Once Saved Always Saved?

Dear Paul,

I have a question I believe I know the answer to but would like to have a confirmation of it.

If someone goes through the process of being saved and giving their life to the Lord and were baptized with water but then doesn’t follow the Lord if they pass away will they or will they not go to Heaven? How do you get them to follow the Lord so that they go to
Heaven? Or is it once saved always saved?

Thanks for your help.

God bless you and yours in Jesus’ precious name,

XXX

Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 12:44:04 -0500

Subject: Re: Being Saved

Dear XXX,

God bless your wonderful heart!

I believe that when a person gives their heart to the Lord, He begins doing a work in their heart. Our Spirit becomes converted/regenerated to His Spirit, and that is a permanent work. There is a sealing of the Holy Spirit which happens (John 6:27 ; 2 Corinthians 1:22 ; Ephesians 1:13 ; 4:30 ). I don’t believe there is anything impermanent about something which the Holy Spirit has sealed.

So let’s now turn to the subject of our soul being saved. Our soul is different from our spirit. Resident within our soul (which Leviticus 17:11 tells us is literally in our blood). In the soul life is where we find our intellect, reasoning, emotions, personality, thoughts, etc. We know from the Scripture in Philippians 2:12 that we are to work out the salvation of our soul with fear and trembling. The salvation of our soul and of our spirit thus is in conflict. Both are to be saved, and there is also a salvation of our body — we get new ones!

The short answer to the issue is found in John 3:16-21:

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

The clearness of the issue does not come into focus until we realize that all of the doing and believing verbs in the above verses are “ing” words. It is “Whosever is believing has eternal life” and “whosoever is believing in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Furthermore, when Jesus asked the disciples who would no longer walk with Him in John 6:60-68 whether they too would walk away, He stated that His rhema words of revelation were spirit and they were life (v63) and Peter echoed the same thing in verse 68 when he said “You have the rhema of eternal life.” You may recall that a rhema word from the Lord is a word of revelation. It is from His voice into your inward spirit man.

It takes hearing and obeying revelation from the Lord to gain eternal life. Eternal life is not a one time event, but a continuing process, and which requires a continuing, i.e. growing relationship.

Can there be a backsliding? Sure! That’s what I John 1:9 is meant to address. But I do not believe in once saved always saved. I believe one can choose to walk away from the Lord (such as noted in I Timothy 1:19-20 and implied in Philippians 3:17-19). But I also believe He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). But that does not preclude us choosing to walk away from Him (such as the disciples of John 6) and failing to keep a relationship with Him This is precisely the issue which the Lord is speaking to in Matthew 7:14-29 in which people who even prophesy and cast out demons in His name are banished because they do not have a relationship with Him.

Perhaps you might need some post-Pentecost verses to consider. There are many, but these verses from Peter state the issue well enough.

I Peter 1:3-9:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Per verse 5, We receive power to keep our salvation through faith. Faith comes through relationship with the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), and builds as we learn to hear and obey His voice (Romans 10:17 ), walk in faith-energizing love (Galatians 5:6), and utilize the manifestations of the Holy Spirit (Jude 20).

So in all this, I believe that the Spirit is saved, but not the soul (the personality, thoughts, reasonings, emotions, etc) when that soul chooses to ignore the lovingly offered personal friendship relationship with our Savior. The point of the parable of the ten virgins and their oil lamps is this relationship. The five virgins with full oil lamps had a realtionship (they heard and obeyed the instruction in the Spirit to bring more oil!) and the five foolish virgins chose not to hear (they did not listen to the Spirit to bring more oil – God is no respecter of persons, and would not give instruction to some, but not to others).

The choice of developing a relationship with the Lord is the same choice that Mary made, to sit at Jesus’ feet and choose that better thing (of relationship with the Master) rather than staying busy with soul-inspired works in the kitchen like Martha. And it is the choice which Cain made to do his religion as he pleased, instead of like Able doing his sacrifice precisely as the Lord directed (Genesis 4). It has to do with building, maintaining, and enlarging the altar of one’s heart. This only happens through the washing of the water of the rhema Word (Ephesians 5:26 -27), which comes to sheep that learn to hear and obey His voice (John 10:27 ), and learn to live by every word of it (Deuteronomy 8:3 and Matthew 4:4).

Does all this make sense? I believe that eternal life is all about the relationship that we keep with the One Who has the rhema words of eternal life. And to hang on to Him takes all the effort we can muster, and on a daily basis. And He is so wonderful! He is so willing to talk with us as we draw near to Him at His table (Revelation 3:20 -21). In fact, before we even stop speaking, He will start answering (Isaiah 65:24, and Jeremiah 33:3)!!!! As our relationship with Him grows, so does our faith in Him, i.e. our confident faith in His salvation. As you well know, faith energizes every promise of His wonderful Word.

Ephesians 3:11-12

According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

Hebrews 3:6-14

6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

Hebrews 10:35-39

35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

I John 2:26-28

26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. {in him: or, in it}

28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

I John 3:19-24

19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. {assure: Gr. persuade}

20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

I John 5:11-15

11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Beloved, let us always draw near to Jesus Christ, more and more each day, developing confidence and faith as the Author and Finisher of our faith teaches and speaks continually, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by His rhema word into our hearts (Romans 10:17). This is indeed the pearl of great price, and the treasure in the field that we do well to sell all just to receive more of our Beloved.

God bless you in the precious name of the One from Whom all blessings flow, Jesus Christ.

–Paul Norcross