The Security of the Believer
The only way that a person can be glorified is if they continue in their faith (Col 1:23) to the very end (Mt 10:22). This does not mean, however, that someone can lose their salvation. Rather, it means that genuine faith will prove the test of time. 1 Corinthians 1:8 tells us that he (God) himself will sustain us. James 5:19-20 also indicates that God will use the church to keep people in the faith and redirect those who wander. In John 10:28 Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” There is safety and security in the hands of Jesus. A believer, as mentioned before, also has within them the Holy Spirit as a seal guaranteeing their salvation. The Spirit will never leave a believer. Ephesians 4:30 refers to us being sealed by the Spirit for the day of redemption. 1 John 5:13 indicates that we can know that we have eternal life. We can be confident in our salvation. Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39,
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 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.”
Once we are saved there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God because we are now in Christ. In the same way that we cannot work for our salvation, we cannot work against it. What God has done cannot be undone. In John 6:39 Jesus said it was the will of God, “that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” Where we see examples of people who appeared to be Christians and then later walked away from the faith, we have to assume that either their faith was never genuine or that they will be restored at a later time. There are also those who have a false sense of assurance. Jesus describe them in Matthew 7:21-23 when he says:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
The reasoning given by these who are turned away is a works based answer. They focus on the things they had done rather than faith in the Son of God. We are called to work out salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12). This is a call to inspect our lives being sure that we are not basing our salvation on works, but also seeing to it that we are working as a result of our faith. The common verse used by people who believe that someone can lose their salvation is Hebrews 6:4-6. The verse talks about the impossibility of restoring a person who has fallen away. But what this is referring to is the impossibility of restoring someone in the eyes of man to the position they had prior to stumbling.