Eternal Security of the Believer

Having Assurance of your Salvation is critical if the Believer is going to be a productive member of the Body of Christ.  Of course, to obtain Assurance of Salvation, you must first accept the free gift of salvation that is being offered to you through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3-8, that “ye must be Born Again.” Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a “Master of Israel”.  This fact is important to note because it shows you that just having religion, and the knowledge that there is “a God” (James 2:19) is not enough to save you from your sins.  The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9 That we are saved by grace through faith.  It is not something that we can do or earn for ourselves.  We have to believe the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) to receive salvation from our sins. As The Bible says in Romans 10:9-10 –  “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ” And Romans 10:13 says “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  We must stop trying to earn favor with God,  We are born sinners (Romans 3:23, Romans 5:12), and we deserve death (Romans 6:23) but instead are offered the free gift of salvation, if we will just put all of our faith and trust in Jesus. Once you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you can know that you have eternal life.

Doubt is a trick of Satan

In Ephesians 6:11, we are told to Put on the whole armor of God, that we may stand against the wiles of the Devil.  One of the main tricks that he plays on the Christian is to sow the seed of doubt into your life where Salvation is concerned.  Once you are born again, Satan can’t do anything with you, but keep you from fulfilling the purpose that the Lord has for your life.  If Satan can get us to doubt our salvation, then he can keep us from working for God. (Titus 2:11-15)  In other words, he wants you to be so busy worrying about your salvation, and how you don’t deserve it, that you won’t bother sharing the Gospel with anyone else; as we are called to do. (1 Peter 3:15) If you read Matthew 4:1-11, you will see how Satan likes to operate.  First he waits until you are in a weak state before he attacks.  Then he misapplies scripture to “trick” you into fulfilling his purposes.  This tactic did not work when he tempted Jesus, and if you Study your Bible, it won’t work with you either.

14 Scriptures that teach Eternal Security

I have broken these passages up into the following sections:

• The New Birth
• The Body of Christ
• You’re Sealed
• It’s Settled
• What can be lost

The New Birth:

• 2 Corinthians 5:17
• Colossians 2:11

Once you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, the Bible teaches that we become a new creature, and our Flesh (Body) is separated from our Soul.  This new birth is why the Bible teaches that the Believer now has two natures; The Old man and the New Man (Galatians 5:16-26, Romans 7:15-25).  This new man is the new birth that Jesus spoke about in John 3:3-8, and since we can’t be unborn you know that we can’t lose this new nature, and, therefore, can’t lose our salvation.

The Body of Christ:

• Ephesians 5:30
• 1 Corinthians 12:27
• John 6:37

Next notice that Scripture teaches that once we are Born Again, that we become part of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).  We have now become Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone (Ephesians 5:30). Once we become part of His Body, we can not cease to be part of that Body. For us to lose our salvation, he would need to remove part of his body, which is something that he said he would never do (John 6:37).

You’re Sealed:

• Ephesians 4:30
• Ephesians 1:13
• 2 Timothy 4:18

After you become a “Believer”, then you are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of the redemption of our bodies at the coming of the Lord.  We have been purchased by the Blood of Christ (Acts 20:28, 1 Corinthians 6:20); therefore, we belong to him.  The Bible teaches that we as Believers can grieve the Holy Spirit by not living right, but that won’t change the fact that he seals us.  If something is sealed, then it is protected from being lost.  You seal a zip lock bag so that the contents don’t fall out.  We are Sealed in Him, so it is impossible for us to fall out of Him.

It’s Settled:

• John 3:36
• 1 John 5:13
• Romans 8:38-39

The Bible tells us that we Have Everlasting Life (1 John 5:13). It does not say that we might get everlasting life at some point in the future if we do everything just right, It says that we currently have it.  The only prerequisite for obtaining everlasting life is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:18,36). Also, we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God. In Romans 8:38-39 The Apostle Paul gives us a list of things that cannot separate us from the love of God.  This list includes:

• Death
• Life
• Angels
• Principalities
• Powers
• Present Things
• Future Things
• any Creatures

You would have to agree that this is a pretty exhaustive list.  Nothing is left to chance, and even though you may be thinking that this list doesn’t mention your sins, I would remind you that all of your sins have been committed after Jesus paid the price for them.  They are all Future Things, which is on the list.

What can be lost:

• 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
• 2 Corinthians 5:10
• Romans 14:10-12

Finally, I would like to cover what your sins can cause you to lose.  It is evident from the Scriptures that we have looked at that the Born-again Believer in this age, cannot lose their salvation; however the Believer can lose something.  That something is the Rewards that we are promised if we will be obedient after salvation.  1 Corinthians 3:11-15 is a description of what will happen at the Judgement Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). Our deeds will be judged, not our salvation.  Only those that are in the Body of Christ will appear at this judgement; therefore, salvation is already settled.  Eternal Security is reinforced in the context (1 Corinthians 3:15) where it states that the Believer may suffer loss(of rewards), but they will be saved.  Even in this passage where we see what the Believer “can” lose, we still see an affirmation that the Believer himself will not and cannot lose their salvation.

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this article provided some encouragement and helped your Christian walk.