Transcript
Ben Fallon: “Is it true that once saved, always saved?” That's the question for today's episode because Carl asks, “Do we have to continue to ask for salvation when we backslide?” And then Walt added on top of that, this context, “I'm a follower of Jesus who accepted Christ at 18, was baptized at 26, and now at age 70, I find that I question my commitment to Christ due to ongoing sin that does not reflect what Jesus said in John 7:38, ‘Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’ Could you help me with that inconsistency?”
Paul Tripp: Well, I can say that I would love to answer this question every day of my life because every time I do, it allows me, causes me, to reflect on the magnitude of the glory of the inexhaustible zeal of the grace of Jesus. It's just a wonderful thing to think about. The Bible overwhelmingly presents that you cannot lose your salvation. And the reason for that is quite obvious, since you didn't save yourself, you can't lose what you didn't gain. If your salvation is being lost, it's being lost by your Savior. And if Jesus can lose his sheep, we are cooked! And I can remember the first time someone said that to me as a doubting young believer. You can't lose what you didn't gain. If it's being lost, it's being lost by your Savior. Now think of the implications of that.
So, there are four passages that I think are very important. Do I have four here? Yeah, I'm going to give you four passages. First is John 10:27-30, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life.” It's really important; the Bible keeps calling this ‘Eternal life.’ It doesn't call it ‘Temporary life,’ or ‘You-better-watch-out-or-you-could-lose-it life.’ It's “eternal life, and they will never perish.” Think of how strong the language is here, “And no one will snatch them out of my hand.” “Eternal life…never perish…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.” I mean those are such strong statements–“Eternal life, never perish, no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Romans 8:38-39 says this, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” I love how this goes. It's not this, not this, not this, not this. It's like Paul gets tired of saying all the things that can't separate you from the love of God. He says, “nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us (you) from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Again, a powerful statement.
Or how about Romans 8:29-30; this is called the “Unbreakable Redemptive Chain.”
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
An unbreakable chain of redeeming grace that nothing can interrupt!
And then John 5:24, “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” I love that. He's walked beyond the fear of death. “Fear of death”–that's the past; and he's walked into eternal life. That's the state of every believer!
So, what do these passages remind us of? They remind us that our salvation is the result of a divine eternal and unalterable choice. What we're talking about when we talk about losing the salvation is not our choice; we're talking about God's choice. I believe because God has set that choice on me; and this means that my standing before God is never based on the track record of my righteousness but on the perfect righteousness of Jesus. This means something further–that Jesus came to satisfy God's holy requirements, please hear this, because God knew we never would! Even as a believer, I can't be righteous enough to satisfy the holy requirements of the Lord.
So yes, you should take your sin seriously. You should give yourself to regular patterns of confession and repentance, but you should never fall into thinking that what you did not earn by your righteousness you can lose because of your sin. Let me say that again. You should never fall into thinking that what you did not earn by your righteousness you can lose by your sin.
I want to speak to something further here. I'm deeply persuaded that one of the cruel, evil, deceptive tools of the enemy is to get God's children to live in doubt and fear, and to believe somehow that God has turned his back on them. It gets us to focus on us, and when we focus on us, we're always going to find sin there rather than focusing on the perfect ongoing presence and promises of the grace of Jesus.
Your enemy can't take your salvation from you, but he can mess up the journey, and he's going to want to do that by sowing fear and doubt in you. He wants to take your heart from gratitude and celebration to fear and doubt, to turn you from rest in grace into anxiety about your performance. We will never stand before God on our own as worthy–that’s why it is called grace! Our worthiness has been, is now, and forever will be Jesus! And what God has decided cannot be turned around by anything!
BF: Well, Paul writes most extensively about the doctrines of sin, justification, sanctification, and the perseverance and glorification of the saints in his book, Do You Believe? Check that resource out at paultripp.com/doctrine.
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