Eternal Security: Six Reasons God’s Gift of Salvation Is Secure
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Can you lose your salvation? Some teach that you can. Others feel like they have. But what does the Word of God promise regarding the eternal security of those who have truly trusted Christ as their Savior?
1. Salvation is God’s Work, Not Your Work.
If your eternal destiny relied on you, nothing about your future would be secure. But God designed salvation to depend on Himself alone. He offers salvation by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9). Jesus Christ finished the work of your salvation on the cross. He rose from the dead leaving nothing for helpless sinners to do but believe on Him (Acts 4:12). God not only saves you, but He also keeps you saved (1 Peter 1:5).
Furthermore, each Person of the Trinity protects your eternal security.
- The Father: “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:29).
- The Son: “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28).
- The Holy Spirit: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
If Almighty God guarantees your salvation, who can overcome Him and wrest it from you? The devil cannot pry you out of God’s grasp. Not even you yourself could slip through God’s fingers.
2. Eternal Life Begins the Moment You Believe.
John 3:16 promises, “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The moment you believe on Jesus alone for salvation you have everlasting life. This life starts immediately and continues beyond physical death into eternity. If it could be lost, this life could not be called “everlasting life.” It might be “potential life” or “conditional life.” But it would certainly not be “everlasting life” if it could end.
3. Eternal Life is a Relationship, Not Merely a Possession.
What is eternal life? In His prayer the night before the crucifixion, Jesus described eternal life as more than length of existence: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life is a relationship with the eternal God. The moment you believe, He becomes your Father (John 1:12–13), and you are born again, experiencing irreversible regeneration (John 3:3; 15–16). You are a member of God’s family forever, and He will never abandon you (Hebrews 13:5–6).
4. You Are “in Christ” and Can Never Be Condemned.
If you believe Jesus died and rose in your place, then you are “in Christ.” What Christ did radically changes your standing before God. Jesus endured the condemnation you deserve as a guilty sinner. Therefore, since the price was paid, you can never be condemned (Romans 8:1, 33–34). Jesus satisfied God’s wrath and justice on your behalf (1 John 2:2, 4:10).
5. You Are “in Christ” and Can Never Be Separated from Him.
Romans 8 describes things that separate people from people—death, time, distance, and powerful beings to name a few. Yet, these dividers cannot isolate you from your Savior. Nothing is “able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35–39).
6. In God’s Eyes, You Are Already Glorified.
God is not subject to time. He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). What is future to you is finished to Him. If you are truly saved, your destiny is secure. You are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. You will one day receive the promised glorified body, freed from even the presence of sin within and without (Romans 8:30).
So, Can You?
So, can you lose your salvation? That’s the wrong question. Have you trusted Jesus Christ alone to save you from your sin? Once you have, the eternal security of your salvation lies with God alone.
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MR Conrad Bio
Dr. Conrad serves in urban Asia. He, his wife, and their four children squeeze into a 700 square-foot apartment where he seizes rare moments of quiet to write amidst homeschooling, a cacophony of musical instruments, and the steady stream of visitors they so enjoy having in their home. He enjoys birding, board games, and basketball. He is the author of, so far, two books.
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As someone who is living through what many consider the hardest grief to go through, #1 resonates with me. For 47 years of my saved life, I have understood #1, I have taught #1 and I could quote the verses that support eternal security. It was only in my darkest moment of my life, when I was in utter despair, God was silent, my prayers were going into a void, and my faith was shattered, that all I had left was in a hope that Christ would hold me fast. At that moment I realized and was living in the fact that the strength of my faith was wholly incapable of anything. I could only hold onto hope in the darkness. The reality of this is so much bigger than anything I understood or taught or could quote. My faith has been tested and shattered and it has held fast without anything from me.
Thanks for sharing that.
I think I have not (yet) suffered grief at that level… but deep enough to feel deeply shaken and forsaken. So I can relate to that.
During those days, I still had a deep conviction that God is wise, good, and not insensitive to my pain. But I could not feel it. I didn’t even notice that I wasn’t feeling it. I was busy feeling other things! Until one day, singing with a congregation, I felt again that God was not distant from my struggle—and became aware that I had been feeling He was far away and disconnected.
I wasn’t looking for a recovery of faith. Didn’t even think I needed one. But we humans are beings of feeling as well as intellect, and faith/belief is intertwined with both. (For what it’s worth, I wrote about it here).
Anyway, looking back, agree fully with dgszweda on God’s gracious keeping and saving. We don’t lift ourselves out of the mirey clay and set our own feet on a rock (Psalm 40).
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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