Eternal Security

Q. How is a man saved?

A. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Acts 16:31.

Comment: True. Now let's look at the particulars.

John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Verse 12:
1. "...as many as received Him..." That fits perfectly with Acts 16:31.
2. He gave them power to become the sons of God.
a. He gave them that power. They did not possess it intrinsically.
b. He gave that power to those that believe on His name.
In that He gave that power to them that believe on His name, He did not give it to fakers, to deceivers, not to those who were convicted but to those that were actually converted. No one can fool God.

Verse 13:
1. ..."which were born (born again of the Spirit, as we see in John 3:3, 3:7),
a. Not of blood. Did not depend on who your forebears were, not even Abraham.
b. Nor of the will of the flesh. YOU didn't make it happen. By your will, you can't even make a hair white or black. You sure cannot will yourself to be born of the Spirit and the Word. You can ask, but you can't perform it. It's supernatural--not natural--not of the flesh.
c. Nor of the will of man. A continuation of the above. No man can make you born again, no preacher, no priest, no pope, nobody but the Lord Jesus, John 14.6.
d. But of God. God and God alone grants, performs, brings about, the new birth. Not blood, not the will of the flesh, not the will of man, but only the will of God.

THEREFORE, since we cannot fool God, cannot deceive Him, cannot force Him, cannot do it ourselves--then He knows if our belief is real, and HE and He ALONE causes the new birth. Now if God grants me the new birth, then for me to subsequently be lost, God must say, "Oops! I shouldn't have given that one the new birth because now He's lost again! My mistake!"

Never. God knows the finish from the start. If I'm going to ultimately be lost, then He will never make the error of giving me "temporary eternal life". Matthew 7:21-23. "I never knew you".

WHEREAS, Christ paid for my sins at Calvary and said, "It is finished". Thus, IF I am saved, then it is forever, and IF it is by grace, then it is not by works, and so my performance is not the issue--Christ took care of that at the cross--the issue is--Have I been born again? That is the issue. If I have, God gave me the new birth, He cannot make a mistake, I cannot live good enough to save myself, I cannot live good enough to keep myself saved--HE saves me and He keeps me.

Don't forget this: When a man is saved, truly saved, truly born again, he is a new creation in Christ--2 Corinthians 5:17. He is not the same old man he used to be. He will never desire to be without Christ again. He will have a new heart created in righteousness and his desire will be to do the will of the Father, just as that was the will of Christ.

If he can go back to the old life, unrepentant, he has never been born again, never been saved.

A Christian is saved forever. God loses none of His sheep.

You may say, "I was saved and then I was lost."

I will say, "You were never saved."