THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER

Israel Perdonsin

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Chapter 57 THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER

I. DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS

The title of this chapter was not chosen indiscriminately. In some theologies or dictionaries it would have been entitled Assurance; in others, Perseverance; in a few, Preservation. What are the differences, and why choose Security?

Eternal security is the work of God that guarantees that the gift of salvation, once received, is forever and cannot be lost. The concept of eternal security emphasizes God’s activity in guaranteeing the eternal possession of the gift of eternal life. It relates to those the Holy Spirit regenerates, and its veracity does not rest on feelings or experiences.

Preservation is quite similar to eternal security in emphasizing the work of God in preserving the believer in his salvation.

Perseverance, the term generally used in Calvinism, labels the fifth point in Calvin’s theology, the “final perseverance” of the saints. It means that believers “can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved” (Westminster Confession, XVII, I). It seems to focus on the believer—it is the believer who perseveres (albeit through the decree and power of God). Security focuses on God—it is God who secures our salvation. It does not deny that there may be times of backsliding, but it stresses the need for demonstrable fruit throughout the Christian life. Sometimes those who approach this doctrine from the viewpoint of perseverance deny the possibility of a Christian’s being carnal.

Though eternal security, preservation, and perseverance in reality all teach the same bottom-line conclusion (namely, that the true believer will not lose his salvation), assurance is a different doctrine. It is the realization of the truth of eternal security or perseverance. A secure salvation is a true fact whether one realizes it or not. Thus a believer has security whether or not he has assurance.

II. THE DOCTRINE OF ASSURANCE

Assurance is the realization that one possesses eternal life. Lack of assurance often brings unnecessary but terrible trauma to a person’s life. Why do people lack assurance?

Four reasons may be suggested. (1) Some doubt the reality of their committal to Christ. Sometimes this may be connected with the inability to pinpoint a time when one received Christ. Regeneration occurs at a specific point in time. People are either saved or lost at any given moment. No one grows into conversion. But we all do grow in our comprehension of conversion. So, although in God’s sight and in our experience there was a point in time when we were saved, in our recollection or understanding we may not be able to specify it.

Sometimes this doubt is more basic than just the matter of time. Did I really trust Christ? Such doubt may be dispelled by calling on the name of the Lord again (and again and again, if necessary). No one can be born again more than one time, but one may honestly tell the Lord his doubt and call on Him for salvation again.

(2) Some lack assurance because they question the correctness of the procedure they went through when they expressed faith in Christ. I did not go forward. Am I really saved? Did I pray the proper prayer? I received Christ privately. Is this sufficient, or do I need to make some kind of public demonstration? This problem, which is very real to more people than it should be, has been aggravated by elevating some method of invitation to the place where it almost becomes the means of salvation.

(3) If one does not believe in the security of the believer, then he will undoubtedly lack assurance more than once in his lifetime.

(4) When sin, especially a serious sin, enters the believer’s life, then doubt sometimes accompanies such an experience. Security does not grant a license to sin, but to have assurance we need to realize that Christians will sin, and that sin does not cause us to lose our salvation. The normal Christian experience never includes sinlessness, for “we all stumble in many ways” (). This never excuses sin, for the Christian will also grow in holiness. But the experience of sin does not forfeit salvation.

James 3:2 ESV

2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

III. THE ARMINIAN VIEW OF SECURITY

James Arminius (1560–1609) received his training in strict Reformed theology. When asked to defend supralapsarianism against sublapsarianism, he found himself guardedly defending the sublapsarian position. His writings, collected in three volumes, consist mostly of occasional treatises that grew out of the controversies he found himself in. The system known as Arminianism took his views much further and was forged by Simon Episcopius (1583–1643).

Among the principal teachings of Arminianism are the following.

1. Foreknowledge. God’s decrees are based on His foreknowledge (meaning foresight). Election was due to foreseen faith and reprobation to foreseen resistance to grace. Though Arminius also viewed foreknowledge as foresight, he did say that “God decreed to save some and damn certain particular persons.”1

2. Pollution, not guilt. Man inherited pollution from Adam but not imputed guilt. Depravity is not total, for man can incline his will toward good deeds.

3. Perfection. It is possible for a believer to live in such conformity to God’s will so as to be called perfect.

4. Loss of salvation. Arminianism clearly teaches that a believer may lose his salvation. Arminius said: “I never taught that a true believer can either totally or finally fall away from the faith and perish; yet I will not conceal that there are passages of Scripture which seem to me to wear this aspect.”2

On a more popular level, Arminians sometimes equate the position of eternal security with a license to sin. Of course, Calvinists do sin and excuse it, but so do Arminians. Our life should adorn our doctrine, but our life, good or bad, neither makes doctrine true or untrue.

