Once saved, always saved?
Few questions unsettle a believer more than this one: if I fail badly tomorrow, am I still saved? The answer the commentators give turns on a prior question — whose grip actually keeps a person safe, mine or God's?
Who Does the Holding
The phrase "once saved, always saved" can sound like a claim about our staying power. Writers on this subject locate the security somewhere else entirely, using the picture of the shepherd carrying the found sheep home.
Walter ScottAs sheep, our security is the responsibility of our Shepherd (1 Peter 2:25). Of each saved sheep it is written, "When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing." Luke 15:5. The struggles of the sheep would not be to keep on, but to get off. We are not saved by our "holding on," for sheep have no hands to hold on by. Now all the Lord's sheep are carried along on the shoulders of the rejoicing Shepherd, and so all are equally saved. The Shepherd will make sure that not one shall slip off His shoulders.
The same writer presses the alternative as a test question: if arrival in heaven depended on our holding on, who would arrive?
Walter ScottNo flesh shall glory in its faithfulness. What presumption! "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" Gal. 3:3. How much better is the language of faith: "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Phil. 1:6. From start to finish, "Salvation belongs to the LORD." Jonah 2:9.
The Weight of the Word "Eternal"
One argument runs on the meaning of the gift itself. Say that a person can truly have life from God and then lose it, and you have said something about the life.
The Christian's FriendWherever there is true faith in Him... the soul is eternally safe, or, as the Scripture puts it, "has eternal life, does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life," and is one of "the sheep" who "will never perish." (John 5:24; 10:27-30.) To say that someone could be right in heart with God, and then fall away from this so as to be lost, is to say that a man may have eternal life and lose it; that is, that after all it may turn out not to be eternal life. And it is to say also that some power can snatch His sheep out of His hand, even though He states the opposite.
Profession Is Not the Same as Possession
The doctrine is often misused as a blanket over anyone who has ever said the right words. One writer defines the claim carefully, then draws the fence around it.
Henry Allan IronsideWe mean that once a poor sinner has been born again by the Word and the Spirit of God, once he has received a new life and a new nature and has been made a partaker of the divine nature, once he has been justified from every charge before the throne of God, it is absolutely impossible for that man ever to be a lost soul. Having said that, let me say what we do not mean... It does not mean that if someone joins a church or makes a profession of faith, is baptised, becomes a communicant, and takes an interest in Christian work, that person is forever secure.
He notes the exact wording Christ uses to such people at the end. It is not the language of a favour withdrawn.
Henry Allan IronsideThey have professed with their lips, they have done many wonderful works, but in that day they are found among the lost, and when they plead their great activity and their earnestness in Christian testimony, the Lord says to them, "I never knew you." Notice, He does not say, "I used to know you, but you have forfeited My favour and I do not know you any longer." He says, "I never knew you."
Then Why the Warnings?
Scripture is full of solemn calls to watchfulness, and they are not decoration. One writer explains their function with a road image, and tests it against two men who both heard a warning.
The Bible TreasuryHe calls us to glory along a pathway of self-denial and holy obedience, and these warnings and exhortations are the moral means by which He keeps us in the path. They are like thick hedges on each side of the road to stop us breaking through and leaving the right track... Our gracious Lord put a thick hedge around Peter when He warned him of his denial. Peter broke through by not paying attention to the warning... But he had eternal life, and so the Lord Jesus restored him. At the last supper Judas was warned, but he took no notice... Judas had no life and went to his own place.
Safety and Happiness Are Not the Same Thing
Security does not mean sin costs a believer nothing. One writer separates the two things that people usually confuse.
J Wilson SmithThe salvation of the true believer does not depend on his faithfulness, but on God's settled purpose. On the other hand the present peace and comfort of his soul depend entirely on his faithfulness to Christ. Relationship is one thing, communion another.
No Licence for Carelessness
Assurance and self-judgment belong together, and the presence or absence of holiness is itself evidence.
William KellyIt was not that he doubted his security in Christ in the smallest degree, as some so foolishly say; or that those who have eternal life may lose it again. But it is plain that men who merely take the place of having eternal life may, and often do, abandon that place. Those who have eternal life prove it by godliness; those who do not have it prove they lack it by indifference to holiness.
Summary
- Held, not holding. Safety rests on the Shepherd's shoulders; sheep have no hands to hold on with.
- Given, and eternal. Life that could be lost was never eternal life — the word itself settles the case.
- Proved, not claimed. Profession, baptism, church work and activity prove nothing; godliness is the evidence of life.
- Guarded by warnings. Warnings work like hedges along the road — Peter broke through and was restored, Judas ignored his and was exposed.
- Restored, not re-saved. Sin wrecks a believer's peace and closeness with God, never the relationship God formed.