but “if” – not “when” – any sin, Jesus is our advocate, the appeasement for sin (1 John 2:1-2). The relationship of the child of God to sin is quite clear in God’s Word. Let God’s Word order your life.
Hebrews 3:6: “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
1 John 2:24: “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.”
Revelation 3:5: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels.”
John 8:31: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed.”
Hebrews 3:14: “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.”
Colossians 1:21-23: “And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight, if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.”