As a practical matter, the Arminian view of the possibility and reality of losing one’s salvation sometimes leads to a cataloging of sins. In one category are sins that will cause you to lose your salvation; in another, those that do not. Of course, some sins are worse than others (; ), but if one sin can cause the loss of salvation, then any sin can. Resistance to this conclusion may account for the perfectionism teaching in Arminianism.

Matthew 7:1–5 ESV

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

John 19:11 ESV

11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

IV. THE REASONS FOR ETERNAL SECURITY

Basically security is based on the grace of God and the fact that eternal life is a gift and it is eternal. When a person believes in Christ, he is brought into a relationship with the Godhead that assures his salvation is secure. Of course, this is true only of born again people. There are those who profess but do not possess life. Sometimes we can make a reasonably sure judgment as to whether an individual only professes or actually possesses eternal life. Sometimes we cannot. But the regenerated person’s salvation is secure because of that relationship to God that he has through faith.

A. Reasons Related to the Father

1. His purpose. God purposed to glorify the same group He predestined, called, and justified (). This daring statement could not be made if any one of that group could lose his salvation. If so, then the ones whom He justified would not be the same number as the ones He glorified. But the text says they will be the same.

Romans 8:30 ESV

30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

2. His power. Most would agree that God’s power is able to keep the believer (and it is, ), but some would argue that it can be thwarted by a person renouncing his faith. But the Lord said that we are secure in His hand and the Father’s hand and that no one can seize the believer from the safe position (). “No one” means no one, including the individual himself. The promise does not say that no one, except yourself, can seize the believer out of God’s hand. It says no one.

John 10:28–29 ESV

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

B. Reasons Related to the Son

1. His death. Paul asks two questions in : Who will bring a charge against God’s elect, and who condemns them? His answer that no one can is based on the death, resurrection, intercession, and advocacy of Christ (v. 34). If any sin can undo a believer’s salvation, and if in fact, he can lose that salvation, then Christ’s death did not pay for that sin. But it did, Paul asserts. Our Lord Himself also declared that He would lose nothing of what the Father gave Him ()—everyone who believes in Him will be raised at the last day, not everyone who believes and perseveres.

Romans 8:33 ESV

33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

John 6:39–40 ESV

39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

2. His prayers. Christ’s present ministry in heaven of praying for His own consists of two aspects: a preventive ministry (intercession) and a curative ministry (advocacy). His prayer in illustrates the preventive aspect. There He prayed that we might be kept from the evil one (v. 15), that we would be sanctified (v. 17), that we would be united (v. 21), that we would be in heaven with Him (v. 24), and that we might behold His glory (v. 24). Because of His unceasing intercession for us He is able to save us completely and eternally ().

Hebrews 7:25 ESV

25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Advocacy comes into action when we sin (). Again, if any sin can undo salvation (and any can), then Satan has an airtight case against any believer whenever he sins (). He can justly demand the Christian’s eternal damnation, and were it not for our Advocate, we would be condemned. But the Lord points to His work on Calvary that removes the guilt of all our sins, those committed before and after salvation, and this suffices to answer Satan’s charge.

1 John 2:1 ESV

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Revelation 12:10 ESV

10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

I sinned. And straightway, posthaste, Satan flew

before the presence of the Most High God,

And made a railing accusation there.

He said, “This soul, this thing of clay and sod,

Has sinned. ’Tis true that he has named Thy name,

But I demand his death, for Thou hast said,

‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’ Shall not

Thy sentence be fulfilled? Is justice dead?

Send now this wretched sinner to his doom.

What other thing can righteous Ruler do?”

And thus he did accuse me day and night,

And every word he spoke, O God, was true!

Then quickly One rose up from God’s right hand,

Before whose glory angels veiled their eyes,

He spoke, “Each jot and tittle of the Law

Must be fulfilled; the guilty sinner dies!

But wait—suppose his guilt were all transferred

To Me, and that I paid his penalty!

Behold My hands, My side, My feet! One day

I was made sin for him, and died that he

Might be presented faultless, at Thy throne!”

And Satan fled away. Full well he knew

That he could not prevail against such love,

For every word my dear Lord spoke was true!

—Martha Snell Nicholson

C. Reasons Related to the Spirit

1. He regenerates. If we are born again by the Spirit when we believe, then if we can renounce our faith to lose our salvation, we would have to have the new birth taken away as well.

2. He indwells. If salvation can be lost, then the presence of the Spirit within the life of the believer would have to be removed. The Christian would become disindwelt.

