Is a Person Truly Secure Who Believes in Jesus?

Question: Can one who is saved lose his salvation? Or once a person is saved, is he or she always saved?

The bible is clear on this topic. When people come to know Christ as their Savior, they are brought into a relationship with God that guarantees their salvation as eternally secure.

John Calvin taught that true saving faith will persevere, which means that no person who professes to be saved will possess a faith that is not persevering.

There are scores of passages that show the eternality of salvation:

Romans 8:28-30 declares, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

This verse tells us that from the moment God foreknew (fore loved) and predestined (to chose beforehand) us, it is as if we are glorified in His presence in heaven although this act itself has not occurred yet. There is nothing that can prevent a believer from one day being glorified because God has already purposed it in heaven. Once a person is justified, his salvation is guaranteed all the way to the end culminating in glorification. He is as secure as if he is already glorified in heaven. No one is lost in the process of initially being foreknown by God to glorification.

Paul asks two crucial questions in Romans 8:33-34 "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."

Who will bring a charge against God's elect in order to strip him of his salvation? No one is able, not even Satan, because Christ is our advocate (defense lawyer). Who will condemn us? No one will, because Christ, the One who died for us, is the one who is able to condemn. But since He died for us, why would He condemn those whom He died for? We have both the advocate and judge as our Savior.

Believers are born again (regenerated) when they believe (John 3:3; Titus 3:5). For a Christian to lose his salvation, he would have to be un-born again. The Bible gives no evidence that the new birth can be reversed!

The Holy Spirit indwells all believers (John 14:17; Romans 8:9) and baptizes all believers into the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). For a believer to become unsaved, he would have to be "un-dwelt" and “un-baptized” by the Holy Spirit and detached from the Body of Christ. Again, the bible teaches no such thing.

John 3:15 states that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will "have eternal life." If you believe in Christ today and have eternal life, but lose it tomorrow, then it was never "eternal" at all. Therefore, if you lose your salvation, the promises of eternal life in the Bible would be meaningless.

Matthew 25:46: “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Let me ask this question: Is hell eternal or temporary? Most would say eternal. Well the same word for “eternal” used of heaven is also used of hell. So if heaven is not eternal, in that a person who believes in Jesus can lose that privilege, then so can a person who ends up in hell eventually atone long enough for his or her sins to come out. Are we prepared to believe this?

Scripture says it best like this, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).

Jesus says it best like this, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one” (John 10:27-30).

The same God who saved you is the same God who will keep you. Once we are saved (having put our faith and trust in Jesus for forgiveness of sins) we are saved and will remain that way. Our salvation is most definitely eternally secure!

Now this doesn’t give believers the license to live sinful lives believing that they can do whatever they want. Because true saving faith will persevere until the end and it won’t stop believing and trusting in Jesus. The person who is truly saved will take to heart the words of Jesus who said, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments and My Word” (John 14:15, 23).