Friday DIVE – Eternal Security – Difficult Passages | fd20241011

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Practical Applications of Eternal Security

Eternal security has significant implications for daily life, shaping a believer’s:

  1.  Assurance and Confidence: Knowing they are eternally secure, believers can face life’s challenges with confidence and hope. (1 John 5:13)
  2.  Freedom from Fear: No fear of losing salvation frees believers to focus on loving God and serving others.  (Romans 8:1)
  3.  Motivation for Obedience: Secure in their salvation, believers are motivated to obey God out of love and gratitude.  (Philippians 1:6)
  4.  Evangelism and Witness:  Believers share the Gospel with others, knowing they can offer eternal security.
  5.  Perseverance in Trials: Eternal security encourages believers to endure hardships, trusting God’s sovereign plan. (Philippians 3:12-14, 14)
  6.  Humility and Gratitude: Recognizing salvation as a gift, believers cultivate humility and gratitude. (Ephesians 2:8-10, 10)
  7.  Spiritual Growth:  Secure believers focus on spiritual growth, becoming more like Christ. (2 Peter 3:18)
  8.  Relationships and Community: Eternal security fosters deeper relationships within the church.

Daily Life Implications

  1.  How do you live out your faith, knowing you are eternally secure?
  2.  How does eternal security influence your priorities and decisions?
  3.  In what ways does eternal security impact your relationships with others?

Biblical Examples

  1.   Romans 8:31-39: Paul’s assurance of salvation amidst suffering.
  2.   2 Timothy 1:12: Paul’s confidence in God’s ability to guard his salvation.
  3.   Hebrews 6:11-12: Encouragement to persevere, knowing God’s promise is secure.

Reflection Questions

  1.  How has eternal security impacted your life?
  2.  In what areas do you need to apply the practical implications of eternal security?
  3.  How can you share the assurance of eternal security with others?

 

Potential Misconceptions about Eternal Security:

Misconception 1: License to Sin

  • – Idea: Eternal security implies that believers can sin freely without consequences.
  • – Correction:  Scripture emphasizes obedience and holiness (1 John 3:6; Hebrews 12:14).

Misconception 2: Complacency

  • – Idea: Eternal security leads to complacency and laziness.
  • – Correction:  Believers are called to persevere and grow in faith (Philippians 2:12-13; 2 Peter 3:18).

Misconception 3: No Accountability

  • – Idea: Eternal security means no accountability for actions.
  • – Correction:  Believers will face God’s judgment for their works (Romans 14:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

Misconception 4: Salvation by Works

  • – Idea: Eternal security implies that salvation is maintained by good works.
  • – Correction:  Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Misconception 5: Ignoring Warnings

  • – Idea: Eternal security means ignoring warnings against apostasy.
  • – Correction:  Scripture warns against falling away (Hebrews 6:4-6; 2 Peter 2:20-22).

Misconception 6: No Need for Perseverance

  • – Idea: Eternal security eliminates the need for perseverance.
  • – Correction:  Believers must persevere in faith (Matthew 24:13; Revelation 2:10).

Misconception 7: Universal Salvation

  • – Idea: Eternal security implies universal salvation.
  • – Correction:  Scripture teaches that salvation is exclusive to those who trust in Christ (John 3:36; Acts 4:12).

Misconception 8: No Consequences for Disobedience

  • – Idea: Eternal security means no consequences for disobedience.
  • – Correction:  Disobedience can lead to temporal consequences (Hebrews 12:5-11).

 

Clarifying Scriptures

  • – 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 (judgment for works)
  • – 2 Timothy 2:12 (perseverance required)
  • – Revelation 2:4-5 (warning against apostasy)

Reflection Questions

  1.  Have you encountered any of these misconceptions?
  2.  How do you balance eternal security with the need for obedience?
  3.  In what ways do you persevere in your faith?

 

 

 

  • Misconception 1: License to Sin
      • Correction:  Scripture emphasizes obedience and holiness (1 John 3:6; Hebrews 12:14).
  • Misconception 8: No Consequences for Disobedience
      • Correction:  Disobedience can lead to temporal consequences (Hebrews 12:5-11).

 

 

From the Milk To Meat Bible study by TSF …

Your Journey Sins Are Disciplined, But Not By Loss Of Salvation

Your eternal position in God’s family or your eternal security “in Christ” is based upon the fact that your “unrepented-of” journey sins as a child of God are disciplined by the Father, but He never puts you out of the family.   

