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The Finality of Salvation
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THE FINALITY OF SALVATION
God is the Perfect Father. When we join His family by accepting His Proposal/Salvation, we are choosing to embrace His ways, while simultaneously rejecting the sinful, harmful, and empty ways in which we used to live. We pledge to obey His commandments (which are not demanding or burdensome – see 1 John 5:2-4) and to resist the temptation of sin. When we do sin, we confess it; He has already forgiven our lifetime of sins (past, present, and future) ahead of time, way back when He paid our Debt upon the Cross 2,000 years ago. There is no need for His Salvation again; once a child of God, we can never lose our place in His family. We simply repent (turn away from our sin) and continue following Jesus, knowing God is still with us and will never abandon us. God will never leave us or forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5). And He will never disown His own children. Once truly saved (that is, when a person fully and authentically accepts His proposal – and God knows every single thought of the mind and intention of the heart), a person cannot lose their place in God’s family, or their place in Heaven following this life. After all, if we cannot earn His Salvation by our own works, how then can we lose it by our own works? NOTE: A person who once claimed to be a child of God, but then abandons the faith, was never saved (never a true child of God) in the first place. The Bible actually states that those who deny the Father and the Son are liars, having set themselves against God (antichrist), before going on to explain that the living truth of Salvation within a believer guarantees God’s promise of eternal life (see 1 John 2:18-25). “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 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 it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.” (1 John 2:18-25) Jesus said: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37) Jesus also said: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30) The Bible also says, “Therefore He [Jesus] is also able to save to the uttermost [completely or forever] those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession [praying to God on their behalf] for them.” (Hebrews 7:25) Hebrews 10 is one of the most compelling, comforting chapters in the entire Bible on the topic of our eternal security as children of God. “And by that will [God’s plan for Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice for our Debt] we have been sanctified [exonerated of all guilt/absolved of our Debt as a new member of God’s family] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ [on the Cross] once for all.” (Heb. 10:10) The text continues (verses 12-18): “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet. For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord:I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”then He adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:12-18)
God is the Perfect Father. When we join His family by accepting His Proposal/Salvation, we are choosing to embrace His ways, while simultaneously rejecting the sinful, harmful, and empty ways in which we used to live. We pledge to obey His commandments (which are not demanding or burdensome – see 1 John 5:2-4) and to resist the temptation of sin. When we do sin, we confess it; He has already forgiven our lifetime of sins (past, present, and future) ahead of time, way back when He paid our Debt upon the Cross 2,000 years ago. There is no need for His Salvation again; once a child of God, we can never lose our place in His family. We simply repent (turn away from our sin) and continue following Jesus, knowing God is still with us and will never abandon us. God will never leave us or forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5). And He will never disown His own children. Once truly saved (that is, when a person fully and authentically accepts His proposal – and God knows every single thought of the mind and intention of the heart), a person cannot lose their place in God’s family, or their place in Heaven following this life. After all, if we cannot earn His Salvation by our own works, how then can we lose it by our own works? NOTE: A person who once claimed to be a child of God, but then abandons the faith, was never saved (never a true child of God) in the first place. The Bible actually states that those who deny the Father and the Son are liars, having set themselves against God (antichrist), before going on to explain that the living truth of Salvation within a believer guarantees God’s promise of eternal life (see 1 John 2:18-25). “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 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 it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.” (1 John 2:18-25) Jesus said: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37) Jesus also said: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30) The Bible also says, “Therefore He [Jesus] is also able to save to the uttermost [completely or forever] those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession [praying to God on their behalf] for them.” (Hebrews 7:25) Hebrews 10 is one of the most compelling, comforting chapters in the entire Bible on the topic of our eternal security as children of God. “And by that will [God’s plan for Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice for our Debt] we have been sanctified [exonerated of all guilt/absolved of our Debt as a new member of God’s family] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ [on the Cross] once for all.” (Heb. 10:10) The text continues (verses 12-18): “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet. For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord:I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”then He adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:12-18)