3. He baptizes. The Spirit joins the believer to the body of Christ when he believes (); therefore, if salvation can be lost, the Christian would have to be detached from the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13 ESV

13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

4. He seals. The Spirit seals the believer until the day of redemption (). If salvation can be lost, then His sealing would not be until the day of redemption but only until the day of sinning, or apostasy, or disbelief.

Ephesians 4:30 ESV

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Of course, Scripture gives no hint that a Christian can lose the new birth, or that he can be disindwelt, or that he can be removed from the body of Christ (thus maiming His body) or be unsealed. Salvation is eternal and completely secured to all who believe.

To be sure, believers sin and are warned against false profession and Christian immaturity, but God never takes back the gift of His salvation once it is received. Believers will not always persevere in godliness. Peter did not (). Many Ephesian believers did not (). Lot did not (). At the Judgment Seat of Christ there will be some whose works will be burned and who will be saved as through fire (). Even though every believer will bear some fruit (4:5), it is difficult if not impossible to quantify how much or what kind each one will bear and thus to make judgments as to the spiritual condition of an individual.

Galatians 2:11 ESV

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

Acts 19:18 ESV

18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.

2 Peter 2:7 ESV

7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked

1 Corinthians 3:15 ESV

15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

V. SOME “PROBLEM” PASSAGES

Certain passages are sometimes understood as invalidating the doctrine of eternal security. We shall examine some of these to show that at least there is a reasonable interpretation that does not contradict the doctrine of security.

A. Passages that Warn Against Substituting Law for Grace

Two passages severely warn against trying to replace the way of grace with the old way of the Law. In Paul clearly declared that those who attempt to be justified by the Law have “fallen from grace.” That is, to try to use the Law as the ground for justification is to fall away from grace, which provides the only way to be justified.

Galatians 5:4 ESV

4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

The same kind of warning appears in . Here the writer warned that if a person rejects the truth of Christ’s death for sin, there is no other sacrifice for sin available and no other way to come to God. Such unbelief brings the threefold indictment detailed in verse 29.

Hebrews 10:26–31 ESV

26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

B. Passages that Warn Against Losing Rewards (But Not Salvation)

Quite clearly Paul spoke to this possibility in the “race” passage, . Races are run for rewards, and Paul himself felt the need to live a disciplined life so that at the end he would not be disapproved, not eliminated from the race, not lose his crowns.

1 Corinthians 9:24–27 ESV

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

The Lord’s illustration of the Vine and the branches teaches the same basic truth (). These branches are in Him, thus referring to believers. Believers, then, are exhorted to abide in Him in order to be fruitful. Abiding means to keep Christ’s commandments (v. 10 and ). The believer who does not abide, though still in Christ and thus saved, loses his opportunities and rewards, both in life and at the Judgment Seat of Christ. The casting forth, withering, and burning refer not to loss of salvation but to loss of present witness and future reward.

John 15:1–17 ESV

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

1 John 3:24 ESV

24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

C.

Hebrews 6:1–8 ESV

1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

This much-debated passage has been variously interpreted.

(1) The Arminian viewpoint sees the people described as believers who actually can lose their salvation (“fall away”). But if the passage teaches that, it also teaches that such a person who has lost his salvation can never be saved a second time, for “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance.”

(2) Others see this as a reference to professing believers who only fall away from knowledge of the truth to which they have been exposed but which they never personally accepted. In this view security is not an issue since professors are not saved.

(3) I personally understand the passage to be describing born again people. The phrases in verses 4 and 5 clearly refer to a conversion experience (cf. “enlightened” in 10:32, “taste” in 2:9, and “partakers” in 12:8). But they are willfully immature believers (cf. 5:11–14). Now, the writer warned, since it is impossible to go back in the Christian life to start it over (but if one could it would be necessary to fall away first in order to go back to the beginning), there are only two remaining options: stay where you are in this state of immaturity, or move forward to maturity (6:1). Since their present state was undesirable, this passage was a strong warning to go on in the Christian life. This warning is similar to that which a teacher might give a class: “It is impossible for you students, once enrolled in this course, turning the clock back (which cannot be done, but which would have to be done if one could go back to the beginning) to start this course over. Therefore, go on to further knowledge.”

The warnings against immaturity and fruitlessness are severe and the consequences significant. But those consequences do not include hell because of losing eternal life. Paul exulted in the confidence that nothing, including any other created thing (which has to include yourself), can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ (). And again he declared: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself” (). The consistency of God’s character guarantees a secure salvation.

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 Timothy 2:13 ESV

13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

Ryrie, C. C. (1999). Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (pp. 379–386). Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

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