This is the third Little Lesson where we’ll be discussing this subject of the security of the believer. Is it unconditional, or is it conditional?

When you believe in Jesus, does that guarantee that you have a salvation that there’s no possible way you could forfeit? Or is your security conditional? Conditional upon you continuing in the faith, as evidenced by your continued walk of obedience to the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ?

If you’ve been listening to the last two Little Lessons (you can view the first one here and the second one here), you know that I’m in the camp that says that security is conditional upon a continued walk with Christ.

Now, we want to walk in love toward one another. We want to realize that the most important thing is not whether or not you can lose salvation. The most important thing is whether or not you have it right now! And if you do have it, there needs to be some evidence of this in your life. Faith without works is dead.

“ The most important thing is whether or not you have salvation right now! —DAVID SERVANT

What Jesus Taught About Conditional Security

One of the most obvious texts that shows us that it is indeed possible for a true believer to revert back to a life of sin and to miss out ultimately on salvation and eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven is in the Olivet Discourse. Jesus is speaking to His closest disciples. After He tells them about all of the signs that will precede His coming, He begins to warn them repeatedly of the importance of making sure that they’re ready.

So, I’m going to begin in Matthew 24:43, the first of three stories that Jesus tells that all have the same moral: make sure you’re ready, because if you’re not, there are dire consequences! Again, He’s talking to Peter, James, John and Andrew, his closest disciples.

But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. – Matthew 24:43-47

So, there is a slave who is now contrasted with an evil slave,

But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. – Matthew 24:48-51

A hypocrite is someone who professes to be something they really aren’t, as evidenced by their actions.

An Interesting Interpretation

Now, commentators who believe in unconditional, eternal security have to twist this scripture to such a degree in order to make it fit their particular doctrine. They say that the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth is not Hell. Oh no, it’s a place outside the main portals of Heaven where it’s not so bright and light!

The outer darkness is a place where unfaithful Christians will be regretting that they weren’t faithful. They’ll be over there weeping and gnashing their teeth for a while until Jesus comes and, as the scripture talks about, wipes every tear. Then he’ll welcome them in.

It’s so obvious what’s being said here. Jesus is talking to Peter, James, John and Andrew, His closest disciples. And He’s warning them, “Make sure you’re ready. Don’t be like the evil slave who thinks the master will be a long time in coming, so there’s no sense in worrying about what He will think of me or if I’m doing his will.”

So, this will represent a believer who becomes an unbeliever or a believer who is a stupid believer and who’s counting on something that he shouldn’t be counting on: the delay of his master.

Jesus said, “You don’t want to be like him, because, in the end, that guy is placed with the hypocrites. There’s weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And if you study Jesus’s use of the phrase, “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” it’s always a reference to Hell. Okay, so these guys are really desperate when they start saying that this place is Heaven!

Five Foolish Virgins

This parable is followed by two others. First, the parable of the 10 virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). Take note that it was spoken to Jesus’ closest disciples, Peter, James, John and Andrew. And it’s moral is, “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour” (v. 13).

That is, you don’t want to be like the five foolish virgins. All 10 were ready at the beginning, but five of them became unready and they were not allowed into the wedding feast. “Don’t be like them, Peter, James, John and Andrew.” So, obviously, it was a possibility that these men, as free moral agents, could have become like the evil slave and the five foolish virgins and not have been ready and faced the consequences.

Three Stewards, Two Prepared, One Unprepared

Then finally, the very next parable is the parable of the talents. All of these men received some talents. One received five talents. One received two and one received one. The master goes on a journey and then He comes back.

The man with one talent buried it in the ground. And when the master came back, this man wasn’t ready. He didn’t have anything to present before his master as a return on his investment. His master said to him, “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30).

“This man wasn’t ready for his master’s return, Peter, James, John and Andrew. You don’t want to be like him.”

Keep Following Jesus!

Okay, so, what’s the message? The message is, yes, it is possible. It is possible to forfeit salvation. That’s very clear from these scriptures. If you’re not ready when Christ returns or at your death, you will forfeit salvation.

And so the message is, keep following Jesus. Strive to enter by the narrow door, as Jesus said.

If you make a mistake, well, just keep your heart soft. Ask God’s forgiveness, repent, get up and get going again. All of these men didn’t just make one little slip up. They had major, major flaws where they were not ready. So, I want you to be ready. I want to be ready. Let’s be ready together!

All right. Much more to be said on this subject. Books have been written about it. I’ve written a chapter on this subject in my book Forever Rich, and an entire book dealing with true and false assurance called The Great Gospel Deception. Thanks for joining me! God bless.