The New Testament gives several illustrations of believers who committed journey sins and how the Father disciplined them when they would not repent, confess, and forsake those sinful acts, but they did not lose their salvation.  We will look at only two of those examples so that you can see that the New Testament clearly confirms that they did not lose their salvation.   

1 Corinthians 5:1‐5    
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles — that a man has his fatherʹs wife!  2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.   3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed.  4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,  5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  

In this first example, we have a believer who was sexually involved with his father’s wife!  Paul says in verse 1 that even the pagans “in Adam” in Corinth would not stoop that low.  While Paul was physically absent from them, he condemned the sin of this believer, and told the local Church and its leaders that they were to exercise Church discipline by delivering him over to Satan for the destruction of his physical life or flesh, but not his spirit.  Notice that the very same verse says that his spirit will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus!  This believer’s gross journey sin was disciplined by excommunication and (possible) loss of his physical life, but he did not suffer spiritual death and loss of his salvation!  He was saved and secure until the day of the Lord Jesus.  

1 Corinthians 11:29‐32   
29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lordʹs body.  30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.   31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.  32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.  

In this second illustration, some of the believers in the same Corinthian church were partaking of the Lordʹs Supper in an unworthy manner. They were not approaching and participating in the Lord’s Supper with a right spirit or with godly behavior.  Their disobedience or journey sin brought Godʹs discipline of weakness, sickness, and in some cases even premature death.  But notice clearly that at no point did Paul threaten them with the loss of their salvation.  Gross sins in a believerʹs life are dealt with through varying degrees of God’s discipline, but never with loss of salvation.   
Did you notice in 1 Corinthians 11:32 that they were chastened or disciplined by the Lord so that they would not be condemned with the world or those still “in Adam”?   The Lord disciplines our unrepented-of journey sins so that we may not be condemned with the world.   

As a believer with a sin nature and living in this present fallen world, you will commit journey sins.  The Father will convict you and urge you through the indwelling Holy Spirit to repent and confess that sin to Him for forgiveness and restoration to fellowship.  If you refuse, the Father begins to apply whatever amount of discipline is necessary to break your stubbornness, but He will never remove your salvation or position “in Christ.”  When you commit journey sins and will not repent, you force the Father to discipline you as His child.  Our Biblical illustrations clearly teach that in extreme cases the Father disciplines his child through physical weakness, sickness, and even premature physical death.  But in both of our examples, the believer did not lose their salvation!   
Discipline in your life  during your journey proves that you are in God’s family because He only disciplines His children.  If you continue in your sin after His repeated convictions and reprimands, your Father will reluctantly but firmly begin to discipline you.  He values your relationship so much that He will not allow your sin to continue to break your fellowship with Him.  His loving but firm discipline will be as severe as is necessary to break your stubbornness and bring you to repentance, confession and restoration.  Unrepentant disobedience can bring you weakness, sickness, and premature physical death, but God’s discipline never includes loss of your eternal salvation!   

QUESTIONS
1.  Will you sin as a believer during your journey?

2.  Why will you sin?

    • You will sin as a believer because of your sin nature, the world, and Satan.

3.  What is your remedy when you sin?

    • God’s forgiveness
    • … appropriated by confession, repentance and forsaking … for forgiveness and restoration

4.  When will your sin bring your Father’s discipline?

    • “in your life during your journey”
    • It can be sooner … or later … I believe it depends on God and His purpose.  

5.  How can and will God discipline in extreme cases?

    • Your unrepented-of journey sins will bring your Father’s loving discipline.
    • Your extreme stubbornness can bring weakness, sickness and physical death.

6.  Why does your Father discipline you? 

    • Your Father disciplines to break your stubborness and bring you to repentance, confession and restoration to fellowship.

7.  What should you do when disciplined?

    • Try to make the connection between the discipline and the sin. 
    • Repent ASAP. 

8.  What does discipline prove?

    • Your Father’s discipline proves that you are one of His children.

9.  What does God’s disciplines never include?

    • Your Father’s disciplines never involve loss of your salvation.   
    • Your journey sin severs fellowship not relationship with your Father.

