ETERNAL SECURITY?
March 28, 2019
ETERNAL SECURITY PART 8
READ TIME — 1-2 MINUTES
Good morning. This is a continuation of my answer to a question awhile back about whether eternal security is biblical.
There are six additional ramifications (some ramifications were mentioned in a previous post) of not believing in eternal security.
This vital doctrine has serious ramifications and implications in the believer’s walk with Jesus and witness to others.
- Anyone who believes he can lose his salvation and gain it again at a later time has removed himself from a belief in grace through faith alone and has concluded that his works have become an integral part of his salvation or lack thereof. Thus, salvation is accomplished by faith plus works since his salvation, he believes, is maintained by works.
- Assurance of salvation is at stake because the individual who believes he is not eternally secure can never be completely sure that he is saved throughout his entire life.
- Forgiveness is at stake because the one who rejects eternal security believes, whether he acknowledges it or not, that Jesus only died for the sins he committed before his salvation. Therefore, Christ did not die for all his sins.
- The work of evangelism is at stake when one rejects the eternal security of the believer because the one sharing the Gospel cannot be assured that he is always saved himself.
- A clear focus on God is at stake, for the person who believes he can lose his salvation must focus more upon himself and his actions to secure his salvation rather than focusing his attention upon God as the “author and finisher” of his faith.
- A false conclusion regarding the eternal security of the believer indirectly questions the credibility of Jesus Christ who so often explicitly stated in the Gospel of John that He came to earth to do the will of the Father so that man might have eternal, everlasting life based upon His [Jesus Christ’s] sacrificial work upon the cross (Ironside and Stanley in Costella).
SOURCES USED
Costella, Matt. “God’s Perfect Work: A Study of the Doctrine of the Eternal Security of the Believer.” Foundation Magazine, May-June 1998. http://www.truthfulwords.org/articles/security2.html.