Eternal Security

Can a person loose their salvation?  I think there are two issues to consider when discussing Eternally Security.

1) The issue of our salvation being judged
2) The issue of our works being judged

When those two issues aren’t separated there’s a lot of confusion.


The Issue Of Our Salvation Being Judged

The issue of our salvation was settled on the cross. When Jesus cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30) it was a cry of victory over sin.

Each of us has a choice to either accept or reject salvation. Like Joshua said, "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve," but once we've truly made the decision it's final. We have Eternal Security. 

Support for this can be found in John 10:28-30:

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

Once we're saved we are in Christ’s hands and in the Father's hands and no one can snatch from there. The only one who could take us out of His hands would be one who was greater than the Father and we know that such a person doesn't exist. "No one" means no one. You may choose to take refuge in His hands or stay outside His grip, but once you are in His hands in His hands you stay.

In Romans 6 learn that everyone serves someone. Some are slaves to sin, others to righteousness.  Jesus purchased us from sin and we now belong to Him. "...with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." (Revelation 5:9) The nails in His hands, feet and the wound at His side are His receipt. And the Holy Spirit, which seals us after we are saved, is His proof of purchase.

Ephesians 1:3-14 says this:

"In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth--in Him.

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory."

This passage tell us that we were chosen, predestined, purchased, forgiven, adopted as children of God, given an inheritance, and promised by the very God of the universe that all this is true by sealing us with the promise of the Holy Spirit.
 

The Issue Of Our Works Being Judged

Does that mean we are free to sin without any consequences?  No, of course not. The issue of our works, or to put it another way, the way the Christian who has truly put his faith in Jesus lives his life, will be judged at the Bema Seat of Christ (Not to be confused with the Great White Throne of Revelation which is the judgment of those outside of Christ). The Bema Seat or Believers Judgment is found in 1 Corinthians 3.

Those who do the work of the Spirit will receive reward (verse 14) while those who do the work of the flesh will "suffer loss" but we’re told that they "shall be saved; yet so as by fire." (verse 15)

The Greek scholar Robertson has summed up verse 15 well:

"But he himself shall be saved" -  Eternal salvation, but not by purgatory. His work is burned up completely and hopelessly, but he himself escapes destruction because he is really a saved man a real believer in Christ.

"Yet so as through fire" - Clearly Paul means with his work burned down (verse Luke 15). It is the tragedy of a fruitless life, of a minister who built so poorly on the true foundation that his work went up in smoke. His sermons were empty froth or windy words without edifying or building power. They left no mark in the lives of the hearers. It is the picture of a wasted life.

The one who enters heaven by grace, as we all do who are saved, yet who brings no sheaves with him. There is no garnered grain the result of his labours in the harvest field. There are no souls in heaven as the result of his toil for Christ, no enrichment of character, no growth in grace.

If we follow Christ our sins are forgiven and our salvation is secure, but that doesn’t mean we have a license to sin. Most importantly when we sin we’re out of fellowship with Him and will want to repent and return to our heavenly Father. A true Christian will not be comfortable in prolonged sin.

Secondly, we will all give an account to Jesus for the work we’ve done in this life and that work will, in some way, effect the life to come.
 

What About Those Who Willingly Leave The Faith?

There are two people in the Bible who did just that but had very different results -- Peter and Judas.

Both rejected Christ yet Peter returned to Him whereas Judas did not. What was the difference? Peter belonged to Christ, who bought him for a great price on the cross, and when he left Jesus went after that which was His. "What man of you,” Jesus said, “having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4)

Judas, on the other hand, did not belong to Christ so when he left it was forever.

Why do people who seem to confess Christ as Savior leave the faith? Mark 4, The Parable of the Sower, gives some insight. Jesus goes through the different reactions of those who hear the gospel. One of the reactions is that some accept the word at first, but when testing come they quickly leave the faith because they have no root (Verse 17). Jesus, of course, is the root of our faith.

These are people who honestly believe something, but it isn't the gospel. They are people who maybe accept a social gospel (They become a Christian because of social reasons), a material gospel (They become a Christian to become rich and healthy and problem free), or a misrepresented gospel (In order to be a Christian you must believe the gospel + something else).

These people have convictions, but they don't have Christ, and they eventually leave the fold they were never really a part of.