Common Sense Commentary: To believe you can lose your salvation is to believe you were worthy of it in the first place. The two go together hand in glove. And it would be true that you could lose it, would lose it, if your good works either earned or retained it. If we can earn it, be good enough for it, deserve it, when we get it, then we will lose it again and again, every day we live in these fleshly, faulty bodies. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it." Jer.17:9. Jesus said, also, "There is none good but one, that is God." Mark 10:18. "NONE GOOD" disqualifies us all from self-righteous salvation. Maybe the best fleshly man who ever lived was the Apostle Paul; But, even he confessed to being "the chief of sinners...." 1Tim.1:15. "For all have sinned and come short ...." Rom.3:23. That being true, none of us qualifies as worthy of salvation. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph.2:8-9. Therefore, since salvation is by grace alone through Christ alone and not by our good works, we didn't deserve it when we were saved, we do not deserve it after we are saved and never will deserve it in this life. And if good works can't save us, good works can't keep us saved. So how do we stay saved unto everlasting life? The same way we got saved ... "By grace through faith". The "grace" is God's grace. All you can do is to have "faith" which "comes by hearing...the word of God." Rom.10:17. That is what I am seeking to do here... in this post.
That is exactly what Jesus meant when He said, "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." Jn.3:16. Jesus promised in that verse deliverance from perishing and the gift of "everlasting life" to "whosoever believeth in him". So, how long is "everlasting life"? Does it mean forever? The Greek word translated "everlasting" life here, and in many other places in the New Testament, is aionios, and means exactly what it says, "lasting forever". Besides the many references to "everlasting life" promised to "believers" in Jesus, that same Greek word translated "everlasting" is used in reference to other "everlasting" things. In Rom. 16:26, "The commandment of the everlasting God...." Can God ever cease from being God??? No, He is "everlasting". 2 Thess.1:9 speaks of "everlasting punishment". Will "everlasting punishment" come to an end??? No, it is "everlasting". 1 Tim.6:14-16 makes reference to Jesus Christ as the "blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords ... to whom be honor and power everlasting ...." Will Christ's "honor and power everlasting..." come to an end? No, it is "everlasting". Heb.13:20 speaks of "The blood of the everlasting covenant ...." Will God's "everlasting covenant" promise, sealed in the "blood" of Jesus, ever become null and void... a broken promise??? NO! Ten thousand times NO! It is EVERLASTING!!! 2 Pet.1:11 tells of God's "everlasting kingdom". Will God's kingdom ever fail and fall as did the kingdoms of men, Medes, Persians, Greeks and Roman Empire? Not on your life! It is what it says it is, an "everlasting kingdom". And finally, the same Greek word translated "everlasting" life is used in Rev.14:6, applied to, "The everlasting gospel" (Good News) of Jesus Christ (Salvation by grace). That means the gospel of Jesus is also "everlasting". So why do some "self-righteous salvationists" preach that "everlasting life" is constantly conditional, and lasts only as long as your own personal holiness stays perfect, no mistakes, no slips, nothing less than total perfection. Since salvation is "everlasting", and we can't earn it or keep it by our good works, it then, has to be based on God's grace and not our goodness. Everlasting means lasting forever and ever and ever. The fact is, the Holy Scripture says that if you could lose your salvation, you could never again be saved, or recover it, because to do so, Jesus would have to die again for you and thereby put Him to an "open shame". Read it in Heb.6:4-6."For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. " It doesn't get any plainer than that.
When a person has been saved, received eternal life, who were "once enlightened", and have tasted the good word of God... and made partakers of the Holy Spirit, "IF" they could "fall away" from salvation, "to renew them again unto repentance is IMPOSSIBLE, since Christ would have to be crucified again and put to an open shame."
Gal.2:16 "Knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." You can accept salvation by God's grace through faith in Christ, and receive "everlasting life", or delude yourself into thinking you must earn it by your self-righteous good works, and die, depending on your worthiness, and receive "everlasting punishment".... Like it or not.... there it is. You must decide which is true. Either way, it is everlasting.
RB
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