I sense the leading of the Lord to continue in this study of our eternal security in Grace. To walk in triumphant victory and assurance it is essential to know and understand we are forever secure in Him. We've already seen the utmost importance of believing and receiving this essential truth of our redemption. Perhaps though you may find yourself asking why continue studying this truth?
What does it really matter? It's of utmost importance because often times our good Father has us studying redemption truths, not just for ourselves. There are many of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters who struggle with their eternal security. They have yet to receive and understand this truth. The more we study and gain a better understanding of His Grace, the better equipt we are to share this good news of Grace when the Lord opens doors of opportunity.
But What If I...
This is the greatest obstacle that causes so many Christians to stumble concerning His great Grace. These four words, "but what if I...". The reason this is such a stumbling block is because we as believers continue to add ourselves to the equation. We continue to try to add ourselves and our performance in this New Covenant.
As one hailing from a Word of Faith Charismatic background I have seen this practiced all too often. I recall attending a conference around four years ago. The minister was sharing about receiving healing or any particular need from the Father. The issue I saw, as the Lord opened my eyes, was that the minister put many stipulations upon us for receiving. These conditions found their true roots in putting self back into the equation.
You see the New Covenant was cut between God the Father and Christ Jesus the Son. Nowhere in this New Covenant are we or our performance added to ensure it functions properly. The root cause of not understanding eternal security and the entirety of the New Covenant is because we so often want to add ourselves to the equation.
What actually procured our eternal salvation? Was it our conduct or ability to remain steadfast in faith? No! It was the sinless Savior's virgin birth, perfect life, substitutionary death, triumphant resurrection and glorious ascension that forever secured our redemption. That Cross was enough!
For some, though, the Cross is merely the "entryway" into salvation, but our performance and efforts and achievements are the "real" root of our salvation. The Cross isn't the once for all sacrifice that purchased our eternal redemption. It was merely the divine down payment. Our achievements and ability to remain steadfast in the faith are the real payment and it isn't once for all time. It's payments collected by the week!
12 And he has entered once and forever into the Holiest Sanctuary of All, not with the blood of animal sacrifices, but the sacred blood of his own sacrifice. And he alone has made our salvation secure forever! Hebrews 9:12 TPT
His blood is enough. It paid the ultimate price, and it's an eternal payment that forever took away sin and death and procured our eternal redemption. You may be thinking, ok I get it, His blood paid the price. What about the original question? Can one leave their salvation? Surely, you can't lose it but come on, you can leave it, right?
This is where the disconnect occurs. We see His eternal blood pay for our sins and transgressions but don't see and celebrate it's keeping and cleansing power. His divine shed blood perfectly paid the price for our eternal redemption.
If we can just walk away or forfeit salvation then our redemption isn't eternal but temporal. We aren't sealed until the day of redemption but rather sealed until the day we decide to walk away. It would be amusing if it wasn't so sad, the religious mind is always looking for loopholes and ways out of eternal redemption.
Does this make Grace some kind of "bondage" because we can't exercise "free will" to jump out of His hands? Again, this is a faulty concept because it keeps adding us to the equation. Free will isn't even in the equation. Can your offspring, no matter how much free will they exercise, alter their DNA? Of course not. Once in Christ, we are His offspring, we have Christ's DNA within if you will.
We can't walk away or leave our salvation. The first reason is obvious, He said He'd never leave or forsake us. So if we walked away He'd be right there along side us. Secondly, what happened when we were saved? We heard the good news of Grace. We exercised our free will by faith, to receive a new heart, a new life, to be adopted into His Family, to exchange our filthy rags righteousness with His perfect righteousness. By placing our trust in Him and Him alone for salvation we freely acknowledged we are no longer our own, we were bought with a price.
So we see we are not in the salvation equation. He will never leave us. We are not our own. Our wounded soul or deceived mind may renounce fellowship but our new creation heart will never renounce Jesus. What if I stopped believing?
Well, once you're saved by faith, how much faith does it take to stay saved? What must you do to build up and maintain this level of faith? If we must maintain our faith, then we are walking in a works and performance rooted faith that will always fall short and produce eventual burn out.
Ministers, Pastors, and Teachers may spit fire from the pulpit, "prophecy" on stage, lift passages out of their settings to try and establish that as a believer you can renounce or walk away from salvation. Lay aside that fear and condemnation. If you have put your heart trust in Christ alone at any point in your life then you belong to Him. You're His child, and He hasn't forgotten you and you're safe and secure in His loving, Gracious hands.
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