Once Saved Always Saved…??

Ok, let’s face it, this is a VERY tough topic for many people… So, let me just say right here, I am not going to even pretend to say I have the answer to this question as I am still on the journey of discovery. I guess my goal in writing this blog is to share with you my journey thus far regarding this topic. Over the years, as I have grown in my walk and knowledge of the Lord, my thoughts, beliefs and ideas on this subject have changed a few times based on scriptures that I read. I have gone from thinking, “Once we give our lives to Jesus we are saved, that's it. It's a done deal, and we can never “lose” our salvation”, to “We aren’t saved unless we endure till the end!”… To where I am now… which I will share with you in a bit :) This has turned out to be a pretty long blog, mostly due to all the scriptures I have posted, but I encourage you to hang in there with me! I hope you will not be disappointed.

Once Saved Always saved

Here are the scriptures that led me to believe in the “once saved always saved” theology:

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:15-16

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." John 3:36

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.” John 10:9

“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.”  John 6:47

“That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10

“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:16

“I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' Act 2:19-21

“They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household." Acts 16:31

And then we have the thief on the cross:

“One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”. Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."  Luke 23:39-43

I LOVE this story because it counters the belief that you have to be “baptized” to be saved, or that you have to pray a certain “prayer”, or speak in tongues… The thief just acknowledges that Jesus is Lord by recognizing and acknowledging that He has a “Kingdom”!!

The scriptures I have listed above are pretty basic. Just believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved and have eternal life!! But then… I would run across scriptures like the ones below and it would make me wonder if there wasn’t MORE to this salvation thing…:

He who overcomes and stands firm to the end will be saved!

“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful… If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”  John 15:2-6

If we don’t “remain in Him” we can wither and be thrown into the fire?? Here are a couple more like this:

“The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." Luke 3:9

“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” Matthew 21:43

“Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.” Revelation 2:10-11

Be Faithful and He will give you the crown of life…? He who “overcomes” will not

be hurt by the second death??

“He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” Revelation 3:5

This implies that our names CAN be blotted out of the book of life!! If we don’t “overcome” will our names be removed??

“Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:10-11

Ok… so if I DO fall, will I NOT be welcomed into the eternal Kingdom??

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Matthew 5:13

This one is like the branch. If we lose our “saltiness” we are good for nothing and can be thrown out!

“At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”  Matthew 24:10-13

So, we CAN “turn away” from the faith, but we can also “stand firm to the end” and be saved. So… is it simply to believe and be saved…??

“Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' "But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from…' Luke 13:23-27

This implies that people will “think” they are saved, trying to enter through the narrow door but will not be able to…

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”  Matthew 10:21-22 & Mark 13:13

Again, it’s not just a matter of just “believing in Jesus” but “… he who stands firm to the end” will be saved!

“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.” Hebrews 3:12-14

Again, we CAN turn away from God! It just doesn’t suddenly “disappear” or become “Lost” but we can “choose” our salvation away!! So we must hold firmly till the end!

Being a disciple of Jesus…

Then I began to notice a different terminology used by Jesus, “You cannot be my ‘disciple’…!” Hmmm… that is interesting. Not just to believe and be “saved” but, to become a disciple of Christ. In reading these scriptures, it seems that the bar is set much higher and is more difficult for these people:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-27

“In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:33

What is the difference between being saved and being a disciple?

I have run across a few Oswald devotions that speak about being a disciple as well:

September 4th Oswald:

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luk_14:26). He was not saying that this person cannot be good and upright, but that he cannot be someone over whom Jesus can write the word Mine. Any one of the relationships our Lord mentions in this verse can compete with our relationship with Him. I may prefer to belong to my mother, or to my wife, or to myself, but if that is the case, then, Jesus said, "[You] cannot be My disciple." This does not mean that I will not be saved, but it does mean that I cannot be entirely His.

This is such an interesting thought!! I can be “saved” but not “entirely His”?! I am still chewing on that one!

September 25th Oswald

If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally. And as long as we consciously maintain the determined purpose to be His disciples, we can be sure that we are not disciples. Jesus says, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you . . ." (Joh_15:16). That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we can never escape; we can disobey it, but we can never start it or produce it ourselves. We are drawn to God by a work of His supernatural grace, and we can never trace back to find where the work began.

