Psalm 119:105 (NASB) 105
Doctrine. A body or system of teachings relating to a particular subject. Like I said last week, I began this personal study when a doctrine that I believed in did not prove true to me. That's not to say that it was and is invalid, but I wanted to find out for myself, to my satisfaction. This material I will be sharing is not some great revelation given me. As a matter of fact it can be readily had for the asking if one is interested. The greatest benefit is that it might help you fill in the gaps about what you believe; and it might rescue you from getting your heart wounded. I wish I had done a systematic study of God's word thirty years ago but, better late than never right? O.K. then.
Eternal security. Better known as "once saved, always saved" is probably the most debated issue in God's Word. For the record I believe in it.......are you still there? If you are, then you probably are not among those that chastised me a while back when admitting that I agreed with it during a Sunday School class. At any rate this is our subject for a while. I intend to give you the positive side(security) with my evidence from Scripture and if you are interested you can study it out and make your own mind up.
Doctrines are debated.Doctrines are argued. Doctrines are fought over. It may appear that there are multiple differing viewpoints but, that is rarely, if ever the case. The Bible does not present opposing,contradictory viewpoints. God is not the author of confusion. So, why all the squabbling if only one viewpoint should prevail? In my very limited study it appears to me to be context. Context is skewed or ignored altogether. Because of this, Scripture is misapplied and we have differing interpretations. If we have two or more differing viewpoints and one is found to be true, then common sense tells us that the other is false OR is somehow a supporting view that we need to search out.This is the importance of context because this is a common occurrence in the Bible. At any rate,
to begin this study, we have to answer the question before looking at the evidence. How so Ronnie?What does the word eternal mean? There can be no gray area here. No in between. No margin for error. If eternal means eternal, then by it's very definition we either have eternal life as a present possession, or we do not.We will look at that later down the line. Look at this.
John 5:24 (NASB) 24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
The word translated eternal is forty seven times translated "forever" or "forever and ever."
Now this word eternal is joined with different words,especially concerning God's Kingdom. But, by far the most common usage of the word eternal is with the word "life." The phrase "eternal life" appears forty three times in the New Testament according to Strong's. Eternal redemption, eternal salvation, eternal inheritance, eternal kingdom, eternal damnation, these are all New Testament uses of the word eternal. Can you see the flow of the use of eternal? Mounce's Dictionary of New Testament Words says this about the word eternal. Having no beginning or end in two senses. One being that of going forward and backward and the other going forward only. At any rate the meaning being advanced is one of foreverness. The flow conveys everlasting, having no beginning or end.
John 3:36 (NASB) 36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
John 6:47 (NASB) 47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
John 10:28 (NASB) 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
When scripture speaks of the believers life it always references eternal life. If God wanted to convey the idea that we could lose our salvation He would not have spoken of eternal life being the present possession of the believer. Look at a couple more verses.
Ephesians 1:11 (NASB) 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
1 John 5:11-13 (NASB) 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Do you notice anything that all these verses have in common? This is no grammar primer here but these verses are all in the present tense. They are speaking of a present possession. The point being that we are given life at the point when we believe, not at some future point in time such as death. If we have eternal life at the instant we believe and if this life is truly eternal, then we cannot lose it during our stay here on earth.
The Scriptures, in any number of places, teach that salvation is a free gift. But, infinitely more important is that they teach that the BELIEVER is a gift. We are a gift from the Father to the Son.
John 6:37 (NASB) 37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
John 17:2 (NASB) 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.
If salvation is conditional and can be lost, this would make the Father out to be a liar. To support this the Bible teaches that all the gifts, salvation, the charismatic gifts,the gifts in Romans, ALL the gifts are irrevocable. He will not repent or change His mind. This only scrapes the surface on this teaching on the word eternal. If you want to look further it's out there.
All this being said, there is another facet to the argument over security. Most that disagree with this doctrine don't have a problem with eternal. They have a problem with what is required to maintain and keep this salvation, unwittingly making salvation conditional. This doctrine says NOTHING. As a matter of fact God requires nothing to obtain or KEEP your salvation. Further, if there WERE a requirement it would be IMPOSSIBLE for you or any flesh to keep it.You are powerless to gain your salvation, and you are just as powerless to keep it! It's ALL God.
We will take a look at just what happened at and on Calvary some 2000 years ago.
Psalm 119:58 (NASB) 58 I sought Your favor with all my heart; Be gracious to me according to Your word.
God Bless
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