There is a popular phrase in Christianity I hear often: “Once saved, always saved.” When I was ministering in prisons, this phrase was a litmus test given to me by many, a test of sorts to determine if they would accept or reject what I would be preaching.
Don’t worship your doctrines but the Lord to whom they should point. “You examine the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is those very Scriptures that testify about Me; and yet you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40 NASB).
Whenever someone gives me a litmus test of my faith with a question to determine my position on some topic, I almost always turn it around on them. The question I always pose, no matter the doctrinal test I am under, is why is that so important to you? There is always a reason.
Unity and division oppose each other like light and darkness, and we must choose between the two. “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace” (Ephesians 4:3 NLT).
With the “once saved, always saved” question, I have often found that people are looking to be comfortable in their sin and still go to heaven. It is the banner of the hyper-grace movement that calls any adherence to God’s Word mere legalism and encourages people to live for themselves.
It is not grace or obedience, but grace and obedience. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1-2).
The problem with the hyper-grace movement is it is led by the devil himself. There is no greater way to deceive a Christian but to place them in the lifeboat of a worldly grace, which is only a disgrace to all the Lord Jesus did for them. So long as you live for yourself, you will not have the life of Jesus in you.
Jesus died for you so you would live for Him. “Christ died for everyone so that they would live for Him. They should not live to please themselves but for Christ Who died on a cross and was raised from the dead for them” (2 Corinthians 5:15 NLV).
The opposing position I hear with the “once saved, always saved” question is that we are only one sin away from losing our salvation. It tries to place all people under the law, which is the Old Covenant while ignoring the “saved by grace alone” message of the New Covenant.
Legalism is trying to please God by the power of man. Legalism tries to earn salvation, whereas obedience should be our response to salvation. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The problem with legalism and staying under the law is nobody can make it to heaven under those humanly impossible conditions. The law shows us what we can never do, and so long as that is the standard you teach to be saved, your teaching will never lead anyone to true salvation.
You are no longer under the law when the Spirit of the Law reigns in you. “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Galatians 5:18 NKJV).
There is somewhere in the middle we must be. We are not saved by the law, but we are to follow what the law is teaching us. We can say we are Christians, but does the way we live reflect this? We cannot earn our salvation, but are we allowing it to change us?
If we have a life-changing experience, then there should be a changed life. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]” (2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP).
Christian, the question we must ask is this, “were you really once saved?” Just because you walked up to the altar or repeated a modern-day prayer of salvation, that does not mean you are saved. And just because you are struggling with sin in your life, that doesn’t mean you are not saved.
You cannot be saved by works, but you were saved by grace for good works. “God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would do good works. God had planned in advance those good works for us. He had planned for us to live our lives doing them” (Ephesians 2:10 ICB).
How can you know if you were really once saved? This is a question of eternal importance that, left unanswered in your life, could lead to eternal disaster. How many supposed Christians will we see on that day being sent away when the Lord separates the sheep from the goats?
The greatest accomplishment you can have for Christ is to let Him reign in you. “But if God’s Spirit lives in you, you are under the control of your spiritual nature, not your corrupt nature. Whoever doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ doesn’t belong to him. However, if Christ lives in you, your bodies are dead because of sin, but your spirits are alive because you have God’s approval” (Romans 8:9-10 GW).
Jesus said nobody can snatch anyone out of His hand. But are you in His hand? Or have you left His hand by your own decision? If you are not sure, then get sure. There should be a demarcation that stands tall between who you were before Christ versus who you are now in Christ.
What God gives you, man cannot take away. “And I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever [by any means] perish; and no one will ever snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29 AMP).
Were you really once saved?
If you’re really saved, then your life will show it. “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV).
Blessings to you,
Paul Balius
Paul, you well wrote, “Christian, the question we must ask is this, “were you really once saved?” Just because you walked up to the altar or repeated a modern-day prayer of salvation, that does not mean you are saved. And just because you are struggling with sin in your life, that doesn’t mean you are not saved.”
Regarding the latter statement, about a half hour ago, I posted the following Scripture which illumines our specific topic this day, after stumbling into yet again the same sleazy sin that I have been a slave to for at least three decades, and for which I have always been absolutely without any excuse whatsoever. That sin is the evil filth of watching and masturbating to pornography. Certainly, I have genuinely purposed in my heart immediately after every failure to never fail again. Other than that particular stronghold of perversion, my life has consistently conformed in no small measure to the character of Christ. I so love to press into God, but . . . the idiotic, insidious idolatry of pernicious pornography. It rips the heart, wrecking worshipfully obedient, caringly cultivated love intimacy from on high with The Bridegroom God, The One Beautiful Triune God. My magnificent Maker and myself are greatly grieved. Except for the putridness of pornography, I honestly, humbly believe that Jesus is, by His undeserved mercy and unmerited grace for me, well nigh in all my thoughts. My best friend, a former minister in a Pentecostal denomination and also a former porn addict himself, was my accountability partner, but to no actual avail. And as is almost overly obvious, Christ is my Arch-accountability partner! With tears, I covet your prayers, beloveds.