So, are the scriptures above referring to just disciples or to everyone?? And Oswald brings up another really good point in that God says we don’t choose HIM but He chooses us (John 15:16)! So, now we are talking about being “chosen”!!? Does that mean He chooses His disciples or who will be saved, or both?? Whew! I can get pretty overwhelmed just thinking about all that these scriptures say and what it all means… (Here are a few more if you want to look them up: Hebrews 6:4-6, 1 Corinthians 9 24-10:13, Luke 8:11-15, Hebrews 2:1)

So, as promised at the beginning, I will share where I am now with this question (but again, I am still open to new information and revelation from God!) I do still believe we can call on the Name of Jesus, believe in Him and we will be saved. But…! I don’t think it ends there! I believe it is a journey! Day by day surrendering and dying to myself and giving my life to Him each and every day! Not just a “one time thing”! If we TRULY believe in Him and love Him, wouldn’t we want to pursue Jesus above all else?? And wouldn’t our lives reflect the true transformation and fruit that a relationship with Him reveals? We can’t just pray a prayer, say we believe and then go on with our lives, business as usual. We need to produce spiritual fruit. If, in our hearts we do believe, we WILL be saved and the fruit will come naturally. (Side note: I feel like I need to say here that it is not up to “me” to decide what is in another person’s heart or what spiritual fruit should look like in their life. Only God can do that!! I just need to focus on MY relationship and journey with Him.)

When I asked Tom how he would explain it he came up with a perfect analogy. He said that being saved is like getting married. It’s not just about saying “I do”! You spend the rest of your married life investing in the other person, building your relationship and growing in intimacy as you fully know them and are fully known by them. That is the same thing with Jesus! Just like getting married, we say “I do” to Him, give our life to Him, and then spend the rest of our lives pursuing that relationship and intimacy with Him to know Him as He knows us. It’s not just a “one moment in time” event, but a daily investment, through thick and thin, in riches and poverty, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad. There will be times of closeness, times of distance, frustration, hurt and anger but all those things can and should draw you closer to Him… IF you overcome and stand firm till the end. But, unfortunately many of us get discouraged and give up, like in our marriages, and we choose to “divorce” the Lord… And maybe that is when we “choose” our salvation away and stop producing fruit?

Ok, so on that note, let’s take this “marriage” analogy a little further. There are many marriages with people just “living together” having given up on the marriage relationship, but they still stay married because it is easier than doing anything about it. They just exists under the same roof but are living separate lives and not pursuing intimacy. I think we can say that there are Christians in the world doing the same thing with Jesus. They are disillusioned and have stopped pursuing Him but, while they still believe in Him, they are living their own life separate from Him. Are they saved?? Are they like the ones who choose to turn away? I have no idea… I just know that “fruit” is really important to God.  

Anyway, this all still seems so incomplete, falling so short of discovering what it means to be saved, and I know I still have so much more to learn. Tom says, “I don’t think we truly understand what God means when He says we are saved because we have been listening to man’s interpretation for so long!” How can we possibly comprehend such an amazing and complex God!!??? So, to simplify it for myself, I boil it down to my life’s verses; To seek first HIS Kingdom, to fix my eyes on Him, Abide in Him, and to Love Him with ALL my heart, soul, strength and mind, and I KNOW He will take care of the rest!! :) To me it is MORE than just “being saved”, it is a pursuit of a relationship with someone I REALLY love and want to get to know better! The “salvation prayer” has unfortunately been turned into a “get out of hell free” card that we think we can just present to God when we face Him. In this case, does “once saved always saved” apply?? To be honest, I really don’t know! But, from what these scripture tell me, "…he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from…' Luke 13:23-27 Do we really want to risk hearing those words from Him?? I don’t!

Holy Spirit, I thank you that you continually open my eyes to see You more and more clearly each day. Thank you for this journey of discovery of YOU and of Your heart for ME. I am excited that you continue to reveal more insights into your purpose and plan and that I don’t stay the same but am always changing and growing as I allow you to reveal yourself to me. Help me Lord to always keep my eyes fixed on YOU, the author and perfecter of my faith. With all my love, your daughter, Linda :)