The post Is Your Salvation Conditional or Unconditional? appeared first on David Servant.

We ask for a second time, is it possible for a true Christian to forfeit their salvation, under certain circumstances? I started answering this question in our last Little Lesson.

We’ve looked at 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 where Paul definitely says that certain categories of people who are involved in the most grievous types of sin as a lifestyle—as a practice—will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Can a True Christian Stop Following Jesus?

Obviously, Christians could revert back to those lifestyles. Christians could become adulterers. They could become thieves. They could become idolaters.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “Such were some of you.” This doesn’t characterize you anymore. You’re no longer unrighteous. You’re no longer fornicators and adulterers and idolaters and homosexuals and drunkards and revilers and swindlers. You repented. You were born again. You are new creations in Christ Jesus.

But that does not preclude the possibility that a dog can return to his vomit (2 Peter 2:22), to borrow a Biblical phrase that warns Christians about going back to their former lifestyles. We find many times in Scripture these admonishing statements to continue in the faith and strive to enter through the narrow gate. The second phrase is right from the lips of Jesus.

There are just plenty of reasons to believe from New Testament, Old Testament scriptures that it’s possible for Christians to stop believing, stop following, go back into their old ways and, at some point in time, resisting the discipline of the Lord, resisting the Holy Spirit and His conviction, that God would say, “Okay. If that’s what you want.”

But it’s not easy to lose your salvation. You don’t just lose it like you lose your car keys.

“ It’s not easy to lose your salvation. You don’t lose it like you lose your car keys. —DAVID SERVANT

Some Objections

What about those folks who say that you can’t possibly forfeit your salvation? Well, they have their proof texts. They don’t have nearly as many, by the way. But as I said in our previous Little Lesson, you don’t decide this issue by seeing who has the most scriptures. You see who can harmonize their proof texts with the opposite viewpoint’s proof texts.

Probably the most common scripture that’s quoted by those who say it’s impossible for Christians to ever forfeit their salvation is John 10. Jesus says,

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. – vv. 27-29

Well, that does sound like the believer is quite secure. Once you got it, as one guy said, it’s like a tattoo. Even if you regret it and would like to get rid of it, it’s too late. You’re stuck with it.

Once Saved, Always Saved?

So people will say, “There it is! Eternal security for the believer. Once saved, always saved! I’ve got my verse.”

Ok, but harmonize that verse now with the scores of other verses that would bring some balance to your position and maybe help us better understand exactly what it was that Jesus was promising here! It seems to me the emphasis in these verses is, “No one will be able to snatch them out of my hand.” That is nobody is going to be able to steal you from God’s love and care, from the salvation and the forgiveness that He’s granted you. Nobody can take that from you.

However, balancing that with so many other scriptures that would bring some balance, you can walk away if you want to.

An Example

I don’t have a dog, but if I did, I could say to my dog, “I think you’re a great dog! No one’s ever going to steal you from my house. No, sir! I’ll be watching you closely. You’re safe as long as you’re in my house. I’m not going to let any thief or dog snatchers get you. I’m going to feed you, take care of you. I love you. You’re sticking with me til the end, my dog.”

This may all be true, but it does not exclude the possibility of my dog saying to himself, or herself, “I’m out of here! I don’t like staying with David. There are greener pastures. There are nicer neighbors I’ve been noticing who would probably take a little better care of me.”

My dog has freewill and I can’t change that. It’s not a robot dog. It’s a freewill dog, as all dogs are.

A Balanced View

Again, we have to balance John 10. I mentioned Colossians 1 in the last Little Lesson. Here’s one of the many proof texts Paul writes:

Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. – vv. 22-23

Note the conditional “if”. There are so many scriptures like this.

The Olivet Discourse

I would direct your attention to the Olivet Discourse as well. Jesus was talking to his closest disciples, Peter, James, John and Andrew. Just those four, and no more according to Mark’s gospel. It was very clear, though, from the other synoptic gospels that it was definitely not Jesus speaking to crowds. It was Jesus speaking to his closest disciples. He emphatically warned them that they wanted to make sure that they would be ready when He returned. Because the consequences of them not being ready were very, very dire.

I’ll conclude answering this question in the next Little Lesson. We’ll look at the Olivet Discourse where Jesus told about all of the future things that are going to come to pass and his second coming. He spent a lot of time warning his disciples, “Make sure you’re ready for this because, if you’re not, you’ll be thrown into that place where’s weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Talking to Peter, James, John and Andrew. Something to think about.

Thanks for joining me! Hope to see you next time. God bless.

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