The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).
Hebrews 3:12-14 “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”
Why do we cling to error, even when the truth is so clear? Perhaps it is because we prefer a certain formula that we find comforting. We prefer to believe that it’s just “one and done.” But is that really an honest interpretation of the scripture? Shouldn’t we be impartial and interpret the scripture without bias? That would be wise. The Spirit of God leads us in these things.
Today we consider the issue of salvation and continuance, or in other words: “Are we once saved always saved?”
According to the scriptures, this is not a reasonable exegesis based on key scriptures like John 15, Hebrews 3:12-14, Revelation 3, and many others.
The simple theme of John 15 is that of continuance, or “abiding” in Christ. To abide means to remain. Jesus urges us to “remain in me.” And then he says in response “then I will remain in you.” It’s a fairly simple formula, we receive Jesus Christ as Savior, through faith, and then we must continue in the faith, remaining and walking with Jesus throughout our whole lives, overcoming sin, living in victory, and living out holiness in all we do. This is the teaching of the new testament.
But unfortunately some today teach a dangerous false doctrine of “once saved always saved.” This is the idea that once you get saved you can never lose it no matter what you do. You can leave church, you can never come back, never read your Bible, never do anything related to Jesus, and then you’re still saved. Interesting isn’t it?
We often see so many come to Christ, but then they never follow through. They don’t continue in the faith. They don’t dive into discipleship, and study of the word, and prayer. Because often they’ve been left with a false impression, much like what has sometimes been inferred by child baptism, or even adult baptism, that it’s “one and done.” And thus someone would say, “well I was baptized when I was 28, or 2, so I’m good.” And we’ve left people who are now in danger of eternal hellfire and darkness, with the impression that they are really eternally saved. What a terrible danger! What a terrible thing to teach followers of Jesus. Who will hold us accountable if we teach such a false way?
SOURCE: Christian Post, Justin Steckbauer
All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source