 

 

 

IV. WHAT ABOUT THOSE APPARENT PROBLEM PASSAGES IN THE BIBLE?
There are genuine believers “in Christ” who sincerely believe and teach that you can lose your salvation and security. It is important that you remember that it is possible to be a genuine believer while not accepting security teaching. You should not make the issue of eternal security a test of fellowship, but neither should you compromise your conviction on this important subject.
Those who do not believe that once a butterfly—always a butterfly do not enjoy the peace and security the Father has provided and they live in constant fear and dread of possibly spending eternity separated from God and in torment. They are not free to work on their condition because they are constantly afraid they have lost their position. I see them represented by the following story:

A man in Scotland often walked home from work on a path that ran just at the edge of the high cliffs overlooking the sea. Having to work late one day meant he would have to walk home in the dark.  The night clouds on this night covered the moon leaving his path in total darkness. Slowly he made his way, but suddenly he stumbled and fell over the cliff to what he feared would be certain death on the rocks below.   His next conscious thought was that he had not died but had been miraculously caught in the bough of a tree jutting out from the face rock of the cliffs.
Immediately he cried for help, all the while aware that it was so late that no one would probably hear his cries.  The night grew colder and colder and his grip soon began to slip. His only hope was to somehow hang on until morning, when help might come. That night was one long agony upon agony.  He repeatedly despaired and loosened his grip to get his apparent fate over with, but each time he drew deep within himself, fought off the pain and fear, and hung on.  Finally, he could hang no longer and he decided to let go and end his misery, but just then he noticed that day was beginning to break. If only he could manage to hang on for a few minutes more, help would surely come. As the sun finally revealed his position, he was overwhelmed to see that he had hung in agony all night only twelve inches from the ground!  He was safe but did not know it or enjoy it.

Unfortunately, many believers will arrive safely in heaven only to discover that their eternal security did not require them to hang on but to simply rest in the truth that Christ was hanging on to them.   Our purpose in this section will be to answer as many of the passages as possible that are of used by those who disagree with the teaching of eternal security “in Christ.”   We cannot possibly cover every individual passage, but we hope to be as comprehensive as time and space will allow.  We want you to let go of your fear and dread and enjoy your security “in Christ.”   We have chosen to approach these apparent problem passages by placing them under different categories, because we believe you can best understand similar passages dealing with a similar issue if they are placed in similar categories.
We will limit our study to 16 categories of apparent problem passages and we are confident that we will cover most if not all of the major passages used by those who teach that you can lose your eternal position or your eternal security “in Christ.”

 

A. Sixteen Categories of Problem Passages

1.  Passages Dealing With Those Who Profess But Never Possessed Salvation
2.  Passages Dealing With The Fruits Of Discipleship, Not With Salvation
3.  Passages Dealing With False Teachers Who Were Never Saved
4.  Passages Dealing With God’s Basic Warnings To All Men
5.  Passages Dealing With Believer’s Losing Rewards, But Not Salvation
6.  Passages Dealing With The Olive Tree of Romans 11
7.  Passages Dealing With The Book Of Hebrews
8.  Passages Dealing With Discipline, Loss of Fellowship, But Not Loss of Salvation
9.  Passages Dealing With Confessing Christ As A Testimony, Not For Security
10. Passage Dealing With The Believer Falling From Grace
11. Passages Dealing With Blaspheming The Holy Spirit
12. Passages Dealing With The Issue Of The Weaker Believer
13. Passages Dealing With Teachings Based In Parables?
14. Passages Dealing With Being Blotted Out Of The Book Of Life
15. Passages Dealing With Scriptures Misapplied To Time And Audience
16. Passages Dealing With The Lives of Biblical Characters

 

 

1.  Passages Dealing With Those Who Profess But Never Possessed Salvation

 

Matthew 7:22‐23  “Many will say to Me in that day, ʹLord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?ʹ   23 And then I will declare to them, ʹI never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

  • In this passage these outward professors said they had prophesied, exorcized demons, and even performed miracles in Jesusʹ name.
  • But does prophesying, casting out demons, or performing miracles, equal salvation?  Absolutely not. Satan can and has imitated many of the miracles that Jesus performed, and he can and does empower fallen humans to do the same.
  • The persons in this passage made an outward profession but note carefully what Jesus says to them! Jesus does not say: ʺI used to know you, but you have lost your salvation, so I donʹt know you any longer.ʺ What Jesus does say is that ʺI never knew you.ʺ Jesusʹ statement clearly teaches that they never possessed salvation.
  • These mere professors didnʹt lose their salvation, they never had it.

