Once Saved, Always Saved?

Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:22-23, "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God."

I do believe the statement, "Once saved, always saved," but let me clarify this statement. If someone accepts Jesus into their life and truly repents of their sins, their life will be completely transformed. They will abandon their old way of living and begin living for the Lord. The Lord will be continually revealing new sins to them they need to repent of. This is completely different from someone who "prays a prayer," doesn't change anything in their life and continues being a part of the world system.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

1 John 2:15-17 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."

Jesus said in John 10:1-5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Jesus explains the meaning of this parable in the following verses. In verse 9, He says, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

Among the best known Bible verses is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” While this is true, this verse has to be taken in context with the rest of the Bible. John 3:3 says one must be born again to be saved. To be saved, one must both believe and repent of their sins (Matthew 4:17, Luke 5:32, Mark 1:15, Luke 13:3; Luke 24:47)

Jesus said in Luke 6:46-49, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” The rock foundation is repentance and faith.

Both are necessary.

One cannot be saved and continue to live their old lifestyle. Jesus and is not someone that can be added to your list of other gods (money, lust, unrighteous desires, etc.). You can not go on living in your old sinful lifestyle and be saved. One might call someone who accepts Jesus into their life for a time and then falls away a “back slider.” I prefer to call them a “false convert” who never “slid forward” in the first place.

Our churches are filled with these type of people. In Mark 4:3-8, Jesus said, "Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold."

Jesus explains the meaning of this parable a few verses later in Mark 4:14-20: "The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold." There are so many "thorns" in our churches who outwardly profess Christianity.

As Paul said in Romans 6:1-4, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Jesus said in Luke 3:17, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” There are undoubtedly people who proclaim to profess to be Christians among us who are not saved. It is our job to make sure they are saved while there is still time.

Just because one “believes” in Jesus does not mean they are necessarily saved. Jesus says in Matthew 7:22-23 “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” I used to be one of those who would have said this to our Lord on Judgment Day. Make sure you know where you stand in the eyes of our Lord.