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CAN a BELIEVER LOSE THEIR SALVATION? Part 4 – the Saving Work of Jesus 2/26/2012

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CAN a BELIEVER LOSE THEIR SALVATION? Part 4 – the Saving Work of Jesus 2/26/2012 CAN A BELIEVER LOSE THEIR SALVATION? Part 4 – The Saving Work of Jesus 2/26/2012 I. WHAT IS ‘ETERNAL SECURITY?’ A. Eternal Security (or Perseverance of the Saints) teaches that once someone receives salvation they cannot lose it. Once faith in Christ has been exercised, a person is safe and secure for eternity, no matter what happens afterwards. B. According to this view salvation is eternally secure and never able to be lost. All one needs to do is to start the Christian life. Once you have been “saved” you have a guaranteed ticket to heaven. To start is in a sense to finish. Therefore only the first step is absolutely necessary. C. Eternal security is labeled in one of four ways. • Once Saved, Always Saved • Unconditional Assurance • The Perseverance of the Saints • The Preservation of the Saints. D. Within the camp of Eternal Security there are two different views. One is called “Free Grace” and the other “Sovereign Grace.” Though they differ with one another on the ‘working out’ of salvation, both agree that once truly started, the Christian life will inevitably reach the finish. E. Free Grace‐ The belief held by dispensationalists that faith in Christ only needs to happen once, and no matter how one lives the rest of their life their standing with God cannot be affected. In other words, salvation only consists of justification and not sanctification. Both Calvinism and Arminianism reject Free Grace theology. a. Free Grace teachers include J. Dwight Pentecost, John Walvoord, Charles Ryrie, Warren W. Wiersbe, Charles Stanley, Bill Bright, Norman Geisler, Tony Evans, and Erwin Lutzer. b. Charles Stanley, a mega‐church Baptist pastor in Atlanta, holds to this free grace teaching. “Even if a believer for all practical purposes becomes an unbeliever, his salvation is not in jeopardy… believers who lose or abandon their faith will retain their salvation… You and I are not saved because we have an enduring faith. We are saved because at a moment in time we expressed faith in our enduring Lord." [Charles Stanley. Eternal Security: Can You Be Sure? Pg. 1‐ 5; 80]. c. The traditional Calvinist doctrine teaches that a person is secure in salvation because he or she was predestined by God, whereas in the Free Grace or non‐traditional Calvinist views, a person is secure because at some point in time he or she has believed the Gospel message (Dave Hunt, What Love is This, p. 481). F. Sovereign Grace‐ The belief held by reformed Calvinists that faith in Christ needs to be continued in throughout one’s life thus proving that its genuine (perseverance). If you are truly saved, you cannot lose your salvation or fall away; but if one falls away or backslides they were never saved in the first place. Falling away is only possible for professing non‐Christians, not true Christians. More Free Teachings @ theupperroomyork.com CAN A BELIEVER LOSE THEIR SALVATION? Part 4 – The Saving Work of Jesus 2/26/2012 a. Sovereign Grace teachers include John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, Paul Washer, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, Mark Dever, Mark Driscoll, Ligon Duncan, Tim Keller, and Al Mohler. b. The Calvinist view of eternal security teaches that God has ‘irresistibly’ drawn the elect to put their faith in himself by regenerating their hearts. Therefore they must persevere in saving faith until the end. Free Grace views those who depart from faith as still saved; Sovereign Grace considers them never saved at all. G. Prevenient Grace‐ The Arminian View teaches that once you start the Christian faith God enables and gives you the grace to persevere until the end if you continue to believe. Thus it is not common, but possible for a person to fall away from God and lose their salvation. II. UNDERSTANDING THE GIFT OF ‘ETERNAL LIFE’ A. The Bible plainly teaches that once a believer receives forgiveness through exercising faith in Christ, they are freely given eternal life [Rom. 6:23]. The free gift of God to every believer is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Eternal life is defined by intimately knowing the Father and the Son. John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know [ginosko] You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. B. Eternal life is something that believers noW have (present tense) and Will inherit (future tense). Eternal life is both a quality of life (now) and a quantity of life (future). It is both ‘everlasting’ and ‘abundant.’ John 6:54 “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life (present tense), and I will raise him up at the last day. Mark 10:30 “Who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time‐‐houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions‐‐and in the age to come, eternal life (future tense). C. Eternal Security supporters often focus on the ‘quantity’ of eternal life by saying, “How can eternal life have an end, and not be eternal?” This can be answered very simply by acknowledging where eternal life is found and who is its source. D. Eternal life is found solely in Christ [Jn. 17:3]. We do not have it in ourselves, we only have it in Christ. The Bible never teaches that eternal life can be experienced outside of Christ. He Himself is the Resurrection and the Life [Jn. 1:4; 11:25; 14:6] 1 John 5:11,12 “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” E. Jesus’ claim to be the True Vine makes it clear that eternal ‘life’ is not something a believer (or a branch) has in himself, but only has if he remains in the Vine. After exhorting the disciples to ‘abide’ (Greek to More Free Teachings @ theupperroomyork.com CAN A BELIEVER LOSE THEIR SALVATION? Part 4 – The Saving Work of Jesus 2/26/2012 stay, remain, continue, dwell) in Himself, he warned them what would happen if they did not. Jesus revealed that the life is not in the branches if they are outside of the vine. John 15:5,6 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. III. FALLING AWAY OR LOSING ONE’S SALVATION A. The Bible teaches that it is possible for a genuine believer can fall away from the faith, and lose their salvation (eternal life). Falling away however is not the same as falling into various sins. It is complete and permanent, resulting in the loss of eternal life (both now and in the future). Heb 6:4‐6 “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. a. The entire context of Hebrews 6 is speaking to believers whom the author was exhorting to maturity [5:12‐6:6]. An unbeliever cannot be ‘renewed again to repentance’ if they were never truly repentant in the first place, nor can they ‘fall away’ from a faith they never had. B. A believer can fall aWay from the faith only once When their consciences are seared and completely resistant to God [1 Tim. 4:1,2, 2 Thes. 2:1‐3]. This is the result of choosing to walk away from faith and persist in willful sin. Because they have chosen to completely harden themselves to God, it is impossible for them to be renewed again unto repentance. Heb. 10:26‐29 “For if we sin willfully [persistently, as a lifestyle] after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment… 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy… 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? C. Jesus taught that many believers Who Work signs and Wonders in His name Will be cast out of His presence on the Day of Judgment. The Greek word for lawlessness (anomia) means ‘acting contrary to the will or law of God.’ Jesus prefaces lawlessness with the word practice, indicating this is not a person who periodically stumbles. Matt. 7:22,23 "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' More Free Teachings @ theupperroomyork.com CAN A BELIEVER LOSE THEIR SALVATION? Part 4 – The Saving Work of Jesus 2/26/2012 a. Many of those who will be turned away from the Kingdom of God will be those who cast out demons in the name of Jesus.
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