 

Matthew 13:1‐8  On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.  2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow.”  4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.   6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.   8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

  • This passage involves a parable and we will discuss parables as a category in detail later in this study.  For now, remember that you should never develop doctrine from parables, especially a doctrine as important as security.
  • This particular parable uses four types of soil to represent four heart responses to the Gospel seed.   The first soil receives the seed, but the birds (Satan and his hosts) take the seed away before it can germinate. In this case, no germination equals no salvation.
  • In the other three soils or responses, germination does occur, but there are three levels of fruitfulness after germination.
  • Please note that in none of the last three responses did Jesus ever say anything about loss of salvation. He said some believe, but never get deeply rooted in their faith, so they never mature or bear fruit.  Others believe, but worldly cares keep them from maturing and bearing fruit and they lose out on their rewards.  But others grow to maturity, produce much fruit, and receive their rewards.
  • Those who teach you can lose your salvation use this parable to teach that when the birds picked up the gospel seed there was a loss of salvation and when there is no fruit there is a loss of salvation.  But there is no teaching in this parable at all about losing salvation. In the first case there was no germination and no salvation. In the other three cases there was germination or salvation but varying levels of fruitfulness for the reasons Jesus gave.
  • Germination is not the same issue as fruit bearing.  Fruitfulness is a discipleship issue and not a salvation issue. In the case where there was no germination, Jesus never knew that person.

 

Luke 11:24‐26  “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’  25 And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order.   26 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

  • This passage is also a parable and should be treated the same as all parables, but this parable also does not mention the loss of salvation. Does the mere departure of a demon equal salvation?  Absolutely not.  Did you notice in verse 24 that the demon left of its own free will and went looking for a better place to live?  Salvation involves receiving Christ, not losing a demon.
  • Some have taken this passage to teach that when the demon left that person was saved. This teaching would then say that when the demon returned the person lost his or her salvation.  But salvation results from the exercise of personal faith in Jesus, not just having a demon removed or the demon leaving.
  • This person was not saved because the mere departure of a demon does not equal salvation, only faith in Jesus can bring salvation.  This person never possessed salvation and later lost it, Jesus never knew them as one of His sheep.

 

1 Corinthians 15:1‐4  Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you ‐‐ unless you believed in vain.   3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

  • Paul is dealing here with the true content of the Gospel and the true faith that brings salvation.  Paul does not say nor suggest that these Corinthians had become lost.  He does say that if they believed something other than what He preached as the Gospel to them (Christ + 0), they believed in vain and never possessed salvation.   Throughout the book of I Corinthians, Paul addresses his listeners as believers and calls them brethren.
  • This passage simply reminds them of the true content of the Gospel that had actually brought them salvation.  Paul told them to hold fast to the true content of the Gospel but he did not say they had lost or could lose their salvation.
  • When he said, “unless you believed in vain” he was saying that if they had not put their faith in the true Gospel then they had trusted a false Gospel and were never saved.   This passage does not teach salvation can be lost; it only reminds the Corinthian believers of the true content of the Gospel.
  • Scripture does clearly teach that there is a difference between mere profession and real possession.

 

2 Timothy 2:19  Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His, and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

  • In the context where this passage is found, Paul is addressing two men who had been teaching doctrinal error in the local church as confirmed in verse 17 of this chapter (See 2 Timothy 2:16-19).
  • These two men professed faith in Christ, but they never truly poss)essed Christ.   How do we know that?  We know that because if they truly possessed Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, they would not teach the terrible doctrinal errors or heresy they espoused nor would they live the sinful lives they were living in front of the other members in this congregation.
  • Paul is not saying that they lost their salvation; he is saying that they never possessed true salvation as evidenced by their teaching error and their iniquity.

1 John 2:19  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

  • The apostle John speaks in this passage of some professing believers who had left the local congregation. John does not say that those who left possessed salvation and lost it, he says, “they went out that it might be made manifest that none of them were of us.”
  • These people who left had made a profession, and for a while they appeared to be believers, but in the process of time, their actions, teachings, and finally their departure, demonstrated that they never possessed Jesus and were saved.   They were professors, but never possessors. John did not say that they had lost their salvation, rather that they never had it, which is why they departed from the fellowship of other true believers.
  • This verse does not teach that a loss of salvation occurred; it teaches that salvation had never occurred.

 

 

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