1 Cor. 7:14-25 AMPC
14 We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh [carnal, unspiritual], having been sold into slavery under [the control of] sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [[b]which my moral instinct condemns].
16 Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.
17 However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.]
19 For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [[c]fixed and operating in my soul].
21 So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.
22 For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature].
23 But I discern in my bodily members [[d]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [[e]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].
24 O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?
25 O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Juts this morning I wrote: It’s impossible to reach the end of God’s mercy.
And the verse I posted along with this was: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV).
What a joyous truth, that after we are saved, we are still saved, in spite of our failures along the way. We are called to obedience, but grace covers us all the same.
Prayers for your victory that is yours as a gift from Jesus and not as something you can do on your own.
And I think I would be remiss if I did not add to my comment that I am cognizant that damage and injury incurred is not to my selfish self only but also to many, many others. Partaking in and patronizing pornography is promoting pornography, co-trafficking demonic energy, abominable activity and human lives created in our Creator’s image, for whom Christ so severely suffered and shed His holy blood. Understated, it is blatant and bastardly service to, even worship of, Satan himself.
Praise Jesus that He has given us the Holy Spirit to convict us and refine us into all we should be. Before we were in Christ, we didn’t even care all that much of what we might do. But in Christ, we know, and if it were not for His grace, we couldn’t bear it.
About the sheep and the goat’s teaching of Jesus, Paul asks and accurately asserts: “How can you know if you were really once saved? This is a question of eternal importance that, left unanswered in your life, could lead to eternal disaster. How many supposed Christians will we see on that day being sent away when the Lord separates the sheep from the goats?”
For the past many years, this Matthew 25 ministry has been my main ministry mercifully given and graced to me by the omniscient Lord and supernaturally confirmed by persons in church leadership. This pivotal Matthew 25 ministry Jesus describes is the exercise of extravagant compassion, that is lavish love in action, loving well beyond words only and putting one’s money and or other entrusted resources where one’s mouth is. For Jesus and women, children and men frequently overlooked, heartlessly ignored, desperately poor, dangerously destitute, mercilessly harassed and violently persecuted I often weep, acutely appreciating all personal opportunities to regularly assist as that of pure privilege and profound pleasure.
Apart from Christ I know full well I can do less than diddly squat, as a man can receive nothing except it is given him from Heaven, and all self-righteousness is as filthy, stinking rags. Yes!
Let everything breathed into being that has this breath, praise and prize the wondrous infinity of the Holy and Just Trinity Who Is Love, and let every breath of my life praise and prize the wondrous infinity of the Holy Trinity Who is Love, before, above, beyond all else, ever and always.
Matthew 25:31-46 AMPC
31 When the Son of Man comes in His glory (His majesty and splendor), and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
32 All nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them [the people] from one another as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats;
33 And He will cause the sheep to stand at His right hand, but the goats at His left.
34 Then the King will say to those at His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father [you [a]favored of God and appointed to eternal salvation], inherit (receive as your own) the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you [b]brought Me together with yourselves and welcomed and entertained and [c]lodged Me,
36 I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me [d]with help and ministering care, I was in prison and you came to see Me.
37 Then the just and upright will answer Him, Lord, when did we see You hungry and gave You food, or thirsty and gave You something to drink?
38 And when did we see You a stranger and welcomed and entertained You, or naked and clothed You?
39 And when did we see You sick or in prison and came to visit You?
40 And the King will reply to them, Truly I tell you, in so far as you did it for one of the least [[e]in the estimation of men] of these My brethren, you did it for Me.
41 Then He will say to those at His left hand, Begone from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!
42 For I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me and entertain Me, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me [f]with help and ministering care.
44 Then they also [in their turn] will answer, Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?
45 And He will reply to them, Solemnly I declare to you, in so far as you failed to do it for the least [[g]in the estimation of men] of these, you failed to do it for Me.
46 Then they will go away into eternal punishment, but those who are just and upright and in right standing with God into eternal life.
What a precious ministry the Lord has given you, that He chooses the foolish and the weak, that is our only requirement to serve Him.
At the top of my post today, the first Scripture passage I quoted is Romans 7:14-25, not carelessly cited as 1 Corinthians 7:14-25.
On the somewhat dubious authority of Grammarly, I am told that to err is human, but to edit is divine.
Let’s each one of us, as long as we continue on this earth with body and soul together, by looking steadfastly to our all-sufficient, present tense Kinsman Redeemer Jesus the Christ, stay between the ditches, diches deviously dug by the devil for our distraction, discouragement, downfall and demise.
sp. ditches
Our esteemed brother Paul writes, “Jesus said nobody can snatch anyone out of His hand. But are you in His hand? Or have you left His hand by your own decision?”
Any person ever, in all actuality in His hand, would never in any reality decide to leave His hand. Such a person would not have been born again, born anew, born into the eternal kingdom of heaven, born into Christ. As per the two births, physical and spiritual, a person physically born cannot become physically unborn, neither can a person spiritually born become spiritually unborn.
John 3:1- 7 AMPC
1 Now there was a certain man among the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler (a leader, an authority) among the Jews,
2 Who came to Jesus at night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know and are certain that You have come from God [as] a Teacher; for no one can do these signs (these wonderworks, these miracles—and produce the proofs) that You do unless God is with him.
3 Jesus answered him, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that unless a person is born again (anew, from above), he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with, and experience) the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother’s womb again and be born?
5 Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and [[even] the Spirit, he cannot [ever] enter the kingdom of God.
6 What is born of [from] the flesh is flesh [of the physical is physical]; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not [do not be surprised, astonished] at My telling you, You must all be born anew (from above).
The following tells, with sharp, sound Spirit and Scripture sense, Father’s truth as to whether a born-again Christian can lose the Savior’s salvation https://shorturl.at/gqs16
Excerpt:
A Christian is guaranteed glorification. “Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). According to Romans 5:1, justification is ours at the moment of faith. According to Romans 8:30, glorification comes with justification. All those whom God justifies are promised to be glorified. This promise will be fulfilled when Christians receive their perfect resurrection bodies in heaven. If a Christian can lose salvation, then Romans 8:30 is in error, because God could not guarantee glorification for all those whom He predestines, calls, and justifies.
A Christian cannot lose salvation. Most, if not all, of what the Bible says happens to us when we receive Christ would be invalidated if salvation could be lost. Salvation is the gift of God, and God’s gifts are “irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). A Christian cannot be un-newly created. The redeemed cannot be unpurchased. Eternal life cannot be temporary. God cannot renege on His Word. Scripture says that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).
Titus 3:4-8 AMPC
4 But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior to man [as man] appeared,
5 He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of His own pity and mercy, by [the] cleansing [bath] of the new birth (regeneration) and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
6 Which He poured out [so] richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.
7 [And He did it in order] that we might be justified by His grace (by His favor, wholly undeserved), [that we might be acknowledged and counted as conformed to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action], and that we might become heirs of eternal life according to [our] hope.
8 This message is most trustworthy, and concerning these things I want you to insist steadfastly, so that those who have believed in (trusted in, relied on) God may be careful to apply themselves to honorable occupations and to doing good, for such things are [not only] excellent and right [in themselves], but [they are] good and profitable for the people.
For our mutual edification, progress and joy in our Best Beloved, King Glory, Sovereign Strong, Master Munificent, Savior Sanctifier, Creator Uncreated, Lord Omnipotent of our personal histories, present tense and future fullness, the God Man, Christ Jesus, in Whom we live and move and have our being, and for the claim and fame of His Name, Holy above every name, gladly, gratefully I submit this splendorous, salient Scripture:
Romans 5:1-11 MSG
1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
9-11 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!
Thank you, Paul. I so appreciate your very evident Christ’s likeness.
I wonder how many of us strugglers with at least one longstanding personal stronghold of sin duly regards vv. 16, 17, 20 of Romans 7. It is indeed where the proverbial rubber meets the proverbial road.
16 Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.
17 However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.
20 Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me fixed and operating in my soul].
Surely, these specific Scriptural statements are Spirit sent and meant to give us the hope and help of the following chapter 8, in which nothing in all creation shall ever be able to separate us from our Creator and His Christ. Aa certainly, they are not given as an excuse to commit sin.
What absolutely amazes and enthralls me, heart and soul, is our Beautiful Lover God’s tenderly merciful, loving graciousness to reconnect without delay, for the impassioned purpose of resuming mutually cherishing, caringly cultivated, intimate communion and fortifying obedience. Wow! Such a foretaste of heaven and of the age to come. Praise God!
Thank you Brother, we need more lovers of God like you in